Rating: 
Summary: Not up to his previous work
Review: Although this book is beautifully written with lyric prose and photographic imagery, the plot left me baffled. Billy Bob and his family were usually so far from the center of action, their presence seemed little more than an artifice to tie subplots and characters together; their actions never justified the perils that engulfed them. The secondary characters were for the most part well drawn and compelling, but even they were not consistently well-motivated. Three stars for style, not for story.
Rating: 
Summary: If for no other reason, the writing
Review: Billy Bob is not the center of the action, but this is still a very good story by one of the best in the business. (Just how many writers live in Missoula?) Spend some quality time in Montana.
Rating: 
Summary: In the blood of vast rightwing conspiracy
Review: i have read and paid opening price for the great majority of mr.
burkes books.i consider myself a true fan;however,if he continues the leftwing drivel and victomhood presented in his recent work,i shall have to put him in the trash heap with poor old willie nelson and the rest of the libs.
Rating: 
Summary: James Lee gets better and better...
Review: I like Burke better and better. This is a fine, poetic book, with remarkably nuanced characters. Burke transcends genre, yet has all the thrills and structure of the best mystery/thriller work.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Billy Bob Holland books
Review: I never thought I'd love a book where the main character is named Billy Bob! The other reviewers have already summed up the plot so I won't rehash that, but let me say this is the best of the Billy Bob Holland books. In fact, I think this is as good as any of the Dave Robicheaux novels (which are my favorites!). The book is beautifully written, with a complex plot and wonderful characters who seem to jump from the pages (or from real life). Mood, dialog, and plot Mr. Burke give it all to us! Also check out "A Tourist in the Yucatan" cool thriller.
Rating:
Summary: The Definitive Burke Novel --- Very Highly Recommended
Review: IN THE MOON OF RED PONIES is a surprise on a number of levels. It has been a few years since James Lee Burke has published a Billy Bob Holland novel; the ending of the last, BITTERROOT, could have been the finish to the series had he so desired, and indeed, that appeared to be the case. But here is IN THE MOON OF RED PONIES, and it is more a continuation of the Holland series more than a marking of time between Dave Robicheaux novels. This is the definitive Holland novel and, with BLACK CHERRY BLUES, the definitive Burke novel.Burke is not afraid to change the landscapes of his characters. He does not do so with gay abandon; the changes are thoughtful and make sense within the context of his work, but are no less unsettling for their occurrence. So it is with IN THE MOON OF RED PONIES, when a newly wedded Billy Bob and Temple Holland find their idyllic relocation to Missoula, Montana abruptly shattered. Wyatt Dixon, the psychotic scourge of the Hollands, was last seen in BITTERROOT headed off to prison for the remainder of his foreseeable existence. Dixon, at the commencement of IN THE MOON OF RED PONIES, is abruptly released back to society and upon Missoula. Dixon immediately seeks out the Hollands, but claims to have cleansed his soul and attained salvation thanks to his work as an itinerant preacher and a daily ingestion of prescribed pharmaceutical cocktails. The fact remains, however, that Dixon is an extremely dangerous man, a loose cannon capable of inflicting permanent damage at a moment's notice. At the same time, Holland is entangled in his defense of Johnny American Horse, an Indian activist who is as often at odds with himself as he is with those who he sees as despoiling the land that he considers his birthright. When a private research laboratory with extensive government contracts is vandalized and burglarized of sensitive computer files, it appears that American Horse is to blame. Holland finds himself drawn into an unexpected, uncertain and uneasy alliance with Dixon, while at cross-purposes with his client, American Horse, whose actions inadvertently draw Holland and his family into danger of losing everything they hold dear. Burke brings all of this together without a single misstep. IN THE MOON OF RED PONIES contains one of Burke's more complex plots, yet he lays it out coherently and so subtly as to leave the reader without a hint about what will happen next. The conclusion of this work also leaves enough loose ends to provide fodder for more Holland novels. Amazingly, Burke continues to surpass his previous, already breathtaking, descriptive accomplishments. It is hard to read this book and simultaneously resist the urge to immediately travel to Montana and see for oneself the scenery that Burke so intoxicatingly describes. Well into his third decade of masterful writing, James Lee Burke has written another masterpiece. IN THE MOON OF RED PONIES will not make you forget Dave Robicheaux, nor should it. It will, however, make you remember Billy Bob Holland and eagerly anticipate the next volume in this series. Very highly recommended. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 Stars...Strengths and Idiosyncracies
Review: James Lee Burke has served up some of the best fiction around in recent years--"Jolie Blon's Bounce" and "Purple Cane Road," for example. He's also had a few misses, by my reckoning. But I can't stop reading his elegant prose and unique blend of dialogue. He never fails to transport me into a world far from my daily routine.
"In the Moon of Red Ponies" succeeds on many levels. Burke takes us deeper into Billy Bob Holland's head, as well as taking us deeper into the thinking of "reformed" criminals, such as Wyatt Dixon. He makes us care about a wayward Indian and his white girlfriend. He brings the startling beauty of Montana into focus.
He also turns political on us. He never brings us to believe fully in Holland's legal career. And, as he did in his last Robicheaux book, he transitions into a new situation for his protaganist without letting us experience the transition. For me, this is always a bit jarring.
Once again, Burke is at the top of his narrative form. And I, personally, don't begrudge him the desire to actually stand for something he believes in through the course of his tale. I don't have to agree, but I do love his moral ponderings. I'm a Burke fan for life--which means I'll love him for his strengths and his idiosyncracies!
Rating:
Summary: An ambitious failure
Review: James Lee Burke is a master of scenic description with a novelist's grasp of the good and bad impulses that motivate people. Having read some of his early fiction about New Orleans detective Dave Robicheaux, I expected In the Moon of Red Ponies to be a satisfying excursion through the world of what might be called "Western Noir," as though this book were the progeny of a mating between "Farewell, My Lovely" and "Lonesome Dove."
I was half-right. The book is "Western Noir," but perhaps its most obvious literary antecedent is John Steinbeck's "East of Eden." Yes, that comparison puts Burke in fast company. On the whole, however, I can't recommend "In the Moon of Red Ponies," and would have to call it an ambitious failure.
The most significant problem with the book is its protagonist, Billy Bob Holland. Burke makes Holland a Texas Ranger turned Montana lawyer. He's as stubborn as you'd expect. He's also unrelentingly morose, which means he suffers in comparison to the other characters in the book. Psychotic rodeo clown Wyatt Dixon, for example, is painted as an extreme villain who had nearly killed Billy Bob's wife in a previous book. But Dixon -- in spite of the chemical cocktail he drinks on court orders to maintain a semblance of moral and social equilibrium -- proves better and wiser company than Holland.
When two men break into Dixon's rural home while he's having breakfast, he surprises them with a cheerful "howdy doodle, boys" before savaging them with the iron skillet in his hand. Holland, by contrast, broods his way through all 336 pages. In mayhem or in calm, he's more stoic and less accessible than his nemesis or "Johnny American Horse," the American Indian activist whose dreams give the book its title.
Midway through the story, Burke's sermons about the evils of corporations and the perfidy of the federal government begin to wear thin. We get them coming and going: from Billy Bob, from Johnny, and from a lonely cop.
The political angle colors an industrial burglary for which American Indian activists are prime suspects, but it struck me as more heavy-handed than it should have been. To push the book even further from literature and into "beach read" territory, agony aunt Billy Bob Holland crosses paths with a Foghorn Leghorn-type of United States Senator and his hot young blue-eyed daughter (the rebel dating "beneath her station").
Rule of thumb: When a cheerfully deranged psychopath and an activist who never says much make a better impression than the protagonist of your novel, a rewrite may be in order.
Rating:
Summary: In the Moon of the Red Ponies
Review: Let me preface this review by saying up front, that I have read all of the Dave Robicheau and Billy Bob Holland novels, plus some of the other books that Mr.
Burke has written. Obviously, I'm a big fan of this talented writer who has given
me many hours of enjoyment. Unfortunately, all I can say about Burke's latest
book is tsk, tsk tsk! What happened? When did you swing so far left of center?
This book is another example of Burke's recent endless rambling without much substance to back it up. I don't know what the cause for this departure from his normally descriptive and interesting prose is, but It seems that Burke is trying to
see if he can start pumping out colorless drivel and still get paid. Shame on him.
I only wish I could get a refund on the book. Since that's impossible, I'll just save money by not buying anymore Burke novels.
Rating: 
Summary: When Bad Things Happen to good people
Review: One of the great things about Burke's Robicheaux series is that Robicheaux has lines -- and both the reader and his enemies are often surprised at where they are. When they get crossed, stuff happens. Robicheaux pays a penalty, physically and emotionally. Billy Bob Holland might seem to be a Robicheaux clone, transplanted to Montana; but Mr. Holland is a civilized man -- a former Texas Ranger and prosecuting attorney -- who has no lines. Threaten his friends, his wife, kill his horse, attempt to kill his wife: his reponse: talk, reason, shift the target to someone else's back. Just another wimp who knows who's doing the damage but has answer in kind. In this novel Holland is a prop, a sideline clown to the real actors: Johnny American Horse and his wife Amber, the reformed sociopath Wyatt Dixon; and the sheriff's deputy Darrel McComb. Plenty of bad guys, but, oh yeah, they all get off. As always, Burke writes exceptionally well, but his writing cannot overcome a weak and boring storyline. Readers wanting a better read should look at the Robicheaux series.
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