Said the Quasi's in their 1985 review:

These misfits - including an ex-priest, a man with initials tattooed on his forehead and a mysterious, erudite judge named Holden - have a taste for blood and death that Mr. McCarthy seems to revel in.

Mr. McCarthy does seem to revel in it. 

Mr. McCarthy's chapter headings are in old-style. These begin chapter XIII which the undersigned is about to begin:

At the baths-Merchants-Trophies of war-The banquet-Trias-The ball-...Massacre of the Tiguas-...An inquest concerning teeth-...A desperate encounter-Into the mountains-A village decimated-Mounted lancers-A skirmish-Pursuing the survivors-The plains of Chihuahua-Slaughter of the soldier-A burial-Chihuahua-Westward.

Mr. McCarthy writes on.