Cimarron Rose

A Billy Bob Holland Novel, Book 1

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Texas attorney and former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland has many secrets. Among them is Vernon Smother's son, Lucas, a now-teenaged boy about whom few know the truth - Lucas is really Billy Bob's illegitimate son. When Lucas is arrested for murder, Billy Bob must confront the past and serve as the boy's criminal attorney.

Billy Bob knows the propensity of the town, Deaf Smith, Texas, to make scapegoats out of the innocent and to exploit and sexually use the powerless. During Lucas's trial, Billy Bob realizes that he will have to bring injury upon Lucas as well as himself in order to save his son. As a result, Billy Bob incurs enemies that are far more dangerous than any he faced as a Texas Ranger.

With the same electric language and hard-edged style that brought James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels to the forefront of American crime fiction, Cimarron Rose explodes with a new, evocative setting that will establish Billy Bob Holland as James Lee Burke's next great character.

©2012 James Lee Burke (P)2012 Simon & Schuster Audio

book was okay

book was okay , not sure if it was the book or the narrator or the book itself that was bad.

What a character !

One never knows what he is going to get into next. It seems like he can't stand to have a moment's peace.

Well done!

Great story and Tom does the narrative like no other. I have heard him before and he never disappoints. James Lee Burke is a national treasure.

Best Author

THE best American author. Past and present.

(nothing else needs to be said but I must post 15 words)

a good voice

a well conceived plot taken care of and a surprise to two along the way

Great book..not such a great narrator

As always, James Lee Burke does a fine fine job with another Hackberry episode. But the reader read as if every character was a version of Forrest Gump. Has he spent any time speaking to real Texans? Or studied that's very special accent at all? Such a pity.

Classic JLB tale

James Lee Burke can get tied up in his own prose but overall a story that kept me wanting more. Narrator was good

Burke delivers withanother great mystery/hero!

Where does Cimarron Rose rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

James Lee Burke is perhaps the best author for audible mystery lovers I know of. I'd have to say this one runs a close second to the Hackberry Holland series, my favorite of his works.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Cimarron Rose?

The wonderful interactions of the hero Holland interviewing suspects was a lot of fun, but my favorite moments were his conversations with his dead friend.

What does Tom Stechschulte bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Tom caught my attention with his stellar performance in No Country For Old Men. I have loved all of Will Patton's work on most of Burke's novels, therefore I was skeptical over the editors choice of Stechshulte. I needn't have been concerned. He delivered big, so much so, I don't think Patton would have done better.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did listen to this in one day!

Any additional comments?

Though this novel has fewer colorful and exagerated characters than Burke's other series, I found it refreshing and it even made for a More realistic and superior mystery. I just don't see how anyone would not enjoy this book.

Another Burke Winner

James Lee Burke makes every tale a descriptive masterpiece of tension and adventure, full of wonderful characters. The good guys are flawed but heroic, and the bad guys are complex and worthy of your hatred. Highly recommended.

Don't miss out on this story

This is my first listen from James Lee Burke, and definitely not the last. It's one of those stories that keeps you listening when you know you should be doing other things.
The characters are a colorful lot, with bits of humor, and lots of deception. Billy Bob finds himself defending his illegitimate son, which leads to learning a whole lot of dirty little secrets from many of the town's residents. It's a suspenseful who done it, with a side monologue from Billy Bob's Grandfather telling his own story straight out of the old west.The narrator does an excellent job, capturing the feel of a small town in Texas.