Rain Gods (Hackberry Holland Series #2)

Burke at his finest

This book had me from page one. Preacher is one of fiction's most memorable bad guys. I could not put this book down!

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Enjoyed wrting style.

This writer seems to know his readers are intelligent and writes accordingly.

Good plot, keeping up with this world we are in now. Had to read to the end...this is a page turner.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Burke

His very best, his darkest and most inovative. Elevates his writing skills and his reputation

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Rain Gods Great Road Read

Burke scores again with this riveting, beautifully penned tale. Flawed good guys against evil bad guys with redeeming qualities set in a background only a masterful author could make beautiful, a compelling plot and equally compelling sub-plots, put Rain Gods on my Must Read list.

The audio version was just the thing for my long road trip, especially with the narrator, Will Patton, providing the perfect voice for this excellent thriller.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A Texas-size hit for Burke

James Lee Burke writes novels with descriptions of incomparable beauty juxtaposed with poverty, hate, envy and lonliness. His characters are well developed and each is uniquely flawed. The plot is tight and believable with excellent dialog and some unexpected twists.
If you've read Burke before you know what a treat you're in for. If you've never read Burke this is an excellent book to get started on and you've many, many more to enjoy.
Excellent work by one of the pre-eminent writers of noir fiction.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Another masterpiece by The Grandmaster

This is one of the best books that I have read this year. James Lee Burke brings back his character Hackberry Holland (who we haven't seen in too long - one of the drawbacks of the author having two great characters to work with - Dave Robicheaux and Billy Bob Holland.

Hackberry is a sheriff who finds the corpses of nine Asian women buried in the field behind the church, shot by a World War Two machine gun. It turns out that the dead women were prostitutes and drug mules in an organized-crime ring run by a nasty criminal. The killer is a famous hitman called Preacher (one of Burke's most evil bad guys for a long time).

I strongly recommend fans of James Lee Burke, crime fiction, and simply people who like good books to buy this novel. You won't be disappointed.

Peter

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Not Bad But.....

This could have been a little shorter. The story line was bogged down by Holland's Korea flashbacks. It got in the way sometimes, and slowed the storyline down. It could have been a few pages shorter, if Mr. Burke cut out some of the Korean War flashbacks. Otherwise, the book was a great read and I'd recommend it.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great suspenseful novel. Great characters and plot

Being from west Texas, it was nice to read his very colorful descriptions of the landscape and weather in the desert. His characters were great !! Highly recommend. I jumped into this book not knowing it is the most current book in a series. Was still great, even though I didn't know much about the main character. I am going to start at the beginning.

Return to form

I have been a Burke fan for many years. When I first heard of the book I was dissapointed that it was not another Robicheaux novel. He hooked me from the first sentence and never let up. No one is better at delivering complex characters with deep personal flaws and reservations. His way with words and his discriptions of the landscape make you feel like you are there. Go get this book now!

RAIN GODS--BOOK ON CD

LISTENED TO THE BOOK ON MY TRUCK CD PLAYER. WELL WRITTEN BOOK AND VERY WELL READ BY THE READER. THE SUSPENSE HUNG IN THERE UNTIL THE VERY END OF THE BOOK. GREAT CHARACTERS. IT FORCED ME TO LOOK FOR REASONS TO DRIVE MY TRUCK SO I COULD LISTEN TO THE BOOK. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Best yet

The character depth and psychological insight is Burke at his best. I buy most books when they are released in paperback. Burke is one author that I make a point of buying as soon as released in hardcover.

A Mystery par excellence

As always James Lee Burke has written a good mystery that compels one to read without stopping to the very end. I like the choice of location and the trueness of the authors descriptions of the story's environment of the border country. And I highly recommend this book.

If you liked "No Country for Old Men", you'll like this!

I enjoyed this book very much. It was a good story though not as "tight" in its plot or characters as "No Country for Old Men". It was sometimes difficult to keep some of the characters straight but still a good read. I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys a good "thriller" with very colorful characters.

Burke's Best Yet!

I have read and enjoyed most of James Lee Burke's books, and I believe Rain Gods is his best effort yet! I found the characters were all interesting, including the "bad guys". I also enjoyed the storyline immensely. Heck, I hated for the book to end. If you like Burke and you like suspense, you will love Rain Gods.

Something new from a great writer

Rain Gods is the best novel James Lee Burke has written. I have been a fan for quite a while, but this is quite a departure from the norm. Well worth the money and time.

Burke is an elegant story teller.

I always buy Burke soon after they show up at the store because he writes as well as anyone in the genre - in fact, better. I care about his characters and the stories he weaves. Rain Gods was a good read, one that I pass on to some of my friends gladly. Being in recovery, I find Burke's characters ties to twelve step recovery interesting and inspiring.

Another Classic from James Lee Burke

The language is beautiful, evocative, expressive. The story moves right along with enough background to acquaint you with the characters' without having to read previous stories. James Lee Burke is almost unsurpassed in evolking a sense of place and time, mood and character. Read it for the use of language if for nothing else. The prose in this book is better than a lot of poetry.

Rain Gods

Rain Gods: I've read a lot of James Lee Burke over the years (all of the Dave Robicheaux novels anyway) and this book may be his best that I've ever had the pleasure to read. In this book, Hackberry Holland is an aging sheriff in a southern Texas border town. He is called to a site in which he finds a shallow set of graves of women killed. Holland, a tough aging Korean War veteran is aware that this horrible crime is going to lead to some really bad people who have seriously bad intentions.
I'm not sure I have read a book with a more disturbing character than "Preacher Collins." He was as frightening to me as the bad guy was in "No Country for Old Men." This book has some similarities (aging sheriff, drugs, a seriously bad/evil sociopath, etc...), but this book is far different in many ways. Burke's ability to describe a setting, a person, a room and scene is so vivid at times that you feel like you are there watching it all unfold. The book has a lot of characters all intertwined in the crime that took the lives of the women buried in those shallow graves.
It's a great read and a book I won't soon forget. Hackberry Holland is a character that I want to read more of in the future.

Very disappointing.

This was my first James Lee Burke book and will definitely be the last. It started out well with some interesting characters and an initially unique and suspenseful plot line. But the latter half fell apart quickly and I had to force myself to finish it. It was difficult to accept how this murderous tough guy Preacher was so easily overcome at two different times. And the relationships and interactions among the bad guys could have been developed more effectively. Nick's character was also all over the place especially with that incredulous appearance at the finale.

Preacher, Preacher....

This is the first of James Lee Burke's that I've picked up, although Swan Peak is on my night stand waiting to be read. I was able to get to this one more quickly on a road trip, and audio is the only way to go.

I really enjoyed the subject matter and especially the characters. Preacher was probably the most likeable crazy person I'd ever read about. His thought processes and actions always seemed to surprise me. On the audio book, however, I enjoyed that his voice was so villain-like and kept at a raspy whisper. I did find that I occasionally had to rewind and increase the volume when he spoke - which was sometimes annoying but always suspenseful!