It all started for Anderson “Sin” Kenfax with a phone call. His uncle and mentor, El Viejo, disappeared from his senior housing without a trace. He was old, creaking with arthritis and diabetes, a far cry from his heyday as a celebrated FBI agent and hunter of very bad men. His close friend, La Calavera, herself an invalid, made the call. There was no one from their generation who could find El Viejo, so the task fell to Sin, the inheritor of all of his knowledge and skill at hunting people. Sin loaded his weapons and headed straight for the Sonoran Desert.
SIN WALKS INTO THE DESERT is an innocuous sounding title, especially compared to the action in the plot. The story takes place over a three-day period where he determines that El Viejo was kidnapped by an experienced tactical team. He tracks them through the desert, coming upon a camp used by the cartel as a base for their illegal activity. He convinces the two cartel members to give up their information about the kidnapers, leaving their corpses to the denizens of the desert. Eventually, he finds the tactical team and learns of the demise of his uncle. After dispatching them he goes on to find the identity of the person who ordered the murder.
SIN WALKS INTO THE DESERT is a short, violent story of loyalty and revenge. The dialog is terse and fits perfectly with a title character whose fluency is in his skill with a gun rather than his words. The flashbacks toSin’s childhood seem to be there to develop the character, as they do quite well, but the reason for the kidnaping and murder comes in the last few pages where the true murderer is revealed. The entire story comes together in its climax allowing Sin to realize that we must all account for our deeds.
The arid desert landscape creates a stark, unforgiving backdrop to the hunt for El Viejo, juxtaposing the harsh reality of the crime against Sin’s loyalty. No one walks off into the sunset; no one is a hero. There is only the darkness of the desert night to conceal the crimes and the coyote’s howl as witness.
SIN WALKS INTO THE DESERT is a taut, suspenseful tale without a wasted word or scene.
Reviewed by Ed Bennett for IndieReader.