Heartwood

Rating:
Summary: A Fine New Series
Review: James Lee Burke looks like a cowboy or a roustabout, but writes like a poet. His love of place is evident in his novels, whether they are set in New Iberia, Lousiana, or Deaf Smith, Texas. He also displays his affection for life's underdogs, and returns again and again to the theme of the abuse of power by the priviliged few.

In this book, "Heartwood" refers to a type of tree whose core increases in strength as the tree grows, until it is so strong that saws cannot cut through it. Burke's protagonist, Billy Bob Holland, is on his way to becoming a man with a center of heartwood. He has a tragedy in his past, an illegitimate son who is also on his way to becoming a fine and courageous man, and an idealized love for the town beauty, Peggy Jean Dietrich. Peggy Jean is married to the rich, powerful and ruthless, Earl Dietrich. When Earl sets up the naive dreamer, Wilbur Pickett, as the thief who stole a fortune in bearer bonds from his home, Billy Bob takes his case. That's when all hell breaks loose in Deaf Smith, Texas!

The plot is densly populated and complex. Burke has always infused his tales with a lot of mysticism, and this one is no exception. Wilbur's blind wife is gifted with second sight, and Billy Bob has visions of the man who was his partner when both were Texas Rangers. Burke writes of gangbangers, drug dealers, crooked cops and the overpriviliged sons and daughters of the wealthy. This book is beautifully written and peopled with fully realized characters, admirable, evil, and all the degrees in between. I have not yet read "Cimmaron Rose", but I am looking forward to another visit to Deaf Smith, Texas.

Rating:
Summary: Heartwood, A Review
Review: Read the first book in the series first or you will find yourself slightly distracted, not because this book does not stand strongly on its own, but because the passing references to events of the first book eventually make you want to run out and read it. Burke does not reintroduce fascinating characters so much as he picks up with them where he left off, even if they happen to be ghosts. Burke is one of those authors who are able to create characters and stories with layers of doubt, ambiguity, and uncertainty about who and what is ultimately right and wrong, and then keep you reading to find out.

The center of the moral conflict in this novel starts when the richest man in the town of Deaf Smith, Earl Deitrich accuses Wilbur Pickett of stealing. Wilbur is one of the town's more colorful characters, a modern day cowboy that could stay on the meanest bull on the rodeo circuit seven seconds, but according to his momma "couldn't grow germs on the bottom of his shoe." Ex-Texas Ranger and lawyer Billy Bob Holland is drawn in partly because he sense injustice in the way Earl Deitrich flexes his muscles to both show who owns the town of Deaf Smith and who owns Peggy Jean, an icon from Billy Bob's early manhood.

Burke's magic is bring people and places to life with equal clarity. His clear readable prose hides the depths of the waters he charts in his good guy/bad guy novels. Warning, once you read one Burke novel, you will be a fan.

Rating:
Summary: Heartwood, A Review
Review: Read the first book in the series first or you will find yourself slightly distracted, not because this book does not stand strongly on its own, but because the passing references to events of the first book eventually make you want to run out and read it. Burke does not reintroduce fascinating characters so much as he picks up with them where he left off, even if they happen to be ghosts. Burke is one of those authors who are able to create characters and stories with layers of doubt, ambiguity, and uncertainty about who and what is ultimately right and wrong, and then keep you reading to find out.

The center of the moral conflict in this novel starts when the richest man in the town of Deaf Smith, Earl Deitrich accuses Wilbur Pickett of stealing. Wilbur is one of the town's more colorful characters, a modern day cowboy that could stay on the meanest bull on the rodeo circuit seven seconds, but according to his momma "couldn't grow germs on the bottom of his shoe." Ex-Texas Ranger and lawyer Billy Bob Holland is drawn in partly because he sense injustice in the way Earl Deitrich flexes his muscles to both show who owns the town of Deaf Smith and who owns Peggy Jean, an icon from Billy Bob's early manhood.

Burke's magic is bring people and places to life with equal clarity. His clear readable prose hides the depths of the waters he charts in his good guy/bad guy novels. Warning, once you read one Burke novel, you will be a fan.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book by the best writer of this genre today.
Review: Somehow, and it's largely through his terrific prose style, Burke manages to write "mysteries" that transcend the genre and even get the reader to accept a nonrational aspect to books that depend on reason. As everyone has noted, this is the second of his "Texas" books, Burke having left, at least temporarily, Dave Robichaux and Louisiana behind. Protagonist Billy Bob Holland, exRanger and present attorney in a wonderfully crafted small Texas town is, typical Burke hero, caught in a present but captive of his past, in this book an early (VERY early)love for a woman now married to the rich man of the town, who is also a scoundral of the worst kind. But Holland is also captive of his more recent past, in which he feels responsible for the death of his best friend. The plot unfolds against a backdrop of those feelings, the involvement of Billy Bob's own son, as well as others of that generation, wonderful odd characters pure Texan in nature, and requisite death and danger.

But the aspect of the book which impresses me most is that Burke manages to get the reader not merely to accept but to participate in conversations that Holland holds with his dead friend. It's a gambit that could fail utterly, become silly and sentimental. But Burke pulls it off, and the result is much the same as when he used this quite effectively in Into the Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead, to me the best of the Robichaux books. This is a fine book, the best in this genre I've read in a very long time.

Rating:
Summary: Another beautifully written novel by JLB.
Review: The second Billy Bob Holland story is a wonderful read. This is a series to look forward to.

It is a complex plot, fully resolved containing the atmospheric writing that JLB does as well as any writer. You are transported to Deaf Smith and are made to feel a part of the area.

It is peopled with flawed characters, both good and bad. No one is perfect, and you are certain you've known or observed most of them. The players are a rogue's gallery, many of whom are lovable...some forgivable, others unrepentant and unsympathetic. A few have redeeming characteristics beneath a questionable exterior. It's a remarkable cast.

It is always a treat to read JLB. He never fails to entertain and brings great emotion to his words. It's quite delightful that he is giving readers two series to savor. Don't miss "Heartwood."

Rating:
Summary: Dave Or Billy Bob: Take Your Pick
Review: 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.