First rate borderland adventure, but without - for my taste - pushing any boundaries very hard. Not hard enough, at any rate, to elevate the impact of the story to the same level as the words, which are used superbly.

JCB's story spans time and place, Texas-Mexico, hunkering mostly around Galveston. I definitely felt well-served with detail: weapons, fights, whorehouses, historic battles, cars, meals, injuries - everything was described with the right amount of the right detail, so I never felt left hanging or overrun.

I've never been a guy, but I imagine if I were, I'd want to be Jimmy. Didn't mind a bit the clubhouse jocularity. BUT the ending, which resolves into a sort of "Ok hombres, back to work" denouement as though it's that energy which is at the core the lifeblood of a man - - THAT didn't sit as well with me.

One minor quibble: I didn't care for the passages done in present tense. I understand the desire to set the storylines apart with some stylistic distinction, if only to make the reader's job easier, but I don't think that was the right choice.

But can JCB *write*? Yeah baby, and then some ( )