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    Bitterroot
    Bitterroot
    Bitterroot
    Audiobook12 hours

    Bitterroot

    Written by James Lee Burke

    Narrated by Tom Stechschulte

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Following his acclaimed bestseller Purple Cane Road, James Lee Burke returns with a triumphant tour de force.

    Set in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, home to celebrities seeking to escape the pressures of public life, as well as to xenophobes dedicated to establishing a bulkhead of patriotic paranoia, Burke’s novel features Billy Bob Holland, former Texas Ranger and now a Texas-based lawyer, who has come to Big Sky Country for some fishing and ends up helping out an old friend in trouble.

    And big trouble it is, not just for his friend but for Billy Bob himself—in the form of Wyatt Dixon, a recent prison parolee sworn to kill Billy Bob as revenge for both his imprisonment and his sister’s death, both of which he blames on the former Texas lawman. As the mysteries multiply and the body count mounts, you are drawn deeper into the tortured mind of Billy Bob Holland, a complex hero tormented by the mistakes of his past and driven to make things—all things—right. But beneath the guise of justice for the weak and downtrodden lies a tendency for violence that at times becomes more terrifying than the danger he is trying to eradicate.

    As USA TODAY noted in discussing the parallels between Billy Bob Holland and Burke’s other popular series hero, David Robicheaux, “Robicheaux and Holland are two of a kind, white-hat heroes whose essential goodness doesn’t keep them from fighting back. The two series describe different landscapes, but one theme remains constant: the inner conflict when upright men are provoked into violence in defense of hearth, home, women, and children. There are plenty of parallels. Billy Bob is an ex-Texas Ranger; Dave is an ex-New Orleans cop. Dave battles alcoholism and the ghosts of Vietnam; Billy Bob actually sees ghosts, including the Ranger he accidentally gunned down...But most of all, both protagonists hold a vision of a pure and simple life.”

    In Bitterroot, with its rugged and vivid setting, its intricate plot, and a set of remarkable, unforgettable characters, and crafted with the lyrical prose and the elegiac tone that have inspired many critics to compare him to William Faulkner, James Lee Burke has written a thriller destined to surpass the success of his previous novels.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 17, 2012
    ISBN9781442359086
    Bitterroot
    Author

    James Lee Burke

    James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author, two-time winner of the Edgar Award, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. He has authored forty novels and two short story collections. He lives in Missoula, Montana.

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    Reviews for Bitterroot

    4/5

    176 ratings7 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This one goes in the category of DNF (Did not finish). I do this when the audio sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher...."bwaa...bwaaa. bwaaaa". Billy Bob Holland, our narrator is a lawyer from Texas in Montana. He doesn't do any lawyering, just goes around getting in trouble with the local Sheriff. The book just did not click in my mind. And, what author, who lives in Montana, thought that the Clark Fork (of the Missouri) flows into the Columbia, on the other side of those large mountains on the West side of the state? Billy Bob should just stay in Texas, where he belongs. It was a strain to read. If this was a mystery I completely missed it. There was no real continuity. And, I have no idea what happened in the ending, because I never got that far.
    • 4/5
      It is a bit difficult to explain my "issue" with this series... but it has to do with how the main character, Billy Bob, is mainly just the "narrator" of the story. Most of the story is told from his point of view (with a couple slips into other POVs), but he is not really involved with committing any of the actions in the novel. He is there, and he talks about who did what and what's going on, but he doesn't play any pivotal role in any of it... This is fine, because the story is strong and interesting enough that we don't really need him to do much, but it does make me wonder why the author bothers to have a central recurring character who is rather incidental to the solving of the crime(s).Billy Bob isn't a cop or a detective, or even a lawyer in these books (well, he IS a lawyer, but he doesn't do any lawyering)... he is just the backdrop around which a lot of bad guys do a lot of bad things. At the end justice is served, but not by Billy Bob... the bad guys seem to end up doing it to themselves.Anyway, I really like the writing style and the characters "evilness" and the fact that justice gets served, so will be reading the next in the series.
    • 4/5
      Bitterroot by James Lee Burke-Set in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, features Billy Bob Holland, former Texas Ranger and now a Texas based lawyer, who has come to Big Sky Country for some fishing and ends up helping out a old friend in trouble. Holland's in big trouble, in the form of Wyatt Dixon, a recent prison parolee swore to kill him as revenge of both his imprisonment and his sister's death.
    • 4/5
      This is my first Billy Bob Holland book and the third in the series. Mark Hammer is an excellent narrator, but nobody reads James Lee Burke like Will Patton!Billy Bob is a former Texas Ranger turned attorney. He left law enforcement after he and his partner chased some bad guys to Mexico and dispatched some vigilante justice. His partner died during the killing, and now his ghost follows Billy Bob, offering advice and acting as his conscience.Billy Bob heads to Montana for an extended visit with an old friend and is drawn into a complex web of lies, deceit and violence. His son (it sounds like they are working on building a relationship) and investigator surprise him by coming up to stay as well. What is it with Burke and having his older male authority figures have relationships and sexual tension with their younger female subordinates? Kinda weird that it's consistent across his novels.Anyway, I enjoyed the book. However, I love me some Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell, so that's still my favorite series by James Lee Burke.
    • 3/5
      It is hard to distinguish the narrative voice of Billy Bob Holland and that of Dave Robicheaux. Generally the Holland stories are a little more edgy, but have little of the charm of the Cajun Louisiana. The first 2 were set in a Texas town; this one is set in Montana. Good story, and Holland finally does "something" (I will not say what) right.
    • 4/5
      I've just experienced one of those weird things, where you discover a new writer and he changes your perspective about something you thought you knew. James Lee Burke is new to me. He was recently the subject of a near eulogy on the BBC, and this prompted me to try one of his books. Wonderful writing, and enlightening about those areas of the US that have a lot of wilderness about them. Montana is somewhere I will probably never visit, and yet here it is evoked in clear clean prose and I'm knocked out. It's a book called 'Bitter Root' and it is as tough as books can get, but it is more than that. It reveals another side of America, one where there is no parallel in Britain, or even maybe Europe as a whole. Wide open spaces we don't have much over here, but then neither do we have the militia movement or the biker boy communities. I am impressed with the brilliance of this writer, and a bit ashamed I haven't read him before. He is so very, very good. His big fault? He preaches his ghastly Roman Catholicism far too much. The RC and Islamic religions are basically the same, which is hardly surprising when you examine their common ancient tribal origins.
    • 1/5
      Rough language, rough people, would not recommend