Winner of the Border Regional Library Association Southwest Book Award: A gritty, action-packed collection of short stories from a master of the American West.

Dolores and her mother have not seen Dolores's daddy for five days. Dolores—whom daddy calls Sugargirl—leaps to greet him when she hears his heavy steps on the front porch. Daddy is drunk, battered, and smells of cheap perfume; his return is cut short when Momma chases him out of the house with a hot iron. A few years later, when Momma is dead and Daddy is serving a thirty-to-life stint in the state penitentiary, Dolores gets a letter addressed to Sugargirl. She is sixteen, on her own, and life will not get easier from here.

This novella and the seven accompanying stories represent the finest short fiction of acclaimed author James Carlos Blake. While the tales span centuries and continents, the characters share a common trait: They are citizens of the borderlands, from whence death is the only escape. Blake expertly captures the complexities of the border area in these raw and honest adventure stories of love and vengeance.