The Jealous Kind

June 20, 2016
Raging teenage hormones, gangster violence, class warfare, and a pink Cadillac stuffed with cash and gold bars set up Burke’s latest novel, a mystery set in Houston, Tex., in 1952. Burke has a hit with this dark, atmospheric story of teenagers trying to make it through high school without getting killed by Mafia hitmen, low-life thugs, and greasers with oily ducktails and switchblade knives. Seventeen-year-old Aaron bumbles into a steamy teenage romance with Valerie Epstein, angering Grady, her rich country-club ex-boyfriend, who vows jealous revenge. With his prankster best pal, Saber, Aaron unwittingly steps into a messy world of violence that escalates to involve parents, punks, and the police. Beatings, arson, and a murder ramp up the tension as the boys are framed and futilely declare their innocence. Then Grady’s pink Caddie full of money and gold is stolen and the Mafia steps in. They think it’s their money, they want it back, and they believe Aaron and Saber have it. Burke portrays Houston as rife with crime, complete with a corrupt police force, and the boys have little hope of surviving this cesspool. Fortunately, they have good parents, an honest detective, and a savvy prostitute to back them up. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency.

July 1, 2016
The Holland clan that features in various series by the prolific author appears this time in 1952 Houston, where street gangs, mobsters, and class conflict offer a grim view of postwar America.At 17, Aaron Holland Broussard falls in love with the brainy, beautiful Valerie Epstein just as she's dumping the scion of one of the city's wealthiest families. Aaron then upsets a gang of toughs in Valerie's neighborhood, his best friend drifts into dealing drugs and stealing cars with two Mexican hoods, and the scion turns out to be tied to the twisted son of a vicious local mobster. When a Cadillac used to hide cash and gold goes missing, all the players are involved. Through Aaron's narration, Burke (House of the Rising Sun, 2015, etc.) muses on courage and one's response to serious challenges. Aaron's father went over the top from WWI's trenches, another man dropped behind enemy lines in WWII, and a third battles alcohol and unemployment. Aaron discovers he is brutally capable with his fists. It's a rough summer for any teen, though a reference by Aaron to "my trek up Golgotha" is over-the-top in another way. Purplish prose, facile psychology, and short-changed female characters are the trade-offs with this highly readable and sometimes eloquent writer. Burke, age 79, who has said this novel completes a trilogy with Wayfaring Stranger (2014) and Rising Sun (2015), was born in Houston and sets Aaron's age to match his own in 1952 while also marking him as a would-be writer and having him tell his story some 60 years after the novel's events. The personal elements might intrigue fans, suggesting real influences for an author whose characters frequently tap reserves of violence and courage to cope with past sins and present evil. Burke's gritty coming-of-age tale is a typically entertaining read that may cap a trilogy but also begs for a sequel.

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Starred review from August 1, 2016
Over five previous novels, Burke's multigenerational account of the Holland family has jumped around chronologically, dropping in at various points to track the often tortured doings of a clan whose ungoverned passion for living always seems to be on the verge of running amok and leading, not to life, but to self-destruction. So it is here, in the coming-of-age story of Aaron Holland Broussard, grandson of Hackberry Holland (seen most recently in House of the Rising Sun, 2015). Life kicks into overdrive for 17-year-old Aaron one night in 1952 on Galveston Beach, when he sees a beautiful girl in a pink Cadillac being bullied by a rich kid and decides to intervene. The rest of the novel charts the roiling waves that follow in the wake of that life-changing decision. The story plays out as so many Burke novels do, with the aggrieved hero plowing forward against seemingly absurd odds, endangering himself and those he loves, but unable to put the brakes on the emotions that drive him. The repetitiveness of this story line may bother some, but Burke devotees recognize in it a kind of mythic archetype, an ur-story that bears the weight of multiple retellings because the teller is able to infuse it with an infinite variety of shadings. As Aaron follows his love for Valerie Epstein into a morass of Mob-related trouble, we see that story playing itself out yet again, this time driven by adolescent passion and lethal jealousy. As always, though, what brings the myth-laden story to pulsing life is Burke's lyrical prose and his ability to use description to mirror emotion. That and what is perhaps the best last paragraph in this author's landmark career. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Nearly 40 books, multiple Edgars, a reserved chair on every best-seller listnow that's backstory.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)