Customer Reviews

Guns Across the Rio: A Texas Ranger in Old Mexico

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

150 miles of the US/Mexican Border and two dozen men to guard it. Today's newspaper or history. 1915, a border war in the making as the Texas Rangers guard the border against flying raids of bandits taking advantage of a country with little government.
One ranger caught across the border wages a war of nerves & plots to protect his family, stop all out war between the two countries and survive with a price on his head. Excitement from the first word keeps the reader's eyes glued to the page.
Excitement again for lovers of western fiction, this one by a true Texan rings with authenticity and an intimate knowledge of this little known period of western development.
We are looking forward to the second installment of the Border Trilogy.
Nash Black, author of TRAVELERS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

This is a captivating story with lovable characters. There is just the right amount of excitement, historical reference and Spanish language smattered throughout to make this book authentic and informative but easy and pleasant reading. I am anxious to see more from this author.

Dac Crossley writes an engaging western. I found it hard to put this book down. It was full of excitement, suspense and beautifully written characters that make you want more. I'm looking forward to the sequel of Guns Across the Rio to see where Nacho and his Taxes Ranger buddies end up.

I really enjoyed the fast-paced historical fiction based on the men who founded the Texas Rangers- and their fight to keep Texas safe from the bandit raiders of Mexico. Dac Crossley uses his knowledge and memories of his childhood in Texas to carefully plot out this intriguing story of the men who became the Texas Rangers. The characters are well developed; the timeline and historical concepts are carefully researched and appropriate to the story. The reader finds himself immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of old Texas.This is book One in the Border Series, I can't wait for book 2.

A great read. I was hooked at the first chapter. What a way to start a story! And the story continues with suprising twists and turns. You will enjoy the last chapter as much as you enjoyed the first chapter.

If you liked this tale about the Texas-Rio Grande region, then you will like Bart Skelton's monthly feature in Guns and Ammo magazine. And likewise, if you like Bart Shelton, then you will like this book.

Enjoy.

Guns Across the Rio is a rip-roaring western in the flavor of Texas Rangers, cattle rustlers, beautiful women and comrades in arms. Crossley writes like an authentic Texan, someone who has heard or told these tales often. His characters pack a punch- John Wayne style- and hopefully always end up ahead of the bad guys. Can't wait to read what happens to Nacho Ybarra and his Ranger pals in the next book of the trilogy.

I ordered this book primarily because I wanted to scout out the publishing service: the quality of the print, cover, etc. It took me all of five minutes to be hooked! Dac Crossley writes a darg good yarn set in an unusual place and time for historical fiction. The lower Rio Grande Valley was a bubbling chile pot of ethnic, political and economic energy and change in 1915. The author shows a deep knowledge of all facets of this time and place, creates three dimensional, interesting characters that quickly became real people to this reader and weaves it all around a good tale. He does an excellent job of making sense of the political and economic cauldron that the Texas border was in those days not long before Pancho Villa raids into the U.S. and the U.S. Army under BlackJack Pershing invades Mexico. The action is fast, the twists and turns in the plot constant. In other words, this is a first rate novel to this lover of history and excellent historical fiction. Mr. Crossley was totally unknown to me before, but I am ordering the second in this series tonight. I hope there are several more to come!

Mexico/Texas border, 1915. Ignacio Ybarra finds the Rio Grande is no barrier for the work he must do for family and country.This fast-paced novel is action and dialogue driven, and the author has obviously been there, done that. Nacho becomes enmeshed with German arms merchants and revolutionaries south of the border while trying to extract an in-law. Across the river, his Ranger friends are preparing for the Villista raid which supplies an explosive ending. Can't wait for Dac Crrossley's next one.

Nacho Ybarra is a Texas Ranger in south Texas during the Mexican Revolution in 1915. Various revolutionary armies and bandits fight among themselves and with the federal government for control of Mexico, and their raids across the border have alarmed settlers in southern Texas. German arms dealers fuel the unrest and stir fervor for reacquisition of former Mexican lands as a means of distracting the U.S. from the war overseas. Guns Across the Rio is a stirring tale of Ybarra's dangerous trip across the border to re-visit his family and to persuade his son-in-law to abandon the bandit army to which he has attached himself. En route back to the U.S., Ybarra is recognized by members of Pancho Villa's revolutionary forces and "invited" to join Villa. As he becomes entangled in Villa's revolutionary activities, including robberies and raids, Ybarra must both struggle to avoid discovery of his Texas Ranger identity and attempt to prevent more serious threats to his family in Mexico and those he is obligated to protect in south Texas. Meanwhile, his Texas Ranger colleagues are coordinating a counter-offensive to protect the territory from continued raids. These interwoven parts of the story converge when Pancho Villa's army, with Nacho's unwilling participation, crosses the Rio Grande and is met by the Texas Rangers. The story is fast-paced, with plenty of western action, suspense and surprising twists. Crossley is an engaging writer and sympathetic to conflicted loyalties in a region with strong Mexican roots and increasingly dominant Anglo settlement during a critical period in relationships between the U.S. and Mexico.

Enjoyed it very much, bogged down just a little in several places. The author really got me caught up in the first page.