House of the Rising Sun

Starred review from October 26, 2015
In Edgar-winner Burke’s stunning follow-up to 2014’s Wayfaring Stranger, former Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland sets off to look for his estranged son, Ishmael, a U.S. Army captain, in a journey spanning over two years. In 1916, after a botched Ranger operation in Mexico, Hackberry has in his possession an artifact rumored to be the Holy Grail, incurring the wrath of Arnold Beckman, a vicious arms dealer who wants the artifact for himself. Bloodshed and treachery follow as Hackberry searches for his son while staying ahead of Beckman. As usual, Burke packs this epic novel with stellar characters, the best of whom are women: union activist Ruby Dansen, who’s Ishmael’s mother, and Beatrice DeMolay, a brothel owner who comes to Hackberry’s aid in Mexico. It’s easy to picture Hackberry as an avenging angel, albeit one with tattered wings, and his struggle to reconcile his innate sense of goodness with his violent sense of justice is only one of the story’s many facets. Crisp dialogue highlights this tale of redemption and the bonds of family, and the breathtaking conclusion is one that readers won’t soon forget. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency.

Starred review from January 25, 2016
Actor Patton uses a mellifluous Southwestern accent to add aural gravitas to Burke’s WWI-era-set novel, with its trademark mix of nature’s beauty and man’s brutality. Alcoholic, mule-stubborn, prone-to-violence former Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland is on a mission to save his soul by finding and mending his broken relations with his son, Ishmael, an Army captain suffering from near-fatal war wounds. During the two-year quest, Hack has many adventures involving a trio of remarkable women—union activist Ruby Dansen, who’s Ishmael’s mother; Beatrice DeMolay, a brothel owner who comes to his aid in Mexico; and Maggie Bassett-Holland, Hack’s cold and conniving estranged wife. Along the way, he comes to possess a chalice that Austrian arms dealer Arnold Beckman believes to be the Holy Grail. This is a sprawling, bold historical adventure, beautifully written by Burke, with lyrical and dramatic passages brought to full effect by Patton’s atmospheric rendering and strikingly gripping enactment. A Simon & Schuster hardcover.

September 15, 2015
The Holland clan of Texas lawmen and lawyers who populate one of the author's several crime series expands its family tree backward to the early 20th century with the exploits of a truly ornery good guy and his scary Austrian nemesis. In 1916, Hackberry Holland, sometime Texas Ranger and city marshal, comes upon a religious artifact that belongs to the Austrian, an arms merchant named Arnold Beckman. The ruckus sparked by this jeweled chalice entangles the wife Hackberry never got around to divorcing, the estranged mother of his son, as well as the son himself, who returns to the U.S. after being wounded at the Second Battle of the Marne. Burke (Wayfaring Stranger, 2014, etc.) sets his flawed hero-booze, blind rages, and bad choices-in the well-trodden fictional territory where the Old West is reluctantly giving way to modern times. The prolific author does a good job of refreshing it with a few characters who have adapted the old ways to new schemes, from the opium trade to the movies. By contrast, Hackberry is the archetype who resists the young century's novelties-his first effort to drive a motor car is a welcome comic episode. The prevailing atmosphere is gloom, as past sins and poor judgment haunt and bedevil Hackberry, forcing him into the dark world of Beckman, a man who enjoys inflicting physical and psychological torture. The well-paced action features the usual men at play with fists and guns, but Burke also offers three strong women with pivotal roles, one of whom could be a match for any of the tough guys. Burke's sure hand for crisp dialogue and a compelling story falters with the philosophizing he allows his wayward lawman to wallow in a bit too often. But then, resourceful warriors from Odysseus on have tended to ruminate.

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July 1, 2015
After a bloody clash in revolutionary Mexico that leaves four Mexicans dead, Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland is on the run with a precious artifact. He's chased by a ruthless Austrian arms dealer who wants the item for himself and tries to sway Hackberry by targeting his estranged son, Ishmael, a U.S. Army captain. During the course of Hackberry's efforts to reconcile with Ishmael, we meet Ishmael's mother, brothel madam Beatrice DeMolay, and dangerously wily Maggie Bassett, one-time lover of the Sundance Kid. And that precious artifact? It could be the Holy Grail. Next in the Holland family saga, after last year's "Wayfaring Stranger", and leading all the way up to the Battle of the Marne.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2015
As he did in Wayfaring Stranger (2014), Burke returns to the broad-canvas historical epic to fill in more gaps in the lives of the Holland family. This time it's Hackberry Holland, onetime Texas Ranger and off-again-on-again drunkard, whose backstory is on view, and what a story it is! A man whose many misdeeds and wrong turns have left him perpetually attempting to undo the past and reassemble the broken elements of his life, Hackberry is on the trail of his estranged son, Ishmael, a captain in the U.S. Army who may have been captured by Mexican revolutionaries. He doesn't find his son in Mexico, but Hack does wind up in possession of a rare religious artifact, believed to be the legendary cup of Jesus, coveted by, among others, a twisted Austrian arms dealer. So begins a quest of Arthurian proportions, stretching back and forth across time, in which Hack attempts to save his son from the arms dealer; reconcile with Ishmael's mother; square matters with the two other formidable women in his life, a former brothel madam and the bewitching Maggie Bassett, once the lover of the Sundance Kid; and, finally, find a safe home for the cup. It is an outsize story starring an outsize man, albeit one weighed down with so much crippling guilt that he appears to walk around like every page of the Bible is glued on his clothes. As with Dave Robicheaux, Burke's more famous series hero, Hackberry's demons occasionally weigh down the reader, too, but just when we feel ourselves losing patience with Hack and his colossally self-destructive violent outbursts, Burke wins us over yet again with another fusillade of lyrical, deeply moving prose that makes us feel the beating hearts of all his characters, demon-wracked though they may be. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This one will appeal to multiple kinds of readers: crime-fiction buffs who already follow Burke, of course, but also historical-fiction fans and everyone who loves large-scale adventure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)