Rating: 
Summary: Uniquely Compelling
Review: I'm a long-time fan of Burke's Dave Robicheaux series, but a newcomer to the Billy Bob Holland series. Am I impressed? You betcha.Billy Bob Holland is a former Texas Ranger now practicing law, and not all that successfully, in Deaf Smith, Texas, who heads out to Big Sky Country for some fishing with his buddy, Doc Voss. Doc has run afoul of a mining company over environmental issues, to say nothing of the local Mob and some mondo bizarro Hollywood types. When Doc's teenage daughter is attacked and one of the biker suspects is later murdered, Doc is arrested. Though Billy Bob is out of his bailiwick and perhaps out of his depth, he accedes to Doc's plea for legal representation and the chase is on. More bodies pile up even as the list of possible suspects grows by leaps and bounds. This is a wonderfully literary, intricately layered mystery. Robicheaux fans who haven't yet discovered the Western face of James Lee Burke, believe me, you're in for a treat.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful paragraphs......ugly story
Review: James Lee Burke can write with a beauty seldom matched. Many of his past books are among my favorites. This one is filled with some incredibly beautiful paragraphs but the story is strangely lacking in feeling or believability. Terrible things happen one after another and everyone just seems to sit around, eat, fish and make love then wait for the next terrible thing to happen. Burke is a wonderful, warm human being in person and it generally shows through in his books even amid the horror that happens in his worlds. This book has no warmth, no tenderness no James Lee.
Rating:
Summary: Yeah, but what about the dog?
Review: More of the same: stilted dialogue and officers of the court (Billy Bob and Dave being indistinguishable in my eyes,although to be fair, Billy Bob isn't nearly as self-itying as Dave. I'm over James Lee Burke, after all these years...sigh...I know he'll be crushed.
Rating:
Summary: Read him once...and you're addicted
Review: James Lee Burke ... I'd read him anywhere, any time, any place, any whatever. The man can write with a force which is breath-taking. His books delve into the character of men in stressful circumstances...men working within a code of honor that is a throwback to other times. His characters live and speak with the pain of ghosts...convincingly. These men carry their pasts alongside their futures within the despair of realism. They face life's travails with a stoicism almost puritanical yet still find the joy in living. Once you've read "In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead," you will be forever addicted to Mr. Burke and can only anticipate the next gem, and this is it.
Rating: 
Summary: Burke Fans May Find This One Tiresome
Review: Let's get this out of the way first: I love Burke's writing. I've read ALL of his books, even the early ones, before Dave. He is a powerful, talented, engaging writer. I drip with sweat when I read his descriptions of the bayou; I soar with him when he describes a sunset; I reel with pain when he writes of the sudden violence his characters so often encounter. He is a gritty prose poet. Maybe I'm just "Burked-out" right now. I got this way with Robert Ludlum, John LeCarre, and Stephen King. Maybe a little time away ... now where'd I put that next Elvis Cole book ( by Robert Crais). BOTTOM LINE: If you haven't read Burke, DO IT. If you have, you may find this one just a little too formulaic. I loved and admired "Purple Cane Road"; this one was just a bit too much, somehow.
Rating:
Summary: Reading Burke Is A Love Affair
Review: I see no reason why James Lee Burke cannot duplicate the success he garnered when Cimarron Rose won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1997. In Bitterroot, Billy Bob Holland is again brought to life in this modern day Western, set in rugged Montana where Burke paints beautiful and tragic portraits of both the land and the characters. In his typical creative style, Burke sets up conflict, allowing the reader inside the heads of Billy Bob and his friend Tobin "Doc" Voss. There we learn about victim pain, rage and vengeance. The pain comes not only from the past but from the actions of a collection of vile villains resurrected from the annals of the Old West. We learn however, that Billy Bob has a mean streak of his own, matching anything prison parolee Wyatt Dixon or the other "sawed-off little pissants" can dish out. In scene after scene, written in colorful, descriptive prose, Burke creates dangerous situations that make the reader want to call out in warning to the potential victim. He was even able to skillfully include his own vision of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. With the deftness of a seasoned psychoanalyst, Burke re-created the arrogance of Custer and the horror of battle and its aftermath and used them to describe the haunting memories of Sue Lynn Big Medicine, a key character in the multi-layered plot. Billy Bob has his own haunting memories brought to consciousness with his visions of L.Q. Navarro, the Texas Ranger friend he accidently shot and killed. There are so many examples of James Lee Burke's literary gifts found in Bitterroot that it becomes an exercise in futility to try and describe them all. My hope is to whet the appetite of readers searching for excellence. To borrow from John Steinbeck when he described Montana as a "love affair", reading James Lee Burke has become a love affair as well.
Rating:
Summary: Enough is enough
Review: I always look forward to Burke's work. But it has finally grown wearisome. And more predictable and violent. Turn to any page of this novel and you can find some depravity. It is almost cartoonish. And where is the great writing that has characterized Burke's work in the past? This book is essentially a parody of his past work. He is a wonderful writer whose first Holland novel seemed to offer wonderful promise. It's a promise not fulfilled.
Rating:
Summary: Bitterroot Is Sweet
Review: Burke just gets better at his craft, and Patten is the best at his. Another great combination that gave me all I could want from a listen. The miles floated away. Burke's similes and metaphores glide the listener sublimely along ("raindrops making stars in the dust"). A word about Will Patten as reader. Ever heard those pathetic reads from an author? Well, one listen to Patten and those guys will thankfully commit the author's final vain/glory act of suicide. What a hard task this must be, but with prose given him by Burke we get the benefit.
Rating:
Summary: SPLENDID!!!
Review: Bitterroot is a dark, violent, brooding, magnificent book. Burke is in top form. I just wish he'd write two books a year.
Rating:
Summary: very well done
Review: Enjoyed thoroughly the descriptiveness and excitement. I especially liked the character development within the book. Definitely a winner.
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