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To paraphrase former Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen, I knew Dave Robicheaux (I've read all the books and much of Burke's other work) and Billy Bob, you're no Dave Robicheaux. Or maybe you are--and that's part of the problem. In Dave's books, all the lawyers are corrupt scum; in Billy Bob's, it's all the cops. Otherwise, when I read Billy's Bob's first person accounts, I might as well be reading Dave's thoughts and words. Good and bad; bad and good. Burke is a writer of LITERATURE, not just a mystery writer (of course, he was a writer of literature whose books didn't sell, which is why he turned to mysteries). However, he has single-handedly re-invented the crime genre in the '90s. I find a kind of comfort and salvation in the early Dave Robicheaux books (Black Cherry Blues, A Morning For Flamingos--still my favorites) that comes in only the best literature. Thank you, James Lee Burke, for writing this series. But alas, it seems to me that you've become a victim of your own winning formula, and are trying to top yourself each time out with more complicated plots, the way each James Bond movie tried to be better than the one before. Don't play this game, podna; it may make you big bucks but I know you can do better than this. Give us one plot, not five; one memorable bad guy, not three or four unmemorable ones. There's some gorgeous writing in the new book that your late cousin, Andre Dubus, would admire. But stick with what makes literature ignite--character, not plot. Until we get a Billy Bob Holland novel that's character as opposed to plot-driven, this series will never have the same drama, suspense, or emotional resonance of the earlier work.

Billy Bob Holland, ex-Texas Ranger and now a successful lawyer agrees to defend Wibur Pickett who's accused of stealing $300,000 in bearer bonds from rich Earl Deitrich. Deitrich comes from big money and thinks nothing of riding roughshod over anyone who gets in the way of what he wants. However, that doesn't work with Billy Bob Holland who stands up to Deitrich and his equally corrupt son. Matters escalate and soon Wilbur Pickett's wife is accused of murder for defending herself against a rapist/killer sent by Earl Dietrich. Why, Billy Bob wonders, is Dietrich going to so much trouble to railroad a poor man into jail? What does Pickett have that Earl Deitrich could possibly want.

There are few writers today who can touch James Lee Burke for his use of prose, his characterization and his ear for dialog. I've been a Burke fan since reading Black Cherry Blues years ago and he never disappoints. Though he writes in the mystery genre (check out his Dave Robicheaux series of novels) the writing is literate while being entertaining. His novels are a nice change from all of the ex-cops who are now writing mysteries that, while technically correct, have no heart or soul. I would recommend this, and any James Lee Burke novel, highly.

...Billy Bob Holland reminds me of the southern Sheriff played by Bill Paxton in "One False Move" or Chris Cooper as the Texas Ranger in "Lone Star". Or Gary Cooper in those 40's/50's westerns.

'Course, in Lee Burke's Texas, murders and the overall evil men do take on quite a different flavor. *Quite* a different flavor. A Latin gang member is murdered by a lethal drug which has been punched in his face during a so called friendly boxing spar. A wildcatter initally accused of taking bearer bonds--Billy Bob's client--finds his mother's body exhumed and in his pick-up truck out in a dark and dreary field; this is a threat from Big Earl Dietrich to comply with some kind of land development deal with a promise of big resources...he wants IN, but Deitrich would rather just muscle his way in. The wildcatter is married to a blind Indian spiritlifter, who murders an intruder to her home so efficiently and thoroughly it seems like it was done in a mode other than self defense. The Big guy's son seems to have some scandalous problems with his sexuality and Billy Bob has somehow gotten a dose of a rare Asian jungle poison. Add to the mix some insane prison escapees, an able assistant, his son Lucas, and a lil fishing buddy and you have quite an intriging stage for mystery.

Billy Bob Holland himself keeps hearing voices, seeing visions inspired by his dead Rangers partner, LQ Navarro. Whoooo-boy! Would this be a wild movie for a director to take on!

My take on why Lee Burke goes to extremes on describing Deaf Smith and parts surrounding is that it makes his mystery more realistic and if he describes every iota of this countryside-- how it is hot on certain days, rainy on others, what kind of vegetation clings around, if there's a quicksandy, mildewy swamp around---maybe that can help rationalise why each character has his own strange way. An environment that varied and extreme is likely to harbor varied and extreme individuals.

Anyway, this is a great mystery with superb setting and mood. And its so intense and real you can feel the horseflies whizzing at the back of your neck.