Border Trains: A Border Agent Mystery

by Ray Summers

Accommodating numerous mile-long trains per day the U.S. railway system through Texas has become an overland Panama Canal. Custom Special Agent Ryan Shaw is again dispatched from his current post in Washington D.C. to the Mexican border. This time to verify the feasibility of plans to stem the pilferage of U.S. Customs bonded shipments from cargo trailers shipped cross-country on the lengthy freight trains. Puzzled by the seemingly mundane nature of his mission, Ryan proceeds, quickly connecting with San Antonio Customs Special Agent Diana Pierce, an expert on the proposed plan. The derailment of eastbound southern pacific freight train number 404 in the early morning darkness, March 3, 1971, not far from the Mexican border, near the small unincorporated west Texas settlement of Dryden, Texas propels Special Agents Ryan and Diana into a murder investigation, blazing gunfights, boat and horseback treks to a secluded robber’s roost in a craggy Rio Grande canyon. The surfacing of an old acquaintance from Ryan’s childhood past in Mexico and revelation of secret cargo in certain marked cargo trailers began to confirm Ryan’s suspicions of a furtive purpose of his routine assignment. This third book in the Border Agent Mystery series by retired U.S, Customs Special Agent Ray Summers, “Border Trains” is redolent with the natural beauty of the Texas Big Bend area, the twists, turns, inlets, coves and cliffs along the Rio Grande River as well as the local characters and culture found on and around the Texas/Mexico border beckons readers to plunge into its story as both old and current crimes intersect to create questions that beg to be answered.

196 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 13, 2020