Heartwood [Paperback]

"Heartwood," (1999), by the bestselling American mystery author James Lee Burke, was the second in his Texas-set Billy Bob Holland series, following on the heels of Cimarron Rose (1997). Like most of this series, the book, a Southern noir, police procedural/mystery, was set in and around dusty Deaf Smith, Texas, in the hill country north of Austin. Mind you, Texas is home country for Burke, who was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936, and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast in the oil business.

In these Billy Bob Holland books, we meet some characters, traveling under different names that we see over and over again in Burke's books. We learn a bit about his mother and father (who died in flames in a marine oil well accident, as did Robichaux's father). The town's leading citizen, Earl Deitrich, rich, handsome, of `good family,' and arrogant, with a beautiful wife and a beautiful house: a man who habitually pays no mind to the harm his profitable enterprises cause to others. Deitrich's son Jeff, a truly obnoxious unstable rich kid. Earl's wife Peggy Jean (nee Murphy), a former high school sweetheart of Holland's--and we often see that relationship in Burke's books. Temple Carrol, Holland's investigator, whom we will see a lot of in this series. Wilbur Pickett, the down on his heels former rodeo rider, there's often a character like him around in Burke's fiction. Hugo Roberts, the corrupt local sheriff. There are a bunch of grotesque Southern characters, so typical of Southern gothic fiction: Skyler Doolittle, cornpone dude who appears to suffer from some sexual confusion. Bubba Grimes, cornpone Southern sadist/killer. Fletcher Grinnel, cold, ex-mercenary killer. Johnny Krause, porn producer. Jessie Stump, a typically funny-named killer in Burke's pantheon, whom the author describes as "an armed robber, speed addict, and psychopath who shot a Mexican judge in a courtroom, jumped through a second-story glass window, and escaped into the heart of Mexico City."

Apparently, heartwood is a kind of tree, found in Texas that grows in layers. At any rate, we meet Holland as an attorney, formerly a lawman with the Texas Rangers. Against his better judgment, he is drawn into the case when Deitrich accuses Pickett of stealing an heirloom watch and a hundred thousand dollars' worth of bearer bonds from him.

Unfortunately, to me, at least, the author in this book takes another dip into the supernatural, as he did in "Cimarron Rose." Holland's former partner on the Texas Rangers, whom he accidentally shot and killed, L.Q. Navarro, makes a regular pest of himself, showing up to spout aphorisms all the time - though, thankfully, not as frequently as he appears in "Cimarron." And the book's ending, aided by a deus ex machina of which Burke is repeatedly fond, also comes with a silly touch of the supernatural.

Yet, the book retains the power Burke's writing at its best can boast. Maybe because, more than anything else, seems to me, he continues to give us some of the most beautiful, knowledgeable writing ever committed to paper about the flora, fauna, geography, and human occupants of the Gulf Coast, now so much in the news. To my mind, nobody has ever done it better. Burke attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute; later received B. A. and M. A. degrees from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, a pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U. S. Job Corps. His work has twice been awarded an Edgar for Best Crime Novel of the Year. He has also been a recipient of a Breadloaf and Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant. His first novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. At least eight of his novels have been New York Times bestsellers. But I, like many other readers, much prefer his New Orleans-set Robichaux mysteries; and if you're not yet acquainted with this author, I recommend you start there, rather than here.

This is the followup to James Lee Burke's Cimmaron Rose, the first Billy Bob Holland novel. Ex-Texas Ranger turned defence lawyer, Holland is a worthy adjunct to his Cajun detective Robicheaux.
Wilbur Pickett is the ex-rodeo bullrider whose ambitious plans for getting rich always fall through. He is framed for the theft of $300,000 in bearer bonds from the rich but shady Earl Deitrich, and Billy Bob comes to the aid of Wilbur and his blind wife. With the local sheriff's department in the pay of Deitrich, and Wilbur his own worst enemy, Holland has his work cut out if he wants to correct the injustice.
A worthy second book in the Holland saga, written by the master of the American crime novel. I heartily recommend it.

Jim Beatson.

The defining element of all of Burke's novels are the demons that drive the central characters and the compromising and dangerous positions they find themselves in as a result.

This is another very violent book, in which pathological villains and small-time thugs exercise their frustrations on the weak and powerless, driven by greed and a lust for power.

Burke recreates a highly vivid Texan atmosphere and you can almost taste the dust in your mouth at the book's tense moments. His characterisation is also spot on, and it is testament to Burke's understaning of human strength and weaknesses that he can portray the good, the bad, the ugly and even the mad with such clarity and empathy.

I miss Robicheaux, and hope that Burke returns to him with the next novel, but Billy Bob is growing into an interesting character, even if perhaps he is little too Robciheaux.

While this book is not quite out of Burke's top drawer it is very close and I am sure that with every Billy Bob appearance both the narrative, the atmosphere and the cast will improve.