Bitterroot

Rating:
Summary: Billy Bob in Montana
Review: Billy Bob gets a call for help from old pal Doc Voss who has relocated in Montana; I would say "remote" except the farm is only about a half hour from Missoula. In Montana terms, that is almost urban. Billy Bob closes up shop in Deaf Smith,TX for a three-month visit to the Big Sky Country. He does not explain how an attorney with an active practice can do this, but ours is not to question.

It seems Doc has offended every segment of society in his new home: corporate types, bikers, militia leaders, mobsters and the local law. Billy's arrival is the catalyst that sets off brutal rape, murder and mayhem. There are so many differing situations and motivations; it is difficult to keep score. As usual, Mr. Burke is lyrical in his scenic descriptions, though in this particular book, I could have done with a little less. There is hardly anyone to like or root for; Billy Bob is carrying such a load of anger and angst, it is hard to accept and sometimes even sympathize with many of his actions. But there is no one like James Lee Burke to capture an emotion and crystallize it:

"I knelt in the back of the church and prayed to be relieved of the anger that still throbbed in my wrists and left my mouth as dry as paper and my thoughts like shards of glass."

There are many characters and Burke makes each one memorable, if not likable. The only member of the cast that had my wholehearted support was the local sheriff who retained his sanity throughout.

I was drawn to buy "Bitterroot" because I enjoyed Billy Bob's first outing in "Cimarron Rose." This book does not have the centeredness of the latter. There are too many angry people.

Rating:
Summary: Battle against evil in beautiful Montana
Review: Billy Bob Holland has his own troubles. He's torn up over accidentally killing his Texas Ranger partner and talks to his partner's ghost. When his friend Doc Voss asks him to come to Montana to help out, though, Billy Bob can't say no.

Voss has taken unpopular stands against mining the mountains and has earned himself some enemies--enemies dangerous enough to rape his young daughter. When Voss is accused of murdering the lead suspect in the rape case, Billy Bob (a lawyer) takes on the case. Yet he knows that Voss could have killed--he, like Billy Bob, is definitely morally complex.

Not morally complex at all are the band of sociopathic suspects that Billy Bob faces. These include white supremicists, bikers, and old-fashioned Mafia types as well as an emotionally disturbed woman Billy Bob finds himself attracted to.

In BITTERROOT, the battle is not between good and evil so much as between black and gray. Only those who adopt something of the evil they face can beat it, yet who do they become in the battle.

Author James Lee Burke grabs you and drags you through the mud in this powerful novel. I didn't like everything I read, but I couldn't put it down. At the end, I felt like I'd been taken through a beating myself.

BooksForABuck

Rating:
Summary: A thrill a minute
Review: Billy Bob Holland lives with the ghost of his best friend, L.Q. Navarro, the man he accidentally killed when they chased after drug smugglers in Mexico. Billy Bob actually sees and talks with Navarro, but cannot form any relationships with living people because of his all-consuming guilt.

When his friend Doc Voss invites Billy Bob to visit him in Bitterroot Valley, Montana, he closes his law practice and goes. Upon arriving, he finds Doc at war with a local militia, bikers, and a mining company destroying the ecology. When Doc's daughter is raped, her assailants turn up dead shortly afterward. The police arrest Doc, who is defended by Billy Bob. However, the lawyer has his own problems caused by a sociopath blaming Billy Bob for the death of his sister.

BITTERROOT is one novel in which the thrills never stop coming and every scene is loaded with action. The talented James Lee Burke gets readers interested even in his most vile character as well as the anti-hero Billy Bob, a believer of justice and not necessarily the law. Billy Bob is the focus of the tale, a flawed individual taking responsibility for something he will regret until he dies.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Something evil this way comes...
Review: Bitteroot by talented storyteller James Lee Burke is an intriguing story that will have Burke's loyal following swiftly turning the pages as former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland returns for another thrilling outing in 'big sky county.' A book not to be missed!

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: 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: Misfits Portrayed in Elegant Prose
Review: Burke's eye sees details few of us would ever notice, and he finds words that will make you feel that you're looking at a photograph of what he just saw. His characters come to life shaped by descriptions that are both sharp and flowing and always on the mark. I still like the Dave Robicheaux stories better (not wild about Billy Bob Holland in "Heartwood"), but "Bitterroot" proves that Burke can build a winner around either character.

Burke develops more than a dozen characters well enough for his audience to feel what each is about. While the characters themselves seem real, their collective baggage and violent tendencies do take the story down a peg. Think about how the following characters might interact in a story, then discover how Burke weaves their lives together when they converge in the Bitterroot Valley:

Billy Bob Holland, lawyer from Deaf Smith, Texas now in Montana to help his friend Doc Voss. Billy Bob frequently talks with the ghost of L.Q. Navarro, the partner he accidentally killed when they were both Texas Rangers, L.Q.'s voice often warning him of peril ahead. Son Lucas and investigator Temple Carroll from prior novels show up about halfway through this one.

Doc Voss, a quiet, brainy boy from Deaf Smith who was a Navy Seal in Nam and is now a single father in Montana with strong environmentalist beliefs.

Lamar Ellison, an ex-con scum of the earth biker who's working undercover for the ATF.

Wyatt Dixon, a psycho rodeo clown just out of prison who's not afraid of anything.

Terry Witherspoon, a kid from NC who's great with a knife, was Wyatt's punk in prison and is still under his spell.

Carl Hinkle, a white supremacist who supports and manipulates Ellison, Dixon and the like.

Some ATF and FBI types looking for a group behind Oklahoma City whom they will nail at any cost.

Sue Lynn Big Medicine, the Indian girl with a dark past who is being squeezed by the ATF on an overblown robbery charge.

Cleo Lonnigan, cold hearted sharpshooting widow of an investment guy who was working with the mob and got himself and their son killed.

Nicki Molinari, the Arizona mob guy with a branch in Montana who loves baseball and peppers his victims with balls from his pitching machine rather than break their legs with a bat.

Xavier Girard the big time author writing a book about Nicki; Girard's actress wife Holly who grew up with Nicki and is still openly intimate with him.

Finally Sheriff J.T. Cain, who is often hostile to Billy Bob and Doc but may be the only other fair-minded man in the Valley.

Net, net - I love the way Burke writes and the characters he creates, but there's just a little too much evil and depravity in the plot to give it 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Misfits Portrayed in Elegant Prose
Review: Burke's eye sees details few of us would ever notice, and he finds words that will make you feel that you're looking at a photograph of what he just saw. His characters come to life shaped by descriptions that are both sharp and flowing and always on the mark. I still like the Dave Robicheaux stories better (not wild about Billy Bob Holland in "Heartwood"), but "Bitterroot" proves that Burke can build a winner around either character.

Burke develops more than a dozen characters well enough for his audience to feel what each is about. While the characters themselves seem real, their collective baggage and violent tendencies do take the story down a peg. Think about how the following characters might interact in a story, then discover how Burke weaves their lives together when they converge in the Bitterroot Valley:

Billy Bob Holland, lawyer from Deaf Smith, Texas now in Montana to help his friend Doc Voss. Billy Bob frequently talks with the ghost of L.Q. Navarro, the partner he accidentally killed when they were both Texas Rangers, L.Q.'s voice often warning him of peril ahead. Son Lucas and investigator Temple Carroll from prior novels show up about halfway through this one.

Doc Voss, a quiet, brainy boy from Deaf Smith who was a Navy Seal in Nam and is now a single father in Montana with strong environmentalist beliefs.

Lamar Ellison, an ex-con scum of the earth biker who's working undercover for the ATF.

Wyatt Dixon, a psycho rodeo clown just out of prison who's not afraid of anything.

Terry Witherspoon, a kid from NC who's great with a knife, was Wyatt's punk in prison and is still under his spell.

Carl Hinkle, a white supremacist who supports and manipulates Ellison, Dixon and the like.

Some ATF and FBI types looking for a group behind Oklahoma City whom they will nail at any cost.

Sue Lynn Big Medicine, the Indian girl with a dark past who is being squeezed by the ATF on an overblown robbery charge.

Cleo Lonnigan, cold hearted sharpshooting widow of an investment guy who was working with the mob and got himself and their son killed.

Nicki Molinari, the Arizona mob guy with a branch in Montana who loves baseball and peppers his victims with balls from his pitching machine rather than break their legs with a bat.

Xavier Girard the big time author writing a book about Nicki; Girard's actress wife Holly who grew up with Nicki and is still openly intimate with him.

Finally Sheriff J.T. Cain, who is often hostile to Billy Bob and Doc but may be the only other fair-minded man in the Valley.

Net, net - I love the way Burke writes and the characters he creates, but there's just a little too much evil and depravity in the plot to give it 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: very well done
Review: Enjoyed thoroughly the descriptiveness and excitement. I especially liked the character development within the book. Definitely a winner.

Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 Stars...A Moral Anchor
Review: For those of us weaned on the evocative scenes of Dave Robicheaux's New Orleans, it's taken time to warm to Montana's rugged beauty and Billy Bob's character. I've refused to give up on this fictional relationship, and the rewards are beginning to become apparent.

No, I don't claim that "Bitterroot" is the best Burke book out there. Personally, I'm a huge fan of "Jolie Blon's Bounce," "Purple Cane Road," and "In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead." I must admit, however, that the setting of Montana is beginning to etch itself into my mind. Or rather, Burke is beginning to etch it there.

With careful descriptions and poetic phrases, James Lee Burke has spun his tale and added depth to his recurring characters. Although evil and violence abound, he provides a moral anchor in his narrative. He portrays racism, elitism, ignorance, and sadism, yet assures us that the world will not go to the dogs without a good fight from his heros and heroines--no matter how flawed they might be. With this in mind, I plunked down my money today for the latest Billy Bob saga, "In the Moon of Red Ponies."