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Summary: Gritty, Texas flavor and another winner from JLB!
Review: Like an actor, type-cast and losing steam, Dave Robicheaux's (briefly) on vacation, until the muse is rekindled. Instead we have Billy Bob, a ragged around the edges guy, whose nightmares, are thankfully fewer than our Crescent City pals. Like many, I've read all JLB, in chronological order, and like many, I've rushed sleeplessly through a story, then more leisurely re-read each to savor the fine writing and local flavor. I could eat chicken-fried steak or nopalitas with Billy Bob as well as piping hot beignets and po' boys with Dave. The tarnished hero, tilting at personal windmills is the common thread, here. The story is engrossing and tightly plotted. Here here, James Lee for trying something new. I enjoy Dave Robicheaux but I am willing to try something else-reaching a little outside a tried and true series to devour a new treat. Excellent read and ultimately rewarding on many levels.
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Summary: A Robicheaux by any other name
Review: Substitute tortillas for beignets to provide the local flavor, a haunted ex-Texas Ranger for a haunted ex-cop to play the tough-as-nails arbiter of good and evil, and a precocious little half-Mexican son-of-a-drunken-slut boy for a precocious little Central American orphaned girl to embody all that is innocent, pure, and worth protecting, and you've got a Robicheaux novel transplanted a few miles west. I can imagine that Burke has gotten tired of Robicheaux; all the books he stars in are pretty much the same. But changing the names and locale isn't enough to inject new life into the formula. This is decent airplane reading, but no more than that.
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Summary: Nobody does it better than Burke!
Review: James Lee Burke is perhaps the best writer in his genre working today, and he continues to improve. He combines the ability to craft taut, suspenseful crime thrillers, an eloquent voice, and deep insight into the flaws of human nature. It is our flaws make us human, and our struggles to overcome them that carry the potential for nobility, and Burke's characters strive mightily to get past their own limitations. In Cimmaron Rose, Burke may have crafted his best story to date. The characters are multi-faceted, the dialogue gritty and real, and the sense of place so strong you can smell the hot dust in the air. If you want more than a cardboard-cutout hero who remains untouched by bullets, his own emotion or the suffering of others, bet on Burke.
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Summary: Mr Burke has done it again!
Review: I loved this novel from first to last. I have read all his other work and Cimarron Rose rates right up there with the best of them. I especially enjoyed the setting and atmosphere of the story. The sights and smells of a farm and its livestock as well as the small town in Texas took me back to other times when I lived in a similar place and setting. His characters are real. One recognizes them as the story progresses. Their actions seem inevitable in the end. I can't wait for the next book from this wonderfully gifted author.
Rating: 
Summary: I enjoyed it.
Review: I enjoyed reading Cimmaron Rose. It was good entertainment. I liked it better than the Robicheaux novels, because it was less depressing. I liked the women in it. I have lived in 2 very small Texas towns as a teenager. Kids were not immune from the town's pressure to conform to its moral standards. The rich kids were the children of the town's leaders, and were under more pressure to conform and be "good". When teenagers get drunk,parents seem to always find out. Kids generally got into trouble when there were not enough activities. They "parked". The best looking girls were always in danger of getting pregnant. I think this novel was good fiction and I hope no one assumes that small Texas towns have so many misbehaving children (or corrupt police).
Rating:
Summary: Another great read from James Lee Burke.
Review: Jame Lee Burke is one of the finest story tellers writing today. When one of his new novels comes out I drop everything and read immediately. Cimarron Rose changes locale and heros but the story telling and characters are just as great.
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Summary: Burke rose to the occasion
Review: It was inevitable that Burke was going to have to break out of his Dave Robicheaux series just to remind himself that he is more than a great mystery writer, he's a great author. In `Cimarron Rose' James Lee Burke proves that he is one of the best descriptive writers we have. His ability to set moods and describe characters is tremendous. `Cimarron Rose' creates the anger and injustice that has always been at the center of Burke's books. The grit from his early works such as `Two For Texas' and `To The Bright and Shining Sun' is now combined with his ability to craft a stellar story line. True, he has more than his fair share of ghosts in the closet, but what the heck, that's what fiction is for.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best, but good effort
Review: I respect JLB for trying to develop a new character and place, but I have to say -- having read all of his Robicheaux books - that I was disappointed in this one. Perhaps it will take another novel to perfect the Billy Bob character. I think the plot is rather confusing -- so many eccentric characters, as is JLB's signature -- and not enough focus on Billy Bob's character. JLB seems to dance around Billy Bob's ambivalence toward life, e.g., "I had made a career out of living a half life," which might be a wonderful and powerful statement. This may be because the author hasn't decided who Billy Bob is. The author doesn't know Texas as he knows Louisiana. I am not from Texas, although I have been there, as well as Louisiana. The moody, lyric writing about the landscape of Louisiana in the Robicheaux books rings true, delicious and delirious, whereas the Texas scenes seem to be overwritten, as if the author is trying too hard. That may be part of the problem with this novel in general. I think JLB, nonetheless, is a top-notch literary writer in the mystery genre. He is one of the best. I look forward to his next book.
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Summary: The Dusty Rose of Texas
Review: You can see, smell and feel that small Texan town and the people who pervert it. The characters are clearly drawn, and even the "good" guy is human and fits into the landscape. Pity freckle-faced Mary Beth left the story (but she would not have fitted into the sequel). Read it for fun, don't nitpick.
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Summary: A Rose by any other name -- NOT in this case
Review: James Lee Burke has quite a following and I'm not quite sure why. First off, the title has nothing to do with this book besides being the name of Billy Bob Holland's granddaddy's significant other. Maybe I missed something, but this book is about saving his estranged son. While Billy Bob's reflection into the past shows insight into his character, the plot is convoluted and found myself at the end wondering how he ever figured out who did it. Of course it's one of those novels where key information is with held until the end but Billy Bob knew it all along. I think I'll pass on the next one.
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