Cimarron Rose [Hardcover]

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.

This is only Setting. CIMARRON ROSE evokes old West and the New (Drug Thug)West. Billy Bob finds himself legally defending his unacknowledged son Lucas in a gruesome rape/murder case which is enhanced by a battle-array of drug dealers; bent DEA; feckless FBI agents; a formerly abused-child now border-line psychopath bent on revenge against the Bobster; some repugnant nouveau rich whose adopted son--at very least--is a sociopathic punk and (perhaps) prime candidate for the murder Lucas is framed-for.

James Lee Burke often writes like John Updike. He's got poet's command of language and mature control of complex plots. His characterizations are excellent; psychological observations ring astute and physical descriptions are striking. He's a writer's writer. If he's chosen to walk a ragged line between LITERATURE and funky, action-oriented plot boilers, SO WHAT? I'm told Burke does this trick often. If this is formula writing,it's excellent. I'd rather read about Billy Bob than Updike's RABBIT ANGSTROM anyday. Take a gander at CIMARRON ROSE. It's no New Age Flower shop tour for sure..And in this one, The Lone Ranger doesn't use silver bullets...(4 and 1/2 stars)