Ok, I'm really done with James Lee Burke this time. His writing is getting more florid and less interesting over time. The "heroes" get more evil and depressing over time, the neutral characters seem to only exist to support the heroes, and the villains are still the villains. And you can tell the villain from the hero as soon as you read "phallus". ( )

Burke hasn't lost his touch. I stayed up until 3 am reading this book. ( )

The sun had just crested on the horizon like a misplaced planet, swollen and molten and red, lighting a landscape that seemed sculpted out of clay and soft stone and marked by the fossilized tracks of animals with no names, when a tall barefoot man wearing little more than rags dropped his horse's reins and eased himself off the horse's back and worked his way down an embankment into a riverbed chained with pools of water that glimmered as brightly as blood in the sunrise.

This is the second James Lee Burke novel I have finished this year. I believe I read one of his books years ago, but had lost track of what he was doing. I’m glad to have rediscovered his work.
House of. the rising sun was a rock song of the 60s. I don’t know if I realized at the time that it was about a famous New Orleans brothel. Actually the House of the Rising sun features only peripherally in the book.
It is the story of a Texas ranger and his two women. One he is married to, the other who is the mother of his child. It is a turn of the century (19th to 20th) story of the Texas west and Mexico’s rrevolutions at the time.
The major issue’s hack faces are self control and the search for his son. He became separated from his son because of the struggle betwee his two women.
The book is well written, the characters real seeming although their adventures extradinorary. ( )

The reason I decided to read this book was because of the narrator, Will Patton. I will happily listen to him narrate anything and this audiobook was available to download at my library. Unfortunately, I did NOT realize that it was the 4th book in a series at the time, but I don't think I missed out on much. However, I am hoping that Will Patton narrates the rest of the them and if so I will be downloading those as well!

This is a western that takes place around the late 1800's up to around 1918. We move around from Mexico, to Texas and to San Antonio. Hackberry Holland is not the greatest of men, but somehow the reader comes to care for him and his twisted sense of morality. The women in this book just about stole the show. From Maggie, Hackberry's super-devious wife, to Ruby, (his mistress) and the mysterious Ms. DeMolay. (I'm not sure of the spelling of her name, as I listened instead of reading it in print.) The villain, evil Arnold Beckman, is an arms dealer, selling to both sides of conflicts all over the world. A better, more interesting set of characters would be hard to find.

I guess I'm starting to like westerns because this book was fun. After a slightly slow start when I thought for a little while that I might not finish this book, things picked up and the characters began to grow and change. Then I was hooked right up until the end.

Recommended for fans of westerns and DEFINITELY for fans of Will Patton's narration! ( )