Smoke Over the Stockyards

By John Arsenal

In the shadows between Kansas and Missouri, where borders exist only on maps, three undocumented immigrants regulate Kansas City's underworld, until federal raids shatter everything.Rafael Cruz, Mateo Alvarez, and Luis Calder n don't just survive, they maintain order, keeping violence contained through unspoken arrangements with authorities who prefer predictable criminals to chaos.Then ICE agent Daniel Mercer arrives.His surgical operations trigger a cascade no one anticipated. Families vanish. Businesses close. Jazz clubs become crime scenes. And in the vacuum, something far more dangerous emerges.Smoke Over the Stockyards is an unflinching portrait of an American city caught between law and survival, justice and necessity. With the precision of a thriller and the depth of literary fiction, it explores the true cost of enforcement and the brutal mathematics of survival.For readers who loved: *No Country for Old Men*, *The Border Trilogy*, *American Rust*

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GMBN7WNX
• ISBN13: 9798246811641
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"