Bitterroot

Rating:
Summary: Wondrous landscape,....terrifying tale..........
Review: James Lee Burke brings an amazing cast of characters together in a story about good and evil. Bitterroot takes place in the beautiful lands of Montana. Doc Voss, a friend of Billy Bob Holland's asks for some assistance in his dealings with a mining company. What happens is a lot more involved than a little political action. What starts out as one concern quickly escalates into a situation that teeters on the brink of death and disaster In this story, the "bad guys" are truly evil and their interests become very personal when they target the family and friends of both Doc Voss and Billy Bob Holland. James Lee Burke brings his realistic and thoughtful style of dialogue as well as his spellbinding descriptions of the land into this gripping novel, creating a wondrous landscape as a backdrop to a terrifying tale.

Rating:
Summary: same old same old
Review: Robicheaux/Holland are now the same person. The stock characters are all the same. The sheriff is a decent and kind man wishing all the various criminals would go back home and leave him alone while also being annoyed by the psychopathic level of violence perpetrated by the "good guys". There is a stock Mafia character that served in Nam and is only sort-of evil. There is the one super-villain that is nearly unstoppable. The "rich and famous" of course have various types of evil lurking in the background.
All the characters seem utterly unable to speak to each other normally or carry on a decent conversation. For example, when the local sheriff warns Holland that a bad guy is after him, Holland just gets annoyed with the Sheriff. Holland also can't see any reason why his son shouldn't camp in the yard while Holland and Company are in the middle of being beset by murderous psycho cases. The book is good if you have never read Burke, but it is the SAME good as his last few other books.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: This is a first read of James Lee Burke for me in Bitterroot! It is a very powerful book told mostly in the 1st person. The characters were well drawn, I could envision them all. His bad guys were never to be forgotten and you want them gone!!!

I will certainly read some more of this books. His English is intelligent and usage is even and succinct. Wonderful read. This book makes you think! I put him right up there with my favorite authors: Dennis Lehane and Robert Crais.