Rain Gods: A Novel (A Holland Family Novel)

Just for the reference of people reading this review, I read a lot of novels in this genre. My favorite modern author is John Sandford. I really like James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series. I was about halfway through that series when I decided to try the Hackberry Holland series. The first one, "Lay Down My Sword and Shield" was so tedious, I couldn't get 1/3 of the way through it. I thought the Holland character was a jerk and I did not care what happened to him. There were no good supporting characters either. But I thought, well, Burke wrote that one a long time ago, maybe he got it together with "Rain Gods."

It was the same thing all over again. Holland was a jerk as a lawyer and now, years later, he's a jerk as a sheriff. Again, no good supporting characters. The villains seem vaguely like what you might see in a Robicheaux novel, but because I didn't care about any of the good guys, the plot just seemed to crawl. Again, I'm giving it up about 1/3 of the way through.

THIS IS ONE HIS BEST BOOKS! THE SCENIC DESCRIPTIONS ARE INTENSE..THE CHARACTER PERSONALITIES ARE VIVID..

THESE ARE ENTIRELY NEW CHARACTERS AND DIFFERENT LOCALES.

I HAD TO READ IT BITS AT A TIME SO THAT THE BOOK WOULD LAST LONGER..

I started reading James Lee Burke with The Neon Rain. When he's on he's really on. I thought Rain Gods was derivative and his version of No Country for Old Men. It seemed to have all the elements in the right locale. But Cormac McCarthy is a whole different ball game. I stayed around till the end just to see it sort itself out fairly predictively, plus Burke makes the trip entertaining. His take on setting and weather is always fresh. Also, a reader gets great side stories especially as his main characters age, they have more interesting stories. My problems are with 70+ guys turning on chicks less than half his age. It just never plays well and when you see an old guy with a young woman no one ever thinks it's because the guy is hot. Finally, Burke over uses the enigmatic bad guy model. He seems to always have bad guys and then enigmatic seriously screwed up, you never know what they're thinking bad guys. These characters are beginning to show up a lot.

My husband and I were both quite disappointed in this repetitively plotted, rather dull book. We love this author so were doubly disappointed in this book....wait for the paperback if you must read this.

Too much fluff and not enough stuff. The author was too concerned about his flowery descriptive phrases rather than developing the plot.I was very disappointed and really struggled to finish the book rather than set it aside!

no life in this book, poor descriptions of characters, no intrigue, books like that I can write every day, the hero is a copy of james bond, he can do every thing without much efforts. don't buy this book, after finishing a chapter I was hoping that something would start, till the end just emptiness

Both my wife and I read this particular book when it was first published. As we are both “re-readers” we will always wait for quite some time and then check out the CD version of the book. We listen to these CD books as we work on puzzles and/or take road trips.

The quality of this particular CD is excellent and the reader was very good and did justice to the book.

As a matter of fact, both of us enjoyed listening to this work than we did when we actually read it and I must say that we both really, really liked the printed version.

I’ve read a number of books by James Lee Burke in the past and have yet to be even slightly disappointed. In my opinion Burke has two major elements and skills going for him. First he is an excellent writer with one of the best commands of the English language among ‘A-List’ authors writing at the current time and second, Burke is a natural story teller; a story teller from the old school.

Burke’s descriptive writing in regard to the psychical surroundings of the story is superb. In this instance, with this book, I have traveled and visited extensively the area the story takes place and the author is absolutely spot-on.

I will say right from the start that as I read this particular tale I was strongly reminded of a movie I recently watched and enjoyed – ‘No Country for Old Men.” While the plot was different and of course the characters were different, still and all the grim brutality and overall ‘feeling’ of the book and movie were quite similar dare I say this had a noir feeling about it?

In this work the author has created one of the most complex, brutal and scary cold blooded killers in modern fiction; Jack (known as ‘Preacher’) Collins. This is one bad, bad man, and yet...and yet...Preachers has his own code of ethics; ethics that simply do not fit our world yet they are ethics that lurk here and there and are with us always. Preacher is no doubt a despicable guy, but there is just something about him....well, you will have to read it to see what I mean and make your own mind up about this.

The story or plot is twisted and there are a number of rather unique characters to keep up with. It is difficult to write a review on a book such as this because it is quite easy to give up a spoiler without realizing it. This is a story of a man facing his age. This is an extremely violent story which includes many elements and side stories which all come twisting together by the end of the book...an ending that is really not all that predictable.

For those who avoid different acts or story lines do be aware that this is a violent book which includes prostitution, murder/mass murder, the subject of rape, men and women (both the good guys and the bad guys) possessed and haunted by their own demons, and some rough language here and there.

It should also be noted that this book is NOT a part of the Robicheaux or Holland series.

This was a library find.

I have read and enjoyed Burke's books before, but I found this one tedious. There is no questioning the author's abilities. He prose is poetic and often beautifully crafted. But how much description does one need of a six pack of beer, and the contents of a character's shopping bag? These instances of over-writing gave me the feeling that the author was stalling for time while he tried to knit together the next piece of the ponderous plot. The characters became irritating enough that I was hoping they would all be killed off, that included the hero Hackberry.

And, for the most part, succeeds. If Burke doesn't twist and torture and then so beautifully reassemble passages in McCarthy's unique version of the English language, he is certainly no rookie when it comes to spinning his own brand of moody, atmospheric prose never too far a field from Faulkner's steamy bayous and weighty themes - but decidedly more readable. In the spellbinding "Rain Gods", Burke moves west from Louisiana's delta and Dave Robicheaux's perpetual but lovable gloom to a Texas southern border town where Korean War veteran Hackberry Holland is sheriff. "Hack" stumbles upon the shallow churchyard grave of nine illegal alien women, setting off a deliciously convoluted mystery/thriller featuring a rich field - rich even by Burke's lofty standards - of characters ranging from the mildly flawed to the unrepentantly deranged. Like Robicheaux, Sheriff Holland is haunted by ghosts from his past - hefting a trunk full of baggage that carries the nightmares of North Korean POW camps, the guilt from days of alcoholism and debauchery, and sorrow over the loss of his second wife. Holland pursues his own brand of justice battling these internal demons as well as a host of those in real flesh and blood - from the serial-killing psycho "Preacher" to three-letter government agencies not afraid to sacrifice the mostly innocent to bag the bigger game.

Like McCarthy's "No Country For Old Men", "Rain Gods" deals with the drug trade across the border, and like "No Country", it is brutal, violent, and realistic. Burke, always the champion of the poor working class and never afraid to proselytize, lays it on thick here, though without Bush in the White House to cast as the villain, the targets of his righteous but sincere venom is a bit confused. Where McCarthy wraps "No Country" around simple, apolitical despair, Burke shades "Rain Gods" with a heavy hand of morality. But it works. Hackberry is a complex but likable protagonist - the stoic and troubled loner cast perfectly for the Clint Eastwood of "Gran Torino" - with a Texas accent. Hack's deputy Pam Tibbs adds color and sexual tension, and Iraq War vet Pete Flores and his talented girlfriend Vikki Gaddis make credible fugitives. But most fascinating is the almost mystical "preacher", a complex and unpredictable villain, already an urban legend among those who pursue him on both sides of the border.

In the final analysis, despite some minor flaws, this is a powerful novel - entertaining while sobering, beautifully written, the uncommon and intelligent page-turner one would expect from James Lee Burke, who is without any doubt is back in full "Jolie Blon's Bounce" or "Last Car to Elysian Fields"-form. Hackberry Holland will no doubt fill pages of subsequent Burke novels, which I'll be anxiously awaiting. Well done, Mr. Burke, and good to have you back.

This book easily crosses the line from "popular fiction" into true literature. The way Burke can paint beautiful pictures with words, capture the essence of a setting, the characters' emotions... it's simply amazing.

Small town America is Burke's canvas, human strengths and weaknesses his palette, and again he's brought us a completely enthralling story peopled with complex and fully realized characters whose lives collide as they pursue their own individual agendas.

Hack Holland is the small town Texas sheriff whose indelible experience as an American POW of the Koreans almost sixty years ago still informs every facet of his life. Preacher Jack Collins is the sociopathic killer driven by his own dark obsessions and twisted motives. Nick Dolan is the small time hustler made good, striving for a life of normalcy and trying to get away from the life that helped him rise from poverty to live a piece of the American dream with a wife and small kids. Vikki Gaddis is the young woman who can sing like an angel, but can't find the inner strength to pursue her dream. Her boyfriend Pete Flores is the young war vet, home after being seriously wounded and recovering, who stumbles into the middle of a criminal enterprise and unwittingly triggers all the events that follow.

These people, and many more, are the fascinating and engaging actors in a story of redemption and innocence played out against the sweeping vistas of the Texas border country.

Burke has become the American Dostoyevsky, but with even greater skill at ensnaring the reader into the lives of his protagonists and antagonists, and with none of the ponderousness of the Russian original. This book is exciting, captivating, thoroughly entertaining, and beautifully written.

I wish I could give it more than five stars.

And, for the most part, succeeds. If Burke doesn't twist and torture and then so beautifully reassemble passages in McCarthy's unique version of the English language, he is certainly no rookie when it comes to spinning his own brand of moody, atmospheric prose never too far a field from Faulkner's steamy bayous and weighty themes - but decidedly more readable. In the spellbinding "Rain Gods", Burke moves west from Louisiana's delta and Dave Robicheaux's perpetual but lovable gloom to a Texas southern border town where Korean War veteran Hackberry Holland is sheriff. "Hack" stumbles upon the shallow churchyard grave of nine illegal alien women, setting off a deliciously convoluted mystery/thriller featuring a rich field - rich even by Burke's lofty standards - of characters ranging from the mildly flawed to the unrepentantly deranged. Like Robicheaux, Sheriff Holland is haunted by ghosts from his past - hefting a trunk full of baggage that carries the nightmares of North Korean POW camps, the guilt from days of alcoholism and debauchery, and sorrow over the loss of his second wife. Holland pursues his own brand of justice battling these internal demons as well as a host of those in real flesh and blood - from the serial-killing psycho "Preacher" to three-letter government agencies not afraid to sacrifice the mostly innocent to bag the bigger game.

Like McCarthy's "No Country For Old Men", "Rain Gods" deals with the drug trade across the border, and like "No Country", it is brutal, violent, and realistic. Burke, always the champion of the poor working class and never afraid to proselytize, lays it on thick here, though without Bush in the White House to cast as the villain, the targets of his righteous but sincere venom is a bit confused. Where McCarthy wraps "No Country" around simple, apolitical despair, Burke shades "Rain Gods" with a heavy hand of morality. But it works. Hackberry is a complex but likable protagonist - the stoic and troubled loner cast perfectly for the Clint Eastwood of "Gran Torino" - with a Texas accent. Hack's deputy Pam Tibbs adds color and sexual tension, and Iraq War vet Pete Flores and his talented girlfriend Vikki Gaddis make credible fugitives. But most fascinating is the almost mystical "preacher", a complex and unpredictable villain, already an urban legend among those who pursue him on both sides of the border.

In the final analysis, despite some minor flaws, this is a powerful novel - entertaining while sobering, beautifully written, the uncommon and intelligent page-turner one would expect from James Lee Burke, who is without any doubt is back in full "Jolie Blon's Bounce" or "Last Car to Elysian Fields"-form. Hackberry Holland will no doubt fill pages of subsequent Burke novels, which I'll be anxiously awaiting. Well done, Mr. Burke, and good to have you back.

This book easily crosses the line from "popular fiction" into true literature. The way Burke can paint beautiful pictures with words, capture the essence of a setting, the characters' emotions... it's simply amazing.

Small town America is Burke's canvas, human strengths and weaknesses his palette, and again he's brought us a completely enthralling story peopled with complex and fully realized characters whose lives collide as they pursue their own individual agendas.

Hack Holland is the small town Texas sheriff whose indelible experience as an American POW of the Koreans almost sixty years ago still informs every facet of his life. Preacher Jack Collins is the sociopathic killer driven by his own dark obsessions and twisted motives. Nick Dolan is the small time hustler made good, striving for a life of normalcy and trying to get away from the life that helped him rise from poverty to live a piece of the American dream with a wife and small kids. Vikki Gaddis is the young woman who can sing like an angel, but can't find the inner strength to pursue her dream. Her boyfriend Pete Flores is the young war vet, home after being seriously wounded and recovering, who stumbles into the middle of a criminal enterprise and unwittingly triggers all the events that follow.

These people, and many more, are the fascinating and engaging actors in a story of redemption and innocence played out against the sweeping vistas of the Texas border country.

Burke has become the American Dostoyevsky, but with even greater skill at ensnaring the reader into the lives of his protagonists and antagonists, and with none of the ponderousness of the Russian original. This book is exciting, captivating, thoroughly entertaining, and beautifully written.

I wish I could give it more than five stars.

Although I think Hackberry Holland has great potential as a character, I was disappointed with this book. The reader first meets Holland in the 1971 Lay Down My Sword and Shield in episodes which change his life and form the basis for a seventy plus, worldly wise, weather beaten county sheriff in Rain Gods, mourning the death of his wife and trying to keep the world safe from evil. There's a deep compassion for mankind about him, but he comes across too much like Gary Cooper in High Noon and not enough like a man who has seen everything, has accepted his own mortality, and is still striving to rid the world of evil, one bad guy at a time.

I don't think Burke ever achieved what he had set out to achieve. Set in southwestern Texas instead of Louisiana, he never reaches the lyricism about the parched, hot, rain god forsaken land he does for lush, verdant, wet Louisiana. He tries, but his metaphors and his imagery seem to be strained and fall short of the mark of providing the reader with a love of that desolate land, possessed only by inexorable geological time. Since he is unable to convey the deep love for the land he has for Louisiana, the mythical setting never takes hold of the reader's imagination and much of Burke's lyrical efforts fall flat, but he needs a mythical setting for the rain gods and the demented Bible quoting Preacher Jack Collins, a most improbable bad guy.

Burke seems to have a fascination for truly evil men and is able to depict them with almost Satanic personalities and yet stay within the boundaries of the believable. Few other mystery novelists are able to create men as evil, yet as human, as those which people Burke's books. Rain Gods has an abundance of bad guys who form a chorus for the truly evil Jack Collins, whose legend as a killer and eccentricities make him an appropriate character to counterbalance the rain gods who have, according to Danny Boy, the native American town drunk, abandoned the land.

The ending is artificial and too much like a fairy tale. Jack Collins is reduced to a caricature of Milton's Lucifer, our Hans and Gretel characters, Pete Flores and Vicki Gaddis, who are almost too good to be believed, fall into a rainbow, and ole Hackberry, he just keeps rolling, like old man river. It's a mythical land with mythic characters, but it doesn't quite come together for the reader.

Poorly drawn characters and wooden dialogue hardly improve at the half way mark and if you have never read Mr Burke, I suggest you start with Cimarron Rose and of the Robicheaux series, Neon Rain. This is a letdown and it is hard to believe at times that it was written by this great writer,.But as with anything written by Mr Burke there are waves of incredibly beautiful lyrical prose of deeply ingrained literary brilliance .Your move.

This story centers on justice and friendship.

In the southern part of Texas, by the Mexican border, the sheriff's office is informed about shots being fired the previous night. The caller identifies the location of where the shots were fired.

Sheriff Hackberry Holland, a Korean War vet, discovers the bodies of nine Asian women. Later, he learns that they were carrying balloons filled with drugs in their stomachs. It is speculated that they were heading to a business dealing in prostitution.

With James Lee Burke's keen ability to describe settings and provide unforgettable characters, we follow the trail of the killers. They want to kill the young man who called the authorities and the man's girlfriend.

In typical fashion, Burke defends characters who are attempting to get out of a difficult predicament. He also shows the ineptitude of government officials to help or to show compassion.

The killers soon begin to argue among themselves. Greed is extreme and it is well depicted in this story. Sheriff Holland is a genuinely good man and he shines above the other characters in the story.

The action is well paced so that the reader can observe what is going on with the criminals, the two innocent characters and with Sheriff Holland and his loyal chief deputy, Pam Tibbs.

The characters are well thought out and believable and the story is entertaining.

My husband loved several of Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels, and I liked the one I read. So when the store Vine made this book available to me, I grabbed it as if they were offering free chocolate chip cookies. I was gratified to discover that, as the the store description intimated, this is a standalone book, not part of a series (though it certainly could be the first book in a new series).

The essence of the story: nine women are killed and buried outside a church in a southwest Texas town. The sheriff aims to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The tale is told from the viewpoints of everybody involved, so the mystery is less "Who did it?" than "How will Sheriff Holland discover the truth?"

Bottom line: I'm glad I read it, but this novel won't go into my pile of "must read again, more carefully next time" books.

Successful fiction writers will tell you that great authors can rely on one of several strengths, such as plain ol' storytelling ability, a strong voice (the best example may be The Princess Diaries), dialog mastery, or -- as James Lee Burke so eloquently demonstrates -- an incredible ability to create and describe a setting. He really blows me away at this; in just a few sentences, Burke can make a place come alive, and bring the reader into that world. You FEEL the place as if you're there: "There was a storm breaking on the southern horizon like a great cloud of green gas forked with lightening that made no sound. The air had turned the color of tarnished brass as the barometer had dropped and Preacher could taste the salt in the wind and smell the shrimp that had been caught inside the waves and left stranded on the sand among the ruptured blue air sacs of the jellyfish." Whew. Even Burke's run-on sentences are part of the way he creates a mood.

The problem for me is that it's not usually a very comfortable mood.

I am reading outside my genre, here. I love mysteries (as you'll see by perusing my other reviews). But I rarely read crime novels, though there are some exceptions (the store Vine helped me discover the incredibly funny books of Marshall Karp, for instance -- start with The Rabbit Factory). Rain Gods is an incredibly well written book... and it quite literally gave me nightmares. I learned not to read this book right before I went to sleep, because his powerful imagery snuck into my dreams, and very few of the people in this story are cheerful bouncy folks without a care in the world. Um, like none of them actually. Everyone in the book, even the good guys like the sheriff, has his emotional baggage. Burke does so well getting the reader (me) into the heads of everyone, even the bad guys, that their moral blank spaces drip off the page. The violent scenes are not PG-rated, and because Burke is so eloquent with scene painting that didn't help my sleep any.

But all that may make you love this book. If you're up for a Good Guys versus Bad Guys story, and you aren't shy about reading about brutal murders... I don't think you could find better writing than this.

"Rain Gods" is another honorable entry in the James Lee Burke canon. A departure from his well-known Dave Robicheaux novels, this one features Hackberry Holland (yes, he's related to Billy Bob Holland, another series from Burke). As a long-time fan of Burke's novels, I welcome the further development of these newer characters, especially since the Robicheaux series, in some ways, seems to have about run its course.

Sheriff Hackberry Holland is somewhat unwillingly drawn into the mystery that begins with a vacant lot full of bullet-riddled bodies of Asian women and girls in an abandoned crossroads town. The story careens through Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, sweeping through a backdrop of pornography, double-crosses, surprising courage and despairing greed. Propelling the story is Burke's incredibly well-crafted prose, the kind of writing that brings you up short and makes you re-read the previous paragraph just to savor the crafting of its words.

Burke's particular genius is to make the reader care about the characters to the point that the story almost becomes simply a backdrop for their development. Fortunately, he never lets the story become only a backdrop, and we end up as curious to know how it all turns out as we are about what happens to the characters. This kind of character development is what makes fans of Burke's writing return to each series time and again; we want to know what's happened to our friends and acquaintances since we saw them last.

Many reviewers have compared "Rain Gods" to Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men," not only because of its spare south Texas setting but in the characters of Sheriff Holland and the charismatic, horrific assassin for hire, The Preacher. Ultimately, though, Burke's vision is more hopeful and more uplifting, even as he turns over the desert rocks to reveal the scorpions (or, in Preacher's case, enters the rattlesnake-teeming cave where he may have helped his mother meet an untimely end).

James Lee Burke has made that difficult transition to the point where his books are not crime novels or detective novels, but simply novels, interesting stories well told, peopled by believable, fascinating characters, exploring themes that are bigger than merely the sum of the two. If you aren't a current fan, "Rain Gods" is a good place to start, and if you are, it's a great place to continue.

Hackberry Holland, the cousin of JLB's Billy Bob Holland, is back. Hack last appeared in a mainstream, political novel entitled Lay Down My Sword and Shield (1971). Here, Hack enters the world of JLB in its purest form, a world anchored in the past but haunted by the basest forms of crime and violence and peopled with frail but firm bulwarks against the darkness. In other cases that bulwark's name is Dave Robicheaux; here it is Hack Holland. On the surface of things there is a case--the murder/execution of nine Thai prostitutes with balloons of heroin in their stomachs. Two criminals (of varying degrees) are involved--one from New Orleans, the other now from Texas. In the background are a Russian criminal in Phoenix and an array of hired guns and a memorable serial killer named Preacher Jack Collins. As the criminals betray one another and Hack is drawn into the mix (with some barely helpful federal agents) the plot lines spread and interweave. At base, however, this is a story about character, about failure and love and redemption, about guilt and about the frailness of time and beauty. The setting is, of course, described as only JLB can describe it. You hear every sound, smell every scent and experience each bird, beast and insect as it crosses the stage.

I have said in the past that it is hard to rank JLB's novels because all are so superb. Rain Gods is no exception. It is very, very special. Jonathan Kellerman has called JLB the Faulkner of crime fiction. He is that and much more. If Sophocles or Shakespeare were transported to our time, introduced to the novel, introduced to Texas (or Montana or New Iberia) and instructed to write something eternal about real people, this is what they would produce.

For mystery writers, there is a certain risk when they depart from series characters. For James Lee Burke, he takes that chance every time he writes a novel that doesn't involve his principal hero, Dave Robicheaux (or to a lesser extent, his other series character, Billy Bob Holland). Fortunately, Burke is in the very top of writers of any genre, so even a departure book like Rain Gods is a safe bet for any writer of crime fiction.

I've read comparisons between Rain Gods and Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, and certainly there are similarities. Both involve a young man accidentally entangled in a murder, a seemingly superhuman killer pursuing the man and an old cop stuck somewhere in the middle. These similarities are generally superficial, and Rain Gods has more in the way of differences (besides which, if no plot is truly new, it all comes down to the execution, which is fine here).

The old cop is Sheriff Hackberry Holland, the head cop in a small Texas county near the Mexican border, who's drawn into the multiple homicide of several Thai prostitutes who had just been smuggled across the border. The killings are soon linked to a psychotic hitman known as Preacher who operates by his own set of rules that don't necessarily involve murdering for the highest bidder. When Preacher pursues Iraqi veteran Peter Flores and has a run-in with Flores's girlfriend Vikki, he winds up on the losing end of the fight, an incident that will make him even more unpredictable.

The central character, however, is Holland, a man haunted by his own demons but who wants to do the right thing. That involves trying to save Peter not only from Preacher but various underworld figures and even the FBI, who'd like to use Peter as bait in their own traps. And although there are differences, Holland has a lot in common with Robicheaux, which makes him seem comfortably familiar.

As mentioned before, Burke is one of the best writers around, and Rain Gods once again proves the case. With interesting characters, wonderful descriptions (Burke is great at bringing scenes to life) and a story that is first-rate (and with no series characters, no guarantees of survival for anyone), Rain Gods is an almost essential read for fans of crime fiction.

In his second Hackberry Holland novel, "Rain Gods," James Lee Burke explores the battle faced by Texas lawmen charged with stopping drugs and illegal aliens from crossing the state's southern border. The fact that Hurricane Katrina flushed some of the worst New Orleans scum into Texas, criminals who thrive on human suffering and weaknesses, including human trafficking, makes Sherif Holland's job just that much tougher.

Hack Holland admits to himself that he has lived a full life but even at seventy-something years of age he is not ready to call it quits, and he his still the chief law enforcement officer in his little corner of southwest Texas. Hack is a reasonable man, not a judgmental one. He readily admits that his own past includes a time during which he was both a "drunk and a whoremonger" but those years have given him keen insight into the human condition. What he discovers behind a church late one afternoon, however, will shake him to his core.

Working on an anonymous tip directing him to the empty ground behind the abandoned church, Holland unearths the machine-gunned bodies of nine women and girls who had been killed there just hours earlier. What he sees and smells as he uncovers the bodies causes him to flash back to his days as a Korean War POW and he knows that his nights are destined to be filled with nightmares again. What he does not know is that he has just stepped into the middle of a fight between New Orleans lowlifes that began decades earlier.

"Rain Gods" is an epic confrontation between good and evil but it is one in which those on the side of good are not always squeaky clean and those on the side of evil sometimes live under a moral code only they can understand. Its plot is a relatively simple one - but plot is not the most important thing in this James Lee Burke novel. What Burke does best is create complicated, totally believable, characters by adding layer after layer to their makeup while exploring what it is that makes each of them tick. And that is exactly what he does in "Rain Gods."

Joining Hackberry Holland in this powerful story are Pam Tibbs, the young deputy who is falling in love with Hack as she works along side him to catch the killers; Pete Flores, the drunken Iraq War vet who knows too much about the murders to be allowed to live; Vikki Gaddis, Pete's long-suffering girlfriend; and "the preacher," a killer with enough of a conscious that he almost becomes a sympathetic character. Interestingly, Burke uses three very strong female characters to save some of his male characters from themselves: Holland has Pam Tibbs to save him from his fatalistic decisions, Vikki Gaddis is willing to flee alongside Pete Flores , and New Orleans gangster Nick Dolan finds that his wife Esther will fight like a tiger to save his life. Without their women, none of these men would have likely survived what happens to them in "Rain Gods."

Burke has a good feel for what life in southwest Texas is like and he uses the look and climate of that part of the state almost as an additional character. Its bleakness and isolation offer the perfect setting for the story being told, a battle between the not-so-perfect and the not-completely-bad set in an environment that can be beautiful and depressing at the same time.

"Rain Gods," by the mega-talented James Lee Burke, is another in his series of Texas-set mysteries that began with Cimarron Rose (Billy Bob Boy Howdy), centered on Billy Bob Holland. However, the book at hand gives us Hackberry Holland, the sheriff of a rural southwest Texas county near the Mexican border. Hackberry's an older relative of Billy Bob's, who is relegated to being merely an offstage presence.

The first thing that must always be said about Burke is he's a very fine writer, and his presence among American mystery authors is definitely a gift from some gods or another. His descriptive, nature writing is always outstanding; his narrative writing and dialog are snappy, and he always gives us intricate, many-layered plots. The second thing to be said about the author is that, at this point in his career, he doesn't seem particularly concerned about commercial success, and he's writing what he feels he must on an inmost level, repeating several basic set-ups, themes, and characters, in this novel, as well as his most recent others that I have read. And a big third thing is that he's currently writing two series, the other being his better-known Dave Robichaux series that I believe began with the New Orleans set The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel , and now seems to have wandered to Montana. And whereas Burke is always an exceptional writer, he's a native of the New Orleans area, and a longtime resident there, and his New Orleans work is unrivaled in his repertory: the nature and landscape descriptions; the descriptions of people, food and drink; the use of the particular Creole argot of the land. Now, I know, writers must grow, expand themselves, etc., but I just love the New Orleans mise-en-scene, and miss it in his work set elsewhere.

Especially as it is particularly striking that Burke seems to have wandered into Cormac McCarthy country here. The Texas landscape seems right out of the book, No Country for Old Men that admittedly, I haven't read; McCarthy's not my cuppa; and the movie of the same title, No Country for Old Men, that I have seen (and it's still not my cuppa.) The character of the older, world-weary sheriff is also familiar from "No Country," and so is the young man, Pete Flores, who plays an important part in "Rain Gods." So it's this reader's prayer: James Lee Burke, won't you please come home?

Grabbed my attention within the first sentence! Usually, a great author captivates me within a page or two, but the way James Lee Burke writes is like sweet poetry. My goal is to read all of his books :) Very talented writer! I would rather read his books than watch any movie. Just amazing! Can’t wait to begin my next book by him! Happy reading!

I stopped reading Mr. Burke after the book where Clete goes crazy; Swan something was the title. I probably read this one years ago. I did not remember it and I was so pleased when I read it. This was the JL Burke I remembered,where so many of the sentences were beautiful word pictures, and so many "asides" were grand to read. I loved it. I think you will too.

Hack Holland, a hard-boiled Texas sheriff, finds himself in the thick of a horrendous crime, where nine female illegal immigrants were shot and buried late at night. Pete Flores, who was a witness to the killings, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis go on the run to escape the murderer, who is now after them. Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs try to help them while catching the bad guys. Oh, and they also work on not getting themselves killed.

Burke did an excellent job with character development, with numerous interesting characters that kept the book sometimes amusing and always interesting. Preacher Jack Collins is a wonderfully written crazy man. Strip club owner and mobster Nick Dolan shows a different side when dealing with his wife, Esther, who was very interesting in her own right. Pam Tibbs is very likeable and an interesting partner to Sheriff Holland. Each character is given enough time to show their complexities without droning on.

This is the first James Lee Burke book I have read, but even so I had the feeling that the author had written many similar books before. I felt like I was reading about a slice of Hack Holland's life, with many references to past events that sounded like they could be found in previous novels. Not that this is a bad thing, as I did enjoy this book and will look for others in the line.

It was not an incredibly creative story, but then again it had no convoluted twists and turns that confused rather than added to the plot. It felt comfortable, like putting on a favorite pair of jeans. Recommended.

Sometimes the world seems unrelenting; James Burke is the master at creating that mood. In Rain Gods, Burke delves further than ever before into the pitiless turn of time. Other readers have criticized this tone; but it is the very relentlessness, the utter bleakness without a flicker of light throughout almost the entire book, that makes it so powerful. And when the tiniest of redemptions does occur, it seems positively heroic. It isn't necessary to fly, or to outrun machine gun bullets, to be a hero in Burke's universe; it merely takes confronting the worst of yourself.

Others have commented on the resemblance to No Country for Old Men, and I at first agreed--it seemed uncomfortably strong at the beginning, but as I continued to read, I felt it less and less important. Burke writes his own book, and he's staked this territory out long before in the first of the Dave Robicheaux novels, to the extent that he's equally criticized for writing the same book over and over. Don't these two criticisms cancel each other out? If this Burke book is too much like Cormac McCarthy's, then how can he be writing one book over and over; if he's writing the same book over and over, how is it that this book is too much like Cormac McCarthy's? No work of art--and to call this book literature is not to stretch a point--exists in a void. Rain Gods is unquestionably part of a genre; and it shares the pinnacle with No Country for Old Men. Both are excellent; neither negates the other.

Full disclosure before I start: I love James Lee Burke and have read everything he's ever written, going back to his earliest short stories.

He handles metaphor and simile better than any American writer today and his penetrating depiction of good and evil, set against corruption, violence and understated heroism is remarkable. If he didn't write in the mystery genre he would have won the Pulitzer Prize by now - but that's for a different review.

'Rain Dogs' re-introduces tormented Korean War Veteran, Hackberry Holland, a small town sheriff tangling with meth-head biker gangs, hit men who seem to have stepped out of Pulp Fiction and a couple on the run who stepped into a mass murder and are now the targets of the original killers.

Yet, as much as I love Burke's work, this one seems to be a recycling (albeit beautifully done) of too many of his earlier stories. There's just nothing special.

If you are an uber-fan, wait for the paperback. If you are a first time reader, get 'Black Cherry Blues' or his masterpiece about murder and morality in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, 'The Tin Roof Blowdown'.

Burke is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint. In his excellent descriptive (and sometimes poetic) style, the reader is introduced to a hot, dusty part of Texas as the setting for an intriguing chase story. The initial scene fades into the background as the tale weaves together the lives of hero and villian. Read carefully as some of the important events that connect the characters are only briefly touched upon. Without them, it may be difficult to keep the reason for the plot straight.

As in other books, Burke adds a hefty dose of philosophy and morality. In this book, there is an underlying theme of redemption amongst sociopaths and pimps. The reader is confronted with the possibility of forgiveness of an escort service owner as he tries to rectify his life in order to save his family. The arch-villian is also treated with a peculiar mix of grace and hatred as he becomes the protector of the innocent - even if he uses twisted reasoning. The reader is challenged with the thought that the hero law-man and the hired killer are opposite sides of the same coin. This all makes for an exciting, interesting, and at times a book of complex conflict. It is worth the read.

After getting a mysterious phone call from a distraught witness, rural Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland makes a grisly discovery: the bodies of nine young Thai women who were murdered while being smuggled into the country as prostitutes and drug mules. In the aftermath of this slaughter, the witness and his girlfriend go on the run leading to a vicious conflict between cops, gangsters and cold blooded killers. This was a crackling story of greed, violence and the hope of redemption. Burke is the master of characterization, and the men and women who populate his novels are fully formed individuals. Holland, the rural sheriff haunted by his memories of the Korean War, killer "Preacher" Jack Collins who is obsessed by old school religion, and the other characters of the story are not cookie cutter constructs, but deep people with the same contradictory emotions that all of us face daily. Like most Burke novels, the description of the natural environment is key. The landscape and weather of the desert of west Texas is described in such clarity as to almost become a character in the story as well. With his extraordinary eye for detail and thoughtful and sympathetic characterizations, this is crime writing on a sublime level and is very highly recommended.

"Rain Gods" begins with the horrific result of a confrontation between organized crime and small-time crooks, creating big trouble in a little town in Southwest Texas. It is up to aging local Sheriff Hackberry Holland and Deputy Pam Tibbs to protect witnesses and bring the bad guys to justice.

Although Burke is one of my favorite authors, I hadn't read anything outside the Dave Robicheaux series until this book. If you are already a Burke fan, you will love this one. If you've never read a Burke novel, do yourself a favor and get started. James Lee Burke has a pure talent for describing places, feelings, scents, and even the weight of the air which pulls the reader inside the story. He writes of flawed heroes, strong women, and of villains who are convinced they are doing right when they couldn't be more wrong. "Rain Gods" is a great read, and you will remember the characters long after you finish turning the pages.

This book is very well written, very well narrated. Fully fleshed out characters emerge from the south. Author's skill makes best-selling writers like Harlan Corben and T. Jefferson Parker appear as children writing with crayons. You're embarrassed for them. The writing here bares some comparison to Cormac McCarthy's work. If you want to be immersed in a world this is it. It's also a very frustrating book. It's too long. The characters are asked too much of them. And too much is explained. One difference between McCarthy and Burke is McCarthy never explains-character's motivations, etc. Explaining is often talking down to the reader. Burke is so skilled a storyteller I'm surprised he hasn't figured that out. There's way too much philosophizing and moralizing by the characters. That stops the story cold. Still, the best book I've read in ages. Many scenes scream to be filmed. Very memorable stuff. Had the potential to be a real classic.

James Lee Burke rocks. Of the many authors who write a book a year, he is easily one of the best. And truthfully, he is one of the best authors I've ever read. (Plus he's a really nice man, since I met him at a reading once, but I digress.)

Rain Gods introduced a new main character in Burke's books, Texas Sheriff Hackberry Holland, cousin of one of Burke's regular protagonists, Billy Bob Holland. Hack has the unfortunate "luck" to unearth a shallow grave in which nine young Asian women, illegal aliens all, were buried after being brutally murdered. And this discovery sends him on a hunt for the killer, during which he comes into contact with no shortage of lunatic contract killers, strip club owners and people looking to bring others down for money. But that's just the start.

Few authors can describe a setting like Burke can. His words are amazingly picturesque and his action scenes are just fantastic. This book takes a little longer than I would have liked to get to the end, but other than that, this was another fantastic read from one of my favorite authors.

Rural Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland all of a sudden has an awful lot on his plate. From a mass murder to interference from both the FBI and ICE to protecting innocent locals to dealing with re-emergent dreams of his time as a POW in North Korea to handling new and confusing situations with his chief deputy. And, to top it off, he's become the focus of attention of "The Preacher", a professional hit man whose accomplishments are nearly as legendary as his psychosis. This is a fast-paced thriller with enough twists and turns to keep even the most devoted fan of James Lee Burke and Dave Robicheaux well-satisfied with just enough of their native Louisiana thrown in to keep it authentic. You'll not want to put it down before learning what happens with Hack & Pam or Pete Flores & Vikki Gaddis or Nick & Esther Dolan. How do ancient scripture and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band fit perfectly into a plot that's basically about drugs, prostitution and greed? Pick this one up and you'll have trouble putting it back down until you know the answers to these questions.

An enigmatic new protagonist is introduced in this novel of nearly epic proportions. Sheriff Hackberry Holland, cousin of Billy Bob Holland, featured in many of the author's previous novels, confronts his past and present evils in his small Texas border town, accompanied by his deputy, Pam Tibbs, who provides backup. To start with, the brutal murder of nine Thai women obsesses Hackberry until a final confrontation with psychopaths, hired killers and assorted lowlifes.

Holland is a tragic character, haunted by the death of a wife with whom he was very much in love, as well as his time as a POW in a North Korean-Red Chinese prison camp during the Korean "Police Action." His methods are somewhat unconventional, as are his thought processes.

Deeply drawn characters inhabit these pages, with the prose sometimes rambling on so the reader wonders why it is slow going. However, the story draws the reader on and on in an effort to discover what's going to happen. In the end, it comes down to a battle of wills. Recommended.

Burke is always dependable. He tells his stories in his easy, laid-back way, and the reader slowly sinks into his stories as easily as sinking down into a goose down mattress -- effortlessly. I've never experienced reading other books the way I do when reading James Lee Burke's books. The Dave Robicheaux novels are my favorite, but others, like "Rain Gods," are just as enjoyable. Burke is a master at creating intricate characters, who are psychologically complex and true to life. The characters behave in unpredictable ways at times, providing the kind of twists that cause you to think and re-examine how life experiences can shape a person's behavior and personality. Another thing I always enjoy in every one of Burke's books is his dry wit. It comes across in his characters' dialogue and/or thoughts. Burke's ability to describe settings is superb. You are there; you see what the character sees, feel what he feels. I could go on forever, because I am huge James Lee Burke fan.

My husband very much enjoys James Lee Burke novels, and suggested I read one. I can readily see why he likes this author, yet those same reasons could explain why I didn't enjoy "Rain Gods" much. Mr. Burke is wonderfully eloquent with words, but after awhile they just plain got in the way--repetitious flowery land descriptions and such that seemed like unnecessary filler. I found myself skipping pages to get back to the meat of the story. Mr. Burke skillfully lays out character studies too, but it soon turned into boring psychobabble--everyone in the novel (and there are LOTS of characters) gets tediously analyzed. These obstacles weighed down an otherwise enjoyable story; 434 pages could easily have been condensed. Maybe I just picked the wrong Burke novel to read first, or maybe I just like books that get to the point more succinctly.

RAIN GODS by James Lee Burke introduces another flawed, but memorable character in the personage of Hackberry Holland, who is sure to be around in another powerful story of the forces of justice against the advent of evil.
Burke's lyrical prose creates for the barren hills of Texas the same beauty he managed to convey about Louisiana after the advent of Katrina. The vista is stark and clouded with dust, heat, tumbleweeds, and sering change from a landscape that has no softness or forgiveness. Each character reflects the harsh climate that bred them, the are few soft edges except for Vickie Gladdis who sings Carter family spirituals in beer joints.
This is a can't put it down read added to a long line of such volumes of suspense/police procedural/thrillers by this accomplished author. James Lee Burke doesn't let his legions of fans down with a coaster.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.