Product Description

From The New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke comes five thrilling audiobooks in one package, all read by the phenomenal Will Patton.

A STAINED WHITE RADIANCE

The death of a cop draws police detective Dave Robicheaux into a dangerous web of madness, murder and incest. But Robicheaux has devils of his own. And they've come out of hiding to destroy the tormented investigator -- and the people he holds most dear.

IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD

Hollywood has sent its emissaries to New Iberia Parish to film a Civil War epic in the steaming mists of the Louisiana bayou -- reawakening the ghosts of a past best left undisturbed. The restless specters wait in the shadows for cajun cop Dave Robicheaux -- as he hunts a serial butcher who is preying on young.

DIXIE CITY JAM

Detective Dave Robicheaux finds himself and his family at serious risk when he is stalked for his knowledge of a watery burial ground by a mysterious man named Will Buchalter -- a man who believes that the Holocaust was one big hoax.

BURNING ANGEL

Dave Robicheaux becomes entangled in the affairs of the Fontenot family, descendants of sharecroppers whose matriarch helped raise Dave as a child. They are in danger of losing the land they've lived on for more than a century. As Dave tries to discover who wants the land so badly, he finds himself in increasing peril from the local mobsters and a hired assassin.

CADILLAC JUKEBOX

When former Klansman Aaron Crown is finally imprisoned for a decades-old murder, it is to Detective Dave Robicheaux that he proclaims his innocence loudest. Crown seems to be a lightning rod for every kind of trouble that the state of Louisiana can unearth. But it's not until a figure from Dave's past is elected governor that his involvement with Aaron Crown becomes deadly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great item!
I love Will Patton's performance on this audio book!He does not just read the book; he paints a rich verbal picture with sound, rhythm, tone, and cadence of his voice.The combination of James Lee Burke's writing and Will Patton's voice is a thing of beauty and a great item to take on a road trip.

Booknerd
I was a bit annoyed that this collection was abridged, however I bought it because of Will Patton and I was NOT disappointed!

Awesome world of James Lee Burke
GREAT selection of early Burke/Robicheaux(character) books!!The price, considering there are 5 in the collection cannot be beat!!!!

great deal
I think this was an unbelievable deal. Most books on CD are around $20+ for one, this included 5 great stories.

sure beats the car radio!
I enjoy the tales, and Will Patton's voices...+)... I do have to back up the cd now and then, when traffic, or daydreaming make me lose track of the plotline, but a well read story is a good use of car time! ... Read more

Product Description
DIXIE CITY JAM When a Nazi submarine is discovered lying in sixty feet of water off the Louisiana coast, some troubled ghosts are ready to be released.A local businessman is offering Detective Dave Robicheaux big money to bring the wreck to the surface, but he is not the only one after the submarine and its cargo. A new spirit of hatred is abroad, and its embodiment is stalking Robicheaux's wife...BURNING ANGEL When Sonny Marsallas entrusts a mysterious notebook to Dave Robicheaux, a series of violent events is set in train.What did Sonny's girlfriend know that resulted in her murder?What are Sonny's connections with the Mob that finally lead them to send a hitman after Dave? BURNING ANGEL outstrips its crime thriller label to produce a rich, sardonic and terrifying portrayal of contemporary America. PURPLE CANE ROAD Detective Dave Robicheaux embarks on a painful journey to a murky past, when he his told that his mother, Mae, was a hooker and ended her life drowned in a puddle by two cops working for the Mob.Dave learns to confront and accept his mistakes as he tries to track down his mother's killers and bring them to justice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not a Bad Thriller Writer....But
Burke is a fairly good yarn spinner with a couple of major weaknesses that make his novels rather tiresome after you get into the Dave Robicheaux series.

1.Robicheaux's endless and repetitive dream sequences and conversations with the dead that the author indulges in at some point in almost every chapter of every book.It becomes even more of a tired cliche than Lee Child's "Reacher said nothing."

2.Burke is obviously one of those who will never forgive Ronald Reagan for winning the Cold War.By the time he brings his characters and stories into the 1990's he has to labor pondorously and hard to fit his archaic 1980 world view into the context of his novels current events.

As far as it goes
This book included three novels I had never read.As far as I have read so far, it was a great investment even if only the one novel I am reading is all it contained. ... Read more

Product Description
Mysteries and detective stories are among the most popular of books but the writers of such genre fiction suffer from a perception that their work is to be taken less seriously than so-called literary fiction. The novels of James Lee Burke, one of the most distinguished writers of crime novels, challenge that notion, as do the twelve essays in this collection. This work examines Burke as a writer who has expanded the mystery-detective genre with an astonishing diversity of themes, imaginative language and descriptions, and unforgettable characters. He seems unbounded by limitations of genre. An interview with Burke is included. ... Read more

Product Description
IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD - When a movie crew arrives in New Iberia to shoot a Civil War epic, Robicheaux finds that it’s not just the bayou’s living inhabitants that are being disturbed.As he hunts a sadistic killer targeting young prostitutes, evidence of an earlier murder is brought to light.The skeletal remains are the last echo of a crime Robicheaux himself witnessed as a college freshman almost forty years ago. "An hypnotic thriller … everything that a good mystery is supposed to be"Washington PostCADILLAC JUKEBOX - The call from ex-Klansman Aaron Crown couldn’t have been more unexpected.Sentenced to 40 years for the decades-old shooting of a civil rights activist, Crown should have been out of Louisiana, for good.Election candidate Buford LaRose wants Robicheaux to ignore Aaron’s calls, promising him a lucrative job when Buford makes governor.Worse still, Buford’s wife Karyn seems unhealthily keen to get close to Robicheaux – just like old times …The LaRoses, each for their own reasons, want Crown’s case buried. "The best of American writing, never mind just American crime writing"The TimesSUNSET LIMITED - Jack Flynn died on a Klan cross years ago, but Robicheaux has never forgotten it.Nor have Flynn’s two children.When they get mixed up with the case of hustler Cool Breeze Broussard, Robicheaux wonders why?Something ties Breeze to the Flynns and all three of them to plantation magnate Archer Terrebonne.Something long past is poisoning all their lives, bringing death in its wake. "Every new Robicheaux novel makes me want to start reading the whole series all over again"Time Out ... Read more

Product Description

In The Knowledge Web, James Burke, the bestselling author and host of television's Connections series, takes us on a fascinating tour through the interlocking threads of knowledge running through Western history. Displaying mesmerizing flights of fancy, he shows how seemingly unrelated ideas and innovations bounce off one another, spinning a vast, interactive web on which everything is connected to everything else: Carmen leads to the theory of relativity, champagne bottling links to wallpaper design, Joan of Arc connects through vaudeville to Buffalo Bill.

Illustrating his open, connective theme in the form of a journey across a web, Burke breaks down complex concepts, offering information in a manner accessible to anybody -- high school graduates and Ph.D. holders alike. The journey touches almost two hundred interlinked points in the history of knowledge, ultimately ending where it begins.

At once amusing and instructing, The Knowledge Web heightens our awareness of our interdependence -- with one another and with the past. Only by understanding the interrelated nature of the modern world can we hope to identify complex patterns of change and direct the process of innovation to the common good.Amazon.com Review
How is vivisection related to Stonehenge? It might take a few leaps of history, but you'll find the answer in The Knowledge Web, another of science historian James Burke's compelling collections of circular narratives that have informed and inspired astute readers for years. Best known for his outstanding documentary series Connections, Burke has a genius for unraveling complex threads of history and sharing with us the remarkable coincidences and contingencies that built our modern world. In The Knowledge Web he shows us how the rapid flow of information engenders greater possibilities for the kinds of chance meetings that drive progress.

Burke uses a very neat trick that both demonstrates the potential of hypertext and makes a more pleasurable reading experience. When mentioning certain key figures or events, he includes a footnote that points the reader not to the bottom of the page or the end of the book, but to another point in the text where the figure or event comes into play again. Many other writers would find this impossible to pull off, but Burke's style is perfectly suited for these jumps; if anything, his major theme of interconnectedness is driven home in a fresh new way. Whether or not you're a fan of Burke's unique style, The Knowledge Web will delight and amaze you with its visions of the delicacy of history and the many paths the past must take to reach the future. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

My brain now has whiplash
There is no narrative purpose to this book.My mind was given its most powerful jolt of whiplash starting with chapter 4.This chapter starts with an explanation of black holes, THREE pages later we have a short history of the Pony Express, THREE pages later we deal with Joan of Arc.By the way, chapter 5 starts with instant coffee.I now have a headache.

Good if you can't get enough of Burke
I admit it, I am a big fan of James Burke.Ever since the fascinating BBC series, "Connections" I have been an avid reader of history.Most interesting to me is Burke's over-arching thesis regarding the role of technology in shaping history.I have gladly added this to my collection of Burke's works.However, I found the method of presentation, which amounts to an attempt to turn the work into a sort of hypertext, gimmicky and distracting.I gave up on trying to dart back and forth among the various interconnected sections.Perhaps, in a few years, I may find this device useful for some purpose, but I cannot see how it is any sort of advance over a standard index.

Nonetheless, I recommend this to anyone with an interest in history and technology.Burke simplifies and makes intriguing the progress of human technology, and its role in the progress of humanity itself, in a way that is fun and engaging to read.This book made me go back and re-read old history texts with a new outlook.As far as Burke's books go, however, I recommend _The Pinball Effect_ more highly as the device does not distract as much from the content.I eagerly await his next television series.I do so hope one is in the offing.hint, hint, Professor Burke!

Enjoyable!
Very 'browsable' little book. If you like Burke's TV programmes (noticethe hoity toity British spelling) and don't mind his hurried non-sequiturtransitions form one topic to another- then you'll enjoy this book. TheKnowledge Web is so jam-packed with facts and anecdotes that you'll be ableto annoy friends and dinner companions for fortnights (I can't stop) tocome with little gems of knowledge.

Misleading Title, Blurb, Introduction, Etc.
This book was a sorry disappointment.I will preface my further remarks by saying that I am a huge fan of Mr. Burke's television productions, and (ironically) I actually enjoyed the book a great deal, but for mostly allthe wrong reasons.

The fact is that the book does not deal with what isalluded to by the title, the jacket copy, or the author's introduction. Unfortunately, those were the only elements that I scanned when lookingover the book in the store (and then buying it online ;-).The markettingblurb on the cover says "From electronic agents to Stonehenge and back...". Well, there was a very small bit about electronic agents and believe it ornot, Stonehenge wasn't mentioned once throughout the entire book.Mr.Burke was not well served here by his market driven editors.

The onlyreason I still enjoyed the book is that I love both history and technology,and that's the terrain through which this addled account rambles. Regrettably, this book was more like an extended outpouring of jumbled,loosely 'connected' trivia from a hyper-loquacious Alzheimer's patient,than anything truly salient or purposeful.There was absolutely nodiscernible point to the narrative.The author's attempt to put the workinto some kind of prosaic hyperlink format was a bit embarrassing as well. Lastly, the book ended abruptly and arbitrarily, almost as if Mr. Burke'snurse had come in and said "That's all for today.It's time for Mr.Burke's evening feeding.Maybe you can come back tomorrow."I hope not.

Stimulates Your Mind
This is almost like a technological "Ulysses" by James Joyce.The author almost does a stream of consciousness, and does repeat himself at least three or four times through the 262 page book. It is a journeythat reminds me of Andy Grove's book on change, as you see how inventions,technology, greatly influenced history and the advance of our knowledge. Most importantly, it shows how new things can make people a lot of money,those that don't change, lose a lot of money, and is fascinating---althoughthe connections of events wanders from century to century and subject tosubject.I thought this was not only fascinating, but there are manylevels in the writing just as there are in James Joyce's fiction. This bookis pure fact, however. ... Read more

Product Description
'A highly-spiced gumbo of vice, violence, voodoo' Observer A routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong, leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded and his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge, Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans, a volatile world of Mafia drug-running and Cajun voodoo magic. He becomes irrevocably snarled in the nightmarish web surrounding Mafia don Tony Cardo and must put himself against his own worst fears in order to survive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"I figure the guy sitting in the chair knew the rules...snuff someone in Louisiana, you get some serious electroshock therapy."
Published in 1990 as the fourth in the seventeen-novel Dave Robicheaux series, A Morning for Flamingoes, while often violent, also shows Robicheaux's softer side, his overwhelming love for his adopted daughter Alafair, then six years old;his respect for Clete Purcell, despite Clete'sproblems with drugs and drinking;his desire to help Tee Bone, a young black man he thinks does not deserve the penalty he may get for murder; his desire to renew a romance with Bootsie, a woman he jilted when he was twenty; and his sensitivity toward the severely handicappedchild of a Mafia lord who is running the drug business in New Orleans.Though he is more than capable of holding his own in any shootout and has a violent streak a mile wide--developed during his experience with hand-to-hand combat in Vietnam--about which he still has nightmares--he is more stable than he has been in the past, and "clean."

While transporting two prisoners, Robicheaux's partner disobeys protocol and stops at a restroom at the request of a prisoner, Jimmie Lee Boggs.The prisoner finds a hidden gun inside,kills Robicheaux's partner, and escapes.Because he is a witness and may be considered an accomplice to the murder of the cop, the other prisoner, young Tee Bone, who has already been convicted of a murder he may not have committed, has no choice but to run.

Determined to get Jimmie Lee Boggs, Robicheaux accepts the job of undercover agent for the DEA and moves to New Orleans from New Iberia.His past history makes it plausible to the gangsters running drugs that he has been fired from the police department, and he makes buys and sets up potential stings.When Robicheaux meets Tony Cardo, the head of the drug operation, he recognizes that Cardo has some of the same problems he has had, including addictions and nightmares from Vietnam, and though he knows the damage people like Cardo have done,he is also aware that Cardo is an extraordinary single parent to his severely handicapped child.Against his better judgment, he wants to help them both avoid the violence that is coming as thugs from Houston move in on the action.

The breakneck pace of the action and its excitement keep the reader going non-stop, and even the minor characters are well developed and often unique. The reader becomes more emotionally engaged here than in many other Robicheaux novels (especially the later ones), as Robicheaux, a man-on-the-edge, dares to love and be loved.With its vibrant New Orleans setting, A Morning for Flamingos has just about everything--a complex and fascinating mystery with complex and fascinating characters. n Mary Whipple

The Tin Roof Blowdown (Dave Robicheaux)
Purple Cane Road
Last Car to Elysian Fields: A Novel
IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEADThe Best of Robicheaux: "In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead", "Cadillac Jukebox", "Sunset Limited"
Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

... Read more

Product Description
Contains "To The Bright and Shining Sun", a story about alcoholism, Kentucky music and poverty, "Lay Down My Sword and Shield" about Texas lawyer and politician Hack Holland and "The Lost Get-Back Boogie" about a blues singer who kills a man in a bar room fight and spends two years in prison. ... Read more

Product Description
A junior-high-level textbook presenting Ohio's history, with suggested activities and projects, and information on ethnic composition, state government, and life in Ohio today. ... Read more

Product Description
Twin Tracks is a landmark book of real-world stories that investigates the nature of change and divines as never before the unlikely origins of many aspects of contemporary life. In each of the work's twenty-five narratives, we discover how the different outcomes of an important historical event in the past often come together again in the future.

Each chapter starts with an event -- such as the U.S. attack on Tripoli in 1804 -- that generates two divergent series of consequences. After tracking each pathway as it ranges far and wide through time and space, Burke shows how the paths finally and unexpectedly converge in the modern world.

Twin Tracks pinpoints the myriad ways the future is shaped, whether by love, war, accident, genius, or discovery. For instance, in "The Marriage of Figaro to Stealth Fighter," Burke's twin tracks start with the composer of the opera and the French spy from whose play he stole the plot. The tracks then encompass, among other things, freemasonry, the War of Independence, Captain Cook, jellyfish, Jane Austen, and audio tape. Ultimately, the convergence of the two Figaro tracks sets the stage for the development of Gulf War Stealth aircraft.

Wonderfully accessible and lucidly written, Twin Tracks offers an amusing and instructive new view of the past and the future.Amazon.com Review
James Burke, author and public television star, returns with another quirky look at the way history works. In Twin Tracks, Burke connects "trigger events" with unexpected outcomes. For instance, the invention of the lens-grinding lathe leads to hairdressing, and the debut of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaroconnects to development of the stealth fighter jet. These events are tied together via two tracks, one written along the book's left-hand pages, and one along the right. The narratives meet up in the end, giving readers a clear idea that the lines of history can be quite subjective. Some of the examples even run backward, as when Burke explains the connections between smallpox and the Big Bang. While Burke is justifiably famous for linking historical events, the paths he takes, especially those involving lots of unfamiliar names, can be tricky to follow:

In 1710 the art collection was sold to Philip, regent of France, in a deal brokered by Benedetto Luti, the best painter in Rome at the time.... That year Luti took on an assistant.... By 1714 William Kent was painting originals.... His patron in all this was the trillionaire Earl of Burlington.

The best way to read Twin Tracks, as with any of Burke's lovely books, is one chapter at a time, taking thinking breaks in between so as not to become overwhelmed by detail. The networks he describes form a more accurate, if more challenging, picture of history's motion than any linear sequence. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Six Degrees of Connections
Although enjoyable, this is not James Burkes best work.This does indeed seem more like "Six Degrees of Connections" at times.Without revealing any sequences here, there are cases that demonstrate Burke's "Trigger Effect".Unfortunately there are too many (for my taste anyway) cases of Mr. X was working on this invention and then he was walking on the sidewalk across from Mr. Y who became famous for something completely different.Because this work concentrates on torturously linking together people rather than connecting the innovations the narrative tends to blend together.

Not an exercize in degrees of freedom
Burke is an excellent source for people getting an introduction to what is interesting about the history of ideas- in particular the history of techological and scientific ideas.

The reviewer Loveridge suggests that the connections are something like a superficial hopping about, and that really everything is related to everything using the principle of 6 degrees of freedom.This is a superficial analysis and unfair.Without giving away sequences in this book, consider a well known sequence of Burke's related in his popular Connections series.Use of the water wheel in medieval europe employed a cam to lift hammers for use in things like beating metal.This mechanism of cams as used by complicated bell ringing instruments that used a rotating drum with pegs to trip the bell at the correct time.This system of using trips recorded on a passing pattern of "0"s and "1"s, (do something or don't do something) was used in the Jaccard loom to create complicated patterns in woven cloth.Punched cards were used as an innovation and later were used by tabulating machines to conduct the 1890 US census.The tabulating company created by Hollerith later evolved into IBM.It was a simple matter to jump from storing numbers to storing instructions in these binary patterns.

Is the sequence an exercize in 6 degrees of freedom?Not at all.Just because there is no linear causality or intended outcomes between these innovations, does not mean that they are not an accurate recording of a complicated stream of dependencies between these events.The way we came to computers was dependent on the development of the cam.It is possible that we would have come to it by an different avenue, but that is not the point.This is the way it happenned, and it was cirucuitous, and like following a bouncing ball.

Six degrees between ANY two events
The unexpected origins of the modern world.If you've ever played the game of "Six degrees from Kevin Bacon" you'll at least understand this book.Whether you enjoy it or not depends on how much you can focus your attention because this is one hop, skip, and jump book.The author takes an event and shows how it is connected to another event much later in time by a series of meetings, mentors, friends, coincidences, etc.Then another such series is also described with the same start and end point.Wow!Isn't that amazing!And he does this again and again and again.Like "six degrees" you find that almost anything in this world is related to almost anything if you draw our the relationships thin enough.After the third or fourth thread I was exhausted at trying to follow the bouncing ball and gave up on the book. ... Read more

Product Description
When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he'd hoped to leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won't escape so easily.As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs attempt to untangle the threads of this complex and grisly case, a damaged young Iraq veteran, Pete Flores, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives, hoping to outwit the bloodthirsty criminals who want to kill Pete for his involvement in the murders. The only trouble is, Pete doesn't know who he's running from: drunk and terrified, he fled the scene of the crime when the shooting began. And there's a long list of people who want Pete and Vikki dead: crime boss Hugo Cistranos, who hired Pete for the operation; Nick Dolan, a strip club owner and small-time gangster with revenge on his mind; and a mysterious God-fearing serial-killer-for-hire known as Preacher Jack Collins, with enigmatic motives of his own.With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a host of cold-blooded killers on Pete and Vikki's trail, it's up to Sheriff Holland to find them first and figure out who's behind the mass murder before anyone else ends up dead. In this thrilling and intricate work, James Lee Burke has once again proven himself a master storyteller and a perceptive chronicler of the darkest corners of the human heart. ... Read more

Product Description
When Billy Bob Holland visits his old friend Doc Voss, he finds himself caught up in a horrific tragedy. Doc's daughter has been brutally attacked by bikers, and the ringleader, Lamar Ellison, walks free when the DNA samples 'get lost'. Then Ellison is burned alive and Doc is arrested. So much for Billy Bob's vacation - Doc needs a lawyer, and fast. And that's not all. Newly released killer Wyatt Dixon has tracked Billy Bob to Montana, bent on avenging the death of his sister for which he holds Billy Bob responsible. And Wyatt is only one thread of a tangled web of evil that includes neo-Nazi militias, gold miners who tip cyanide into the rivers, a paedophile ring, and the Mob. As the corpses of the guilty and innocent pile up, Billy Bob stands alone. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description

Texas attorney and former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland has many secrets.Among them is Vernon Smother's son, Lucas, a now-teenaged boy about whom few know the truth -- Lucas is really Billy Bob's illegitimate son.When Lucas is arrested for murder, Billy Bob must confront the past and serve as the boy's criminal attorney.

Billy Bob knows the propensity of the town, Deaf Smith, Texas, to make scapegoats out of the innocent and to exploit and sexually use the powerless.During Lucas's trial, Billy Bob realizes that he will have to bring injury upon Lucas as well as himself in order to save his son.As a result, Billy Bob incurs enemies that are far more dangerous than any he faced as a Texas Ranger.

With the same electric language and hard-edged style that brought James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels to the forefront of American crime fiction, Cimarron Rose explodes with a new, evocative setting that will establish Billy Bob Holland as James Lee Burke's next great character.Amazon.com Review
Billy Bob Holland, the protagonist of Cimarron Rose, isan attorney in the dusty Texas town of Deaf Smith. An ex-Texas Ranger(cop, not ball-player) who mistakenly killed his partner during a drugbust, Holland is jolted from his brooding when his estrangedillegitimate son is accused of the rape and murder of a party girl. Hetakes the case, of course, and things get complicated mighty quick. Ona hunch only a father could believe, Holland is sure his son is beingrailroaded. Doggedly pursuing the truth, he runs afoul of sadisticcops, a powerful family, and the euphoniously-named Garland T. Moon, aferal thug with something to hide. Luckily, the folks on his team arejust as tough. Burke's book isn't gritty realism--Holland's deadpartner visits him often--but the characters ring true in a weirdway. They are quirky and appealing, and even the criminals make goodcompany while the whodunit unfolds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (51)

Revenge Is Not Always Bad
Sometimes you find an author whose work is so fine s/he makes you ashamed of your own pitiful scribbling. James Lee Burke does that for me. His book "Cimarron Rose" is a good example of his stellar performance.

"Cimarron Rose," one of Burke's Billy Bob Holland novels, is the story of Billy Bob's search for the killer of a killer and his adolescent associates when a teen age girl is killed in a hangout popular with teenagers wilding. In that, maestro Billy Bob Holland takes the lead defending an adolsecent whose lower class family background preselect him as victim. In the episode that follows Billy Bob kicks open a giant hole in town corruption, wealthy power and seemingly immoral leaders of the social upper crust.

Billy Bob, raw fisted and quick tempered, seems to embody the fighting truth seeker a la Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer of 50 years ago. This novel is replete with uncountable fist, knife, and gunfights, mano a mano among the bad guys of "Cimarron Rose."

In this novel, author Burke follows the progress of attorney Billy Bob Holland gathering evidence of his client's innocence and stirs up a hornets's nest of the rich and their ties with evil forces in American life. The plot and conflict=tension is further enhanced by Billy Bob's dead friend, a PTSD-like ghost enduced by a shoot out with drug runners in northern Mexico, and wisdom found in reading his father's diaries.

Author Burke's skills with characterization lie in his deft use of short descriptions such as: "On the trial he met a hollow-eyed preacher whose face had been branded with red hot horseshoes by Comanches north of the Cimarron"; "L.Q. Navarro [the ghost partner] sat on top of a stall, the heels of his boots hooked onto a plank"; "Mary Beth Sweeny . . .still in uniform from the night shift, her thumbs hooked into the sides of her gun belt". With these short machine gun bursts of colorful description, author Burke develops his characters, depicts attitude, and progresses the action all in a single phrase.

Like the real estate legend of "location , location, location," in crime novels it's "plot, plot, plot." At that, James Lee Burk is the master plotster.

As conflict after conflict, each more life-threatening to allies, it's Billy Bob's personal and cool-headed rage that saves the day time to time. But, that's not to say his sticking his head into the lion's mouth is not dangerous -- because it IS dangerous, but author Burke has developed tough but likeable heroes and we fear for their lives.

Finally, James Lee Burke's "Cimarron Rose" will bowl you over with his "writerly" prose, i.e., control over language that literally sparkles with new views of life, e.g., "She pulled her T shirt over her head, her hair collapsing on her shoulders"; "he had crashed through the enemy line like a tank through a hedgerow"; "The headlights shone in my driveway, bounced across the chicken run and filled the barn and horse lot with shadows". If you like an unbridled wordsmith at the top of his game,you'll be as crazy as I am for the work of James Lee Burke. A solid read from the first word to the last.

About as good a contemporary legal thriller as you'll get
Burke has created an imperfect protagonist with Billy Bob Holland, and although the book has some complex plots and subplots that may seem a bit conventionalized, the strength of the descriptive writing is such and the broad swath of characters he creates makes up for it. But more significantly is that James Lee Burke has in his more recent books created reverberations between the local and the culture at large. Virtually every law enforcement organization from the feds to the Mexican federales are shown to be not the law abiding and enforcing institutions they claim to be, and it's about as accessible a metaphor to the degradation of the cultural ideas of fairness, goodness, concern for the underdog and the perversion of personal independence that seems to have befallen a good number of Americans.You can read it for the language, the characters, the attention to emotional and physical detail, but when all is said and done, you have a portrait of America that is not very pretty and not painted by a so called 'liberal' but by a protagonist who, as Hemingway said every good writer should have, "A built-in Sh-T detector."

Drop the vietnam verbage
I have read quite a few of Burkes books and am getting a bit bored with his reference to vietnam and LQ in all his Billy Bob books. Like the characters though and will continue to read James Lee just ready for another plot line will try Whit Dove next

Texas' Lone Ranger
Defense attorney Billy Bob Holland is an ex-Texas Ranger who has taken a murder case where the chief suspect is his illegitimate son.But this isn't a simple plot; it involves his father and his great grandfather's diary as well.The past also haunts him literally-in the form of L.Q. Navarro.As a Ranger, Billy Bob accidentally killed his partner and friend.Periodically L.Q. appears to Billy Bob and offers him advice.The intricate plot and fluid writing definitely draw you into the Billy Bob's world in Deaf Smith.For instance, there isn't just one villain; the novel is full of unsavory characters.I fell in love with the lyric images floating from the pages and atmosphere, but I have to admit the ending was a bit confusing.

Burke begins a new series set in Texas
Fans of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux/cajun cop series now have a new series with Texas lawyer Billy Bob Holland. If this had been the first Burke book for me, I would have rated it higher.

The main plot involves Billy Bob defending his illegitimate son against a murder charge in a fishy-smelling situation involving a rich kid deviant with fetal alcohol syndrome and speed on the brain, a former football hero, DEA officers, and a sociopath named Garland T. Moon.

The inner plot involves Billy Bob wrestling with ghosts and demons from his past, namely private conversations he has with his old partner from their Texas Ranger days. There is also some mystery surrounding the death of Billy Bob's father in 1965.

Burke does an excellent job weaving all of the plot threads together, and the characters are believable. His descriptions are spare and elegant, and he has the ability provide sensory detail in a few short sentences.

One word of warning is that the cast is a rogue's gallery, like other Burke novels, and features a very flawed protaganist, but one we can root for just the same. Still, we're in some dark territory here, and Burke's writing is edgy, graphic and not for everyone.

While the book was well-written, I didn't get enough distance between Dave Robicheaux and Billy Bob Holland, who are essentially the same character. Both are men in their forties who stay in good shape, have father issues, and share similar demons in their past. The same self-righteous attitude was evident in both men. I hope that Billy Bob's voice takes a different shape in future novels of this series.

The other problem is that Burke is starting to recycle some of his details. The wealthy southerners always hold glasses wrapped with paper napkins secured with a rubber band. He's used this one a lot. There's also one where the night smells of fish spawning that's been used multiple times.

Still, this was a gripping read filled with tension on every page that made me want to know what was going to happen next. ... Read more

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Chapters: Bare-Knuckle Boxers, Victor Mclaglen, James Burke, Simon Byrne, Lenny Mclean, Charles Bronson, William Thompson, Roy Shaw, Bob Fitzsimmons, John Morrissey, John L. Sullivan, William Poole, John Mahan, Thomas Sayers, Jim Hall, Darren M. Jackson, Bartley Gorman, Tom Spring, Sam Collyer, Country Mccleester, St Vincent Cotton, Daniel Mendoza, James J. Corbett, Kid Mccoy, Jem Ward, Jack Broughton, Ben Caunt, Yankee Sullivan, John C. Heenan, Jem Mace, Tom Molineaux, Thomas King, Tom Sharkey, London Prize Ring Rules, Peter Jackson, Dan Donnelly, Joe Choynski, Mike Farragher, Tom Cribb, Barney Aaron, John Gully, Paddy Ryan, Charley Burley, List of Bare-Knuckle Boxers, Jake Kilrain, Paddy Monaghan, Viro Small, Tom Paddock, Jack Mcauliffe, Benjamin Brain, Joe Goss, Tommy Ryan, George Godfrey, Bill Richmond, Jonny Walker, Owney Geoghegan, Nicholas Ward, Paddington Tom Jones, Jem Belcher, Nat Langham, List of Bare-Knuckle Lightweight Champions, Arthur Chambers, Dominick Mccaffrey, Patrick Killen, Tom Hyer, Johnny Broome, Johnny Moneghan, Caleb Baldwin, Alexander Mckay, Johnny Waldron, James Leak, Mike Cleary, Professor Mike Donovan, Jimmy Elliott, Jack Mcmanus, Dutch Sam, John Clark, Billy Edwards, Bill Brennan, Peter Maher, Joe Coburn, Eladio Valdes, James Figg, William Perry, Jack Randall, John Jackson, Jimmy Spinks, Tom Jackling, Young Dutch Sam, Jem Smith, Nick Burley, R V Coney, Dick Curtis, Don Adams, Harry Woodson, Cliff Field, Hen Pearce, Mike Mccoole, Tom Allen, John Mccormack, Bill Brassey. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 334. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Simon Byrne (1806 2 June 1833), nicknamed "The Emerald Gem", was an Irish bare-knuckle prize fighter. The heavyweight boxing champion of Ireland, he was drawn to England by the larger sums of prize money and his hope...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4079351 ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Chapters: Non-Fiction Writers From Northern Ireland, James Burke, Mark Pollock, Laurence Mckeown, Eamonn Mccann, Ian Adamson, Norma Dawson, Walter Ellis, Eddie Mahon. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 33. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt:Eamonn McCann (born 1943 Derry , Northern Ireland ) is an Irish journalist , author , and political activist .Life McCann was born and has lived most of his life in Derry . He was educated at St. Columb's College in the city. McCann is prominently featured in the documentary film The Boys of St. Columb s. He was involved with the Irish Workers Group , a Trotskyist organisation, for a time in the 1960s .As a young man he was one of the original organisers of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). His political contemporaries included Bernadette Devlin , for whom he served as an election agent. McCann has always been critical of other politicians in Derry, and through-out Ireland North and South whose politics were based on cultural-identity rather than on class analysis. He personally witnessed and participated in many of the key events of the early part of the Troubles , including the Battle of the Bogside in August 1969 and Bloody Sunday in January 1972.Later he worked as a journalist for the Sunday World newspaper and contributed to the original In Dublin magazine among others. He currently writes for the Belfast Telegraph and the Derry Journal , and has for many years written a column for the Dublin -based Hot Press magazine. He is a frequent commentator on the BBC , RTE and other media.A Trotskyist and outspoken atheist , he is a prominent member of the Socialist Workers Party in Ireland, and in recent Northern Ireland elections has stood as a candidate for the Socialist Environmental Alliance . He is also Chair of his local branch of the NUJ , and Vice-Chair of D... ... Read more

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Renaissance Thinkers offers concise and readable introductions to four of the most important philosophical writers of the European Renaissance.All were well-schooled in the literary classics of ancient Greece and Rome, and all assumed that the insights of pagan antiquity were still relevant to the Christian era in which they lived.Erasmus and More believed that the highest human good lay in a union of classical wisdom and Christian teaching; Montaigne displayed a more skeptical temper, while Bacon sketched out a scientific program which was intended to supersede the authority of classical antiquity and literary humanism altogether.This is an authoritative collection of introductions to the achievements and thought of leading intellectual figures of the past whose ideas still influence the way we think today. ... Read more