PRESIDIO by Randy Kennedy is a novel taking place in rural Texas that is centered around three main characters, two brothers Troy and Harlan, and a young Mennonite girl named Martha.

Troy is a life long grifter who started out as a youth boosting cars in an automobile theft ring, and who later goes off on his own traveling the southwest area by stealing cars, money, clothing, and other valuables and quickly exchanging everything along the way by starting over to leave no trace or trail for anyone to follow.

Harlan, Troy’s brother has never left the area he’s lived his entire lifetime, and has lived an uneventful life; that is until he marries a woman who is a grifter known to Troy previously, and she takes everything Harlan has, so Troy decides to return to make a trek with his brother in an attempt to locate her south of the border, and hopefully get back some of what’s been taken.

Martha had been living with her father before his incarceration, and her aunt takes her in when she hears of her situation.

Paths cross between the three when along the way Troy steals her aunt’s station wagon unknowingly with Martha asleep in the back, and the two brothers are faced with the impending search and kidnapping charges being added to their already growing list of crimes committed.

Jonas, Martha’s father, has been imprisoned south of the border, so since the brothers were already headed to Mexico in search of Harlan’s wayward wife, they agree to drop Martha off where she’ll be able to travel the rest of the way to where Jonas is supposed to be jailed.

Do the brothers have a chance at safely crossing the border, likely for good this time, and will Martha be reunited with her father before being sent back to her aunt or the former Mennonite community in which she lived previously?

I liked this book as it develops at a slow pace befitting the area where it takes place, and the miles traveled along the way, also to illustrate the idle time Troy has to endure in his chosen path.

Randy Kennedy, the author, mentions “The Last Picture Show” in the closing credits, and Larry McMurtry’s quote on the cover praises the author and the book, so it’s no surprise that it feels somewhat like a 70’s stripped down version of McMurtry’s classic novel, as the pace and the way the characters are presented makes this story work in very much the same way.

4 stars.