00
"James Lee Burke tells a story in a style all his own, in language that's alive, electric. He's a master at setting mood, laying in atmosphere, all with quirky dialogue that's a delight." -- Elmore Leonard
In James Lee Burke's last novel featuring Billy Bob Holland, Bitterroot, the former Texas Ranger left his home state to help a friend threatened by the most dangerous sociopath Billy Bob had ever faced. After vanquishing a truly iniquitous collection of violent individuals, Billy moved his family to west Montana and hung out a shingle for his law practice. But in In the Moon of Red Ponies, he discovers that jail cells have revolving doors and that the government he had sworn to serve may have become his enemy.
His first client in Missoula is Johnny American Horse, a young activist for land preservation and the rights of Native Americans. Johnny is charged with the murder of two mysterious men -- who seem to have recently tried to kill Johnny themselves, or at least scare him off his political causes. As Billy Bob investigates, he discovers a web of intrigue surrounding the case and its players: Johnny's girlfriend, Amber Finley, as reckless as she is defiant -- and the daughter of one of Montana's U.S. senators; Darrel McComb, a Missoula police detective who is obsessed with Amber; and Seth Masterson, an enigmatic government agent whose presence in town makes Billy Bob wonder why Washington has become so concerned with an obscure murder case on the fringes of the Bitterroot Mountains.
As complications mount and the dead bodies multiply, Billy Bob is drawn closer to the truth behind Johnny American Horse's arrest -- and discovers a greater danger to himself and to his whole family. How Billy Bob strikes back at evil and protects his kin is the masterful triumph of In the Moon of Red Ponies.
Beautifully written, with an intriguing plot and characters whose conflicts seem as real as life itself, this novel shows James Lee Burke again in the top form that has made him a critical favorite and a national bestseller.
"James Lee Burke tells a story in a style all his own, in language that's alive, electric. He's a master at setting mood, laying in atmosphere, all with quirky dialogue that's a delight." -- Elmore Leonard
In James Lee Burke's last novel featuring Billy Bob Holland, Bitterroot, the former Texas Ranger left his home state to help a friend threatened by the most dangerous sociopath Billy Bob had ever faced. After vanquishing a truly iniquitous collection of violent individuals, Billy moved his family to west Montana and hung out a shingle for his law practice. But in In the Moon of Red Ponies, he discovers that jail cells have revolving doors and that the government he had sworn to serve may have become his enemy.
His first client in Missoula is Johnny American Horse, a young activist for land preservation and the rights of Native Americans. Johnny is charged with the murder of two mysterious men -- who seem to have recently tried to kill Johnny themselves, or at least scare him off his political causes. As Billy Bob investigates, he discovers a web of intrigue surrounding the case and its players: Johnny's girlfriend, Amber Finley, as reckless as she is defiant -- and the daughter of one of Montana's U.S. senators; Darrel McComb, a Missoula police detective who is obsessed with Amber; and Seth Masterson, an enigmatic government agent whose presence in town makes Billy Bob wonder why Washington has become so concerned with an obscure murder case on the fringes of the Bitterroot Mountains.
As complications mount and the dead bodies multiply, Billy Bob is drawn closer to the truth behind Johnny American Horse's arrest -- and discovers a greater danger to himself and to his whole family. How Billy Bob strikes back at evil and protects his kin is the masterful triumph of In the Moon of Red Ponies.
Beautifully written, with an intriguing plot and characters whose conflicts seem as real as life itself, this novel shows James Lee Burke again in the top form that has made him a critical favorite and a national bestseller.
Burke sets his fourth Billy Bob Holland crime drama on the edge of the Bitterroot Mountains in Montana. This fast-paced mystery occasionally slows to a tumbleweed pace so the author can comment on the treatment of Native Americans, corporate misuses of the environment, and governmental intrusion into privacy. But when his intriguing characters demand equal attention, Burke crafts action sequences so realistic you can practically smell the gunpowder and sweat. Some critics cite gratuitous plotting and uneven characters. But with the reappearance of homicidal rodeo clown Wyatt Dixon (who buried the hero’s wife alive in the third installment,
Bitteroot), most agree that
Ponies is the best yet in the series.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
In this top-notch fourth novel in Burke's series featuring ex–Texas Ranger attorney Billy Bob Holland, Billy Bob has moved his family and practice to the pastoral city of Missoula, Mont., the setting of his last adventure (
Bitterroot, 2001), only to discover that the psychopathic ex-biker/rodeo clown, Wyatt Dixon (who buried Billy Bob's private investigator wife, Temple, alive), is out of prison on a technicality and claiming to be a born-again Christian. Billy Bob befriends alcoholic Desert Storm hero Johnny American Horse, a sometime breeder of horses and eco-activist who—when not in the drunk tank—is carrying on a passionate affair with Amber Finley, the daughter of Romulus Finley, a vindictive and bigoted powerful U.S. senator. When Johnny is suspected of murdering the hit man who invaded his home as well as masterminding the burglary of Global Research (a high-tech agricultural lab), making off with its computer files, the action picks up quickly. Noted for quirky characters and intricate plots, Burke introduces demon-driven sheriff's deputy Darrel McComb—an ex–war hero and former mercenary pilot who flew cocaine for the contras—who has an erotic fixation on Amber. Factor in private security agency chief Greta Lundstrum, FBI agent Seth Masterson and Karsten Mabus, CEO of the company that owns Global Research, and the mayhem builds to a gripping, spine-tingling finale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The similarity between Burke's more recent Billy Bob Holland series and his celebrated Dave Robicheaux novels inevitably interferes with our ability to give the Hollands their due. Yes, former Texas Ranger turned Montana lawyer Holland is, in many ways, a Big Sky version of ragin' Cajun Robicheaux. They have both found a corner of paradise and want desperately to protect it from the encroachments of modern life; they both are prone to violence and often jeopardize their loved ones out of the all-consuming desire to protect them; and they invariably must tangle with one or both of Burke's twin towers of evil: malignant white trash and viciously bent rich people. But despite all that, despite our wish that a writer of Burke's great talent might have used a new series to head toward uncharted waters, it's time to stop picking on Billy Bob Holland. This latest entry in the series, in which Holland attempts to help an idealistic Indian ecoterrorist and winds up antagonizing a power-broking congressman, offers the perfect opportunity to let Billy Bob stand on his own feet. The familiar themes are all here, but Burke puts some new spins on them: the white-trash antagonist reveals surprising depths of character; Billy Bob stops to smell the roses; and even the square-off with the power broker feels less like an Old Testament free-for-all and more like the kind of attenuated skirmish that defines our more circumscribed contemporary world. Yes, Billy Bob is cut from familiar cloth, but admit it, he wears it well.
Bill OttCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
