In Land’s intense, skillfully plotted second thriller to feature formidable female Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong (after Strong Enough to Die), Caitlin pursues Macerio, a serial killer who’s murdered more than 400 Mexican women since 1997 near the U.S. border.

Meanwhile, Col. Renaldo Montoya, the commander of Mexico’s renegade Zeta Special Forces, plots a guerrilla war against the U.S. that he believes will launch the 2012 “End Times” foreseen by the Mayans. Caitlin’s also investigating Albion, Tex., where residents living close to where tycoon Hollis Tyree III is drilling for water are inexplicably going nuts.

The action heats up after Caitlin rescues teen Maria Lopez and other girls from being sold into prostitution or killed by Macerio. Luckily, boyfriend Cort Wesley Masters, a former Special Forces vet, is on hand to assist. Land reveals a surprising link between Caitlin and her grandfather, Earl Strong, also a Texas Ranger, as events hurtle to an explosively satisfying finale.