Even as 2015 winds down, books of all degrees of merit continue to be published. One of the best this year has snuck in under the wire: AMERICAN BLOOD, Ben Sanders’ fourth novel. His first three, known as the Auckland Trilogy, achieved high critical acclaim and can be had with a bit of digging. You will want to make the attempt after reading his latest, which is wonderful in every possible way.

If one did not know of Sanders’ background, one might think from reading AMERICAN BLOOD that he was schooled somewhere along Route 40, perhaps perched on a rock in the middle of the desert with a book on his knee and several others scattered about. That he was not makes this effort all the more remarkable. Sanders’ prose is reminiscent of the late but never-to-be-forgotten Elmore Leonard, with occasional flashes of James Lee Burke-type brilliance thrown in for good measure. His narrative is spit out in sentences that are occasionally half-formed, but all are needed.

"AMERICAN BLOOD is complete in itself, but a couple of questions and an issue or two are left unresolved. Marshall’s unfinished business will no doubt provide grist for more volumes in the series."

Sanders introduces an instantly iconic character named Marshall Grade, a somewhat troubled ex-NYPD officer with a sharply honed skillset. Marshall was part of a long-term undercover operation that went upside down. He now floats in the Santa Fe/Albuquerque area, ostensibly in a Witness Protection program, where he continually slips the tether to go on frolics of his own. So when a young woman goes missing after a night of clubbing, Marshall feels compelled to find her, for reasons that are gradually revealed in the form of literary breadcrumbs dropped throughout the story. Marshall’s interests --- and methods --- grab the unworthy attention of a small but very deadly group of drug dealers, run by a mentally unbalanced henchman who runs a chamber of horrors he calls home.

At the same time, a hitman who calls himself the Dallas Man and has been hired to track down Marshall is honing in on him like a heat-seeking missile. Marshall and his adversaries engage and collide across New Mexico, and there isn’t a corner of Santa Fe, Albuquerque or the desert that is safe from the crossfire. All the while, though, Marshall searches for the missing woman, who becomes the nexus point for a stunning bit of irony during the book’s violent climax. By the end, readers are left stunned by this dark travelogue that gives a new menacing meaning to the term “Land of Enchantment.”

AMERICAN BLOOD is complete in itself, but a couple of questions and an issue or two are left unresolved. Marshall’s unfinished business will no doubt provide grist for more volumes in the series. Anyone who reads it will want to hunt down Sanders’ earlier books and devour those while waiting for what’s next.