Bitterroot (Hardcover)

by James Lee Burke (Author) "DOC VOSS'S FOLKS were farmers of German descent, Mennonite pacifists who ran a few head of Brahman outside of Deaf Smith, Texas, and raised beans..." (more)
Key Phrases: fly vest, pitching machine, Wyatt Dixon, Sue Lynn, Carl Hinkel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Ex-Texas Rangers are suckers for old friends in distress, so when Vietnam vet and recent widower Doc Voss calls lawyer Billy Bob Holland from Montana with an apparently innocent invitation to visit, Billy Bob packs up and "head[s] north with creel and fly rod in the foolish hope that somehow my own ghosts did not cross state lines."

Doc has managed to alienate everyone in town, including mining interests on the Blackfoot River; a drug-running biker gang; an enclave of white supremacists, led by slimy Carl Hinkel; the local mob connection, in the person of an even slimier Nicki Molinari; and the feds, who don't want anything interfering with their pursuit of both Hinkel and Molinari. After Doc's daughter is brutally raped by three of the bikers, and those three are murdered in a particularly nasty fashion, Holland must try to clear his friend of suspicion. As he ferrets through a tangled web of coincidence and connection, Holland risks losing everything and everyone dear to him.

The wild card in the pack is Wyatt Dixon, a psychopathic ex-con who holds Holland responsible for his sister's death, and who has followed him to Montana: "[Wyatt] recycled pain, stored its memory, footnoted every instance of it in his life and the manner in which it had been visited upon him, then paid back his enemies and tormentors in ways they never foresaw."

James Lee Burke's prose alternately sparkles with a perverse insouciance ("Lamar had gotten his. Big time. Soaked in paint thinner and flame-roasted from head to foot like a burned burrito.") and glows with a muted intensity ("I closed the door and slipped the bolt and went back to sleep and hoped that the sun would rise on a better world for all of us."). The author's capacity to add depth to his characters with a few well-chosen phrases remains striking: the town sheriff walks "heavily, like a man who knew his knowledge of the world would never have an influence upon it"; a group of college boys is "suntanned and hard-muscled, innocently secure in the knowledge that membership in a group of people such as themselves meant that age and mortality would never hold sway in their lives."

Is the Billy Bob Holland series (three novels and counting) just Robicheaux Redux? The ex-Texas Ranger is, as either man might admit, the spittin' image of Dave Robicheaux, Burke's Louisiana PI: simultaneously rugged and rage-filled, chivalrous and callow, debonair and disturbing. And like the Robicheaux series, the Holland novels drift effortlessly among genres: regional writing, gritty noir, classic PI. You can cavil that Burke is repeating himself--or you can rejoice that Burke is continuing to enlarge his pool of intense, lyrical crime novels. Personally, I plump for the latter. --Kelly Flynn

From Publishers Weekly
A two-time Edgar Award winner, Burke touches on a variety of hot-button issues sure to thrill his fans in his first book since last year's Purple Cane Road. The author's popular protagonist, Texas attorney Billy Bob Holland, travels to big sky country for some fishing with Doc Voss, a friend who's relocated to Montana's Bitterroot Valley after his wife's death. Soaring descriptions of the majestic setting contrast sharply with the evil doings of the people who live there. Doc has made some powerful enemies in his campaign against a mining venture he believes would harm the economy and the pristine countryside. The stakes rise when his teenage daughter is raped in her bedroom. The rapists could be any of the white supremacists who live in the woods, randy bikers on the prowl, strange members of a conservative religious cult or even the Native Americans eking out a substandard living on the local reservation. Billy Bob and Doc also have to contend with celebrities wanting to experience "country life," organized crime figures, government agents and a sinister, recently paroled felon who blames Billy Bob for his wife's death. To top it off, Billy Bob suffers from guilt over the accidental killing of his best friend as well as nightmarish memories of Vietnam. It's only a matter of time before the powder keg blows. Those who relish Burke's patented mix of supercharged violence and overheated passions are in for a treat. (June 18)Forecast: While not quite in the same league as Purple Cane Road, this entry is likely to scale bestseller lists as well.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Hardcover edition (June 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743204832
• ISBN-13: 978-0743204835
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #219,690 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is as good a book as Burke's ever written., June 18, 2001

By	Craig Larson (Maple Grove, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thrill a minute, June 14, 2001

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars JAMES LEE BURKE IS ONE OF THE BEST WRITERS IN AMERICA TODAY!, July 9, 2001

By	Wayne C. Rogers (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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 the people he loves the most. Though the book is filled dozens of main and secondary characters, Mr. Burke manages to breathe life into each and everyone one of them through the use of individual quirks and nuances. Few authors have the skill to do this. The writing, of course, is sheer poetry to read. Mr. Burke has a finely tuned ear for dialogue and a vivid eye for description, bringing words together that reach into the reader's heart and soul, making him or her at one with the story. I have to say that, after three novels, the character of Billy Bob Holland is beginning to remind me more and more of Dave Robicheaux. Both men are filled with guilt at the lost of a close friend or wife. Each one also has a strong loyalty to friends and family, not to mention a strict code of honor that enables them to do whatever is necessary in order to protect the weak and innocent. There's even a rumor floating around that Mr. Burke will eventually bring both characters together in one book. That is definitely something all of Mr. Burke's fans would happily die for. Read BITTERROOT and find out why James Lee Burke is now considered to be one of America's best writers, then check out the "Dave Robicheaux" novel, PURPLE CANE ROAD, and discover why millions of people are addicted to this great author.