Bitterroot (A Holland Family Novel)

I made a promise to myself after reading HEARTWOOD last year that I'd buy the next "Billy Bob Holland" novel in hardback when it came out, rather than waiting for the paperback edition. It's a promise I'm glad I kept. In James Lee Burke's newest novel, BITTERROOT, ex-Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland is back in true form, ready to protect his family and friends, and to put down anyone who gets in his face. When Billy Bob goes to Bitterroot, Montana to visit his old friend, Tobin "Doc" Voss, he expects to have a nice, relaxing vacation with maybe a little "fly" fishing thrown in. It turns out, however, to be anything but relaxing. It seems that a local mining company is polluting the rivers around Bitterroot with cyanide and Doc Voss is trying to put a stop to it. The mining company decides to fight back by hiring some hard-nose bikers and members of a certain white supremacist group (led by Carl Hinkel) to try and intimidate Doc. Since Doc is a former SEAL and did his fair share of killing in Vietnam, he's not the kind of guy who generally backs down. When Doc's sixteen-year-old daughter, Maisey, is brutally raped by three bikers, everything takes a turn for the worse. The men suspected of the crime are released from jail due to a lack of evidence and then are murdered, one by one, by an unknown assailant. Because of evidence found at the crime scenes, Doc is the number one suspect for the murders, and he has to ask Billy Bob to represent him as his lawyer. As if Billy Bob doesn't have enough to deal with, an ex-con by the name of Wyatt Dixon shows up in Bitterroot, seeking revenge against the former Texas Ranger for the death of his sister (a woman who killed all of her children). Then, there's a mobster by the name of Nicki Molinari, who's trying to retrieve some stolen money from a woman Billy Bob happens to be sexually involved with. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg. Before the novel is over, the body count is going to be sky high, and Billy Bob is going to have to answer some tough questions about love, family, friendship, and his violent nature. Not even the ghost of his late friend and partner, L.Q. Navarro, will be able to help him with this. In BITTERROOT, James Lee Burke shines at his brightest as he juggles a dozen or more subplots, spinning and weaving them into a gripping tale of violence, suspense and redemption. The character of Billy Bob Holland will have to delve deeply into his heart and examine his feelings for his close friend, Carol Temple, while at the same time, acknowledging that his son, Lucas, is now a man and must be allowed to make his own decisions, right or wrong. Billy Bob must also find a way to deal with his violent tendencies, understanding that he only feels alive when putting down men who deserve to be killed. This is especially true for the character of Wyatt Dixon, a man who's as deadly as a rattlesnake and is determine to teach Billy Bob a thing or two about revenge by going after t

Bitterroot is a dark, violent, brooding, magnificent book. Burke is in top form. I just wish he'd write two books a year.

This is a great book. Texan Billy Bob Holland struggles and often fails to control his capacity for violence. He goes to visit a friend in Montana, Doc Voss, who similarly battles his urges to settle things with guns and fists. After Doc nearly kills a biker in a bar fight, three bikers rape his daughter in an apparent act of revenge. But there are so many awful and violent people populating the town, all with mixed up motives and impulses, that the answers to the book's riddles are far from apparent. Billy Bob frequently talks to the the ghost of his friend LQ Navarro, whom he shot accidentally during a gun battle with Mexican drug dealers, adding a melancholy personification of his inner battles. Burke brings a strong literary touch to the tough guy genre. His books are packed with imagery and his characters are all unique (don't buy into the Robicheaux and Holland are the same character foolishness). This book is fabulous. You may find yourself compelled to read it in a single sitting.

I read a review of this in _Booklist_ or _Library Journal_ or somewhere which suggested that the characters of Billy Bob Holland and David Robicheaux were becoming almost indistinguishable. So I was very worried about how this book would read, since this is something I've noted before, particularly in the last Billy Bob book, _Heartwood_, which really did read like a retread of a Dave Robicheaux book (_Cadillac Jukebox_), with little but the names of characters changed. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Even though he's dealing with the same concerns that he deals with in other books, _Bitterroot_ is entirely new and different territory for James Lee Burke.Perhaps it's because the setting has moved from Texas to Montana, also the setting for the Edgar-winning _Black Cherry Blues_ from his Robicheaux series. But this doesn't read like a retread of the Robicheaux books. It's got the same mix of dangerous, lowlife characters whom our protagonist can't seem to stop stirring up. But the fresh locations help to revive and invigorate the proceedings. Billy Bob isn't just a mirror image of Dave Robicheaux--he's much more extreme than Dave. His attraction to violence seems much more ingrained and difficult to overcome, and he spends quite a bit of his time in the book musing about this fact. Sometimes, you just want to whack Billy Bob (or Dave, for that matter) on the head and tell him to stop messing around with the lowlifes, but he just can't seem to help it. And, ultimately, this is what we read Burke for: the battle of good vs. evil. Coming on the heels of _Purple Cane Road_, _Bitterroot_ suggests that Burke has found a second wind to his writing and I, for one, could not be more excited to see what's next.

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