Rain Gods »

James Lee Burke was struggling through some lean times as a novelist -- he had published only one book in 15 years -- when a friend and fellow writer suggested he take a stab at crime fiction. The result was The Neon Rain, the first book in his successful Dave Robicheaux books. With a complex moral protagonist and a lush writing style, the series evokes the heady environment of the Louisiana bayou country.

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.

The Barnes & Noble Review

I've read all of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels to date -- an indulgence usually reserved for summertime. Rising temperatures and humidity fit Robicheaux's Louisiana settings, and half explain the combination of rage and compassion that fuel Burke's Cajun detective hero. As all Robicheaux fans know, he's a Vietnam vet and recovering alcoholic filled with distaste for authority. He struggles against his own base impulses while fighting off oodles of bad guys mired in evildoing, corruption, and greed. His own redemption is as important to him as justice.

But can Burke convert Robicheaux fans to a change of pace? Rain Gods shifts locale from Bayou Teche, New Iberia, and the Café du Monde to the harsh and arid landscape of South Texas. In place of his customary hero, Burke resurrects a small-town sheriff named Hackberry Holland, first introduced in his 1971 novel Lay Down My Sword and Shield. Hackberry is a cousin to Billy Bob Holland, the former Texas Ranger of Burke's Cimarron Rose and Heartwood -- novels that never gained traction with diehard Robicheaux fans like me.