Review: The Marfa Blues

*The Marfa Blues* is a thoroughly enjoyable yarn with the most diverse and engaging characters I’ve encountered in a long time. Having lived in West Texas myself, the idea of a book based on the little town of Marfa intrigued me. But this story was so much more than setting. The book starts in the 19th century when Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, sends troops north with wagons loaded with his treasures (gold, diamonds, etc.) to ship back to Europe. Things go awry, and the treasure is lost. Or is it? A map shows that the treasure was actually hidden in a Texas canyon. And it’s still there.

Move ahead to 1968. A motley crew of hippies, artist, a wealthy rancher and a teenager come together with Vera, who owns a cafe in Marfa. They end up forming an oddball kind of family, and they decide to go looking for the treasure. At the same time, a ruthless entrepreneur from back East initiates a cloning experiment to create really, really big beef cattle, in the hopes of making a financial killing from the ability to produce so much meat for sale. And there’s those bad guys, drug-dealers all, who are interested in intervening and finding the treasure. Events play out. Then the author treats us with a jump into the future to let us know what happened to everyone involved in the treasure hunt.

All around excellent and entertaining read. That’s *The Marfa Blues.*