The story unfolds from there, beautifully told, with engaging and believable characters, in a world that is all too easy to imagine. But keeping a meta-human with a heart incognito is not easy, and when family tragedy strikes Loup takes justice into her own hands in a unique and surprising way. Driven by her strong sense of justice and supported by the motley crew of orphans with whom she grew up, Loup takes on the guise of the town’s patron saint, Santa Olivia, to redress some of the injustices done to the townsfolk.

In short, she has inherited the mutations of her genetically-engineered ‘super-soldier’ father.

Furthermore, she can move unnaturally fast, is unnaturally strong (as well as unnaturally heavy) and has heightened senses and stamina. The unintended offspring of a love affair between a local barmaid and a mysterious deserter, Loup grows up to discover that, like her father, she doesn’t feel fear. Into this no-escape, no-hope limbo Loup Garron is born. Trapped in the No-Man’s Land created by the wall are a number of small towns, whose inhabitants have been arbitrarily stripped of citizenship and their towns designated as Outposts – R&R facilities designed to serve the local US military bases. In the process the USA has created a climate of fear and division within its own country, with its citizens suspicious of the outside world and its military in total control of this new continental border. The USA, fearing an invasion from Mexico and the poorer countries to the South, has subsequently built a massive wall across Texas and its southern states to keep them out. Similarities to the reality of today are glaringly obvious: a flu pandemic has wiped out a huge swathe of the global population.

Santa olivia book