What a phenomenal story. It was atmospheric, magical, haunting, heart-wrenching, and utterly thrilling.

The story unfolds across dual timelines--between Solitario's quest to solve the gruesome murders and kidnappings plaguing his small border-town and his younger years as child, a solider, and a lawman. With each flashback, the story falls into a rhythm of exploring present events and then revealing the moments from Solitario's past that tie into them.

The mystery is engaging and there's some genuinely surprising and heart-breaking twists. I loved the elements of magical realism and the easy acceptance of the mystical and supernatural throughout. The audiobook narrator also did a really good job and imbued the story with a ton of emotion.

I was unfamiliar with Ruiz before this but am definitely looking forward to exploring more of his work.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing - Audiobooks and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

The magical realism aspect of this historical neo-western is very unique and adds a lot of depth to the themes of this novel. Ruiz delves into themes of colonization, the patriarchy and racism present in law enforcement, and the ways that grief and fear can motivate us in surprising ways.

I found this story a bit confusing and slow until Chapter 10 but then you really start sucked into the mystery. Ruiz is straight up not afraid to kill characters and as much as that hurts, it’s something I respect. You feel the stakes as Solitario races the clock to find out who is killing men and taking girls from his town.

I really enjoyed following Solitario’s story and reflections but found the overall plot a little hard to follow in audiobook format. There is a lot to unpack and about 4 or 5 genres woven together.

I feel like this book might have been more cohesive and effective if it was doing a little less, but I really appreciated the story regardless! The twists were surprising and I feel like the overall message was still delivered even if some portions were a bit messy.

What a gripping story! And the narrator, Gary Tiedemann, does such a great job of getting the story across. A gripping story that is so timely especially in today's climate.

This was amazing! Thank you so much for the ARC!
Why did I love this? The setting was perfect. The time period is one of my favorites. We need more Western type novels with magic that come from the Mexican perspective,
It helps that I like the author and I like getting my heart broken, I loved the friendship and the romance too.

Oh and the horse was the best horse.

The narrator was fantastic as well.
I just listened to this straight through because I was enjoying it all so much.