Billy Bob Holland
1 primary work • 4 total works
Book 2
Few writers in America today combine James Lee Burke's lush prose, crackling story lines, and tremendous sense of history and landscape. In Cimmaron Rose, longtime fans of the Dave Robicheaux series found that the struggles of Texas defense attorney Billy Bob Holland show Burke at his best in exploring classic American themes--the sometimes subtle, often violent strains between the haves and the have-nots; the collision of past and present; the inequities in the criminal justice system.
Heartwood is a kind of tree that grows in layers. And as Billy Bob's grandfather once told him, you do well in life by keeping the roots in a clear stream and not letting anyone taint the water for you. But in Holland's dusty little hometown of Deaf Smith, in the hill country north of Austin, local kingpin Earl Deitrich has made a fortune running roughshod and tainting anyone who stands in his way. Billy Bob has problems with Deitrich and his shamelessly callous demeanor, but can't shake the legacy of his passion for Deitrich's "heartbreak-beautiful" wife, Peggy Jean.
When Holland takes on the defense of Wilbur Pickett—a man accused of stealing an heirloom and three hundred thousand dollars in bonds from Deitrich's office--he finds himself up against not only Earl's power and influence, but also a past Billy Bob can't will away. A wonderfully realized novel, rich in Texas atmosphere and lore, and a dazzling portrait of the deadly consequences of self-delusion, Heartwood could only have been written by James Lee Burke, a writer in expert command of his craft.
Lucas Smothers, nineteen and from the wrong end of town, has been arrested for the rape and murder of a local girl. His lawyer Billy Bob Holland is convinced of Lucas's innocence but proving it means unearthing the truth from a seething mass of deceit and corruption. A corruption endemic in the way it can be only in a gossipy small town where everybody knows everybody else's business.
Billy Bob's relationship with Lucas's family is not an easy one - years back he was a close friend of Mrs Smothers, too close according to her husband Vernon. And when Lucas overhears gruesome tales of serial murder from a neighbouring cell in the local lock-up, the waters are muddied even further and Lucas himself looks like a candidate for an untimely death.
"John Steinbeck once said Montana is a love affair. If a person was going to make his troth with any particular place on earth, I don't think he could find a better one than this stretch of road. Every bridge crossed a postcard stream, every mountain tumbled into one higher and a deeper green than itself."
But in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana, the love affair has a chilling side, as ex-Texas Ranger, now lawyer, Billy Bob Holland discovers on a visit to his friend from Vietnam days, Doc Voss. Doc's daughter Maisey is brutally gang-raped by bikers and ring leader Lamar Ellison walks free when the DNA samples 'get lost'. Billy Bob wonders: whose side is the sheriff on?
Soon after, Ellison is burned alive and Doc is arrested. So much for Billy Bob's vacation...
Doc needs a lawyer, and fast. Not only that: newly released killer, the grotesque Wyatt Dixon has tracked Billy Bob to Montana, bent on avenging the death of his sister for which he holds Billy Bob responsible. As the corpses of the guilty and innocent pile up, Billy Bob stands alone, still haunted by his dead friend L.Q. Navarro, determined that the centre will hold, no matter what evil threatens it.
At the end of BITTERROOT, rodeo cowboy Wyatt Dixon - 'the most dangerous, depraved, twisted and unpredictable human being I ever knew' - was sentenced to sixty years in Deer Lodge Pen for the murder of a biker in the Aryan Brotherhood. Now, one year later, he's out, due to the DA's failure to disclose a piece of evidence. Among his many crimes, Wyatt once tortured Billy Bob's wife, Temple, when she was a cop. Dixon declares to Billy Bob that he's a reformed character and he needs his help in a venture to raise rodeo livestock. But how can Billy Bob believe him?
Meanwhile Johnny American Horse, a possible descendent of Crazy Horse, whose worst offences till now have been the odd bout of drunkenness and a propensity to believe his dreams, is caught carrying a gun. He tells Billy Bob he needs it for protection; in a dream he saw two men coming for him. Sure enough, those men in Johnny's dream are heading West, with Johnny as their target. Soon Johnny's in serious trouble with only one man to turn to, Billy Bob - and Billy Bob finds himself pitched into a complex battle that pits him not only against Wyatt Dixon, but against the very government he has sworn to support.
This is James Lee Burke at his compelling best: a novel defined by stunning plot twists, breathtaking suspense and a cast of unforgettable villains - a combination that has earned Burke outstanding critical praise and a bestselling readership.