-
Rain Gods
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $22.46
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Cimarron Rose
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Bob Holland is a lawyer for the people of sunbaked Deaf Smith, in southern Texas. Although occasionally he is haunted by memories of a violent past, his life is serene—until a local guitarist, Lucas Smothers, lands in jail for raping and murdering a young woman. As Billy Bob gathers information to defend him, the evidence soon points to the son of a wealthy local businessman. In the ensuing battle, money is pitted against the law. But a deeper struggle also arises, for Lucas is Billy Bob’s illegitimate son.
-
-
It was okay
- By Dawn Y on 06-13-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Wayfaring Stranger
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.
-
-
Near perfect. One of Burke's Best.
- By David Shear on 07-17-14
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Bob Holland is a lawyer for the people of sunbaked Deaf Smith, in southern Texas. Although occasionally he is haunted by memories of a violent past, his life is serene—until a local guitarist, Lucas Smothers, lands in jail for raping and murdering a young woman. As Billy Bob gathers information to defend him, the evidence soon points to the son of a wealthy local businessman. In the ensuing battle, money is pitted against the law. But a deeper struggle also arises, for Lucas is Billy Bob’s illegitimate son.
-
-
It was okay
- By Dawn Y on 06-13-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Wayfaring Stranger
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.
-
-
Near perfect. One of Burke's Best.
- By David Shear on 07-17-14
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
Heaven's Prisoners
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vietnam vet Dave Robicheaux has turned in his detective's badge, is winning his battle against booze, and has left New Orleans with his wife for the tranquil beauty of the Louisiana bayou. But a plane crash on the Gulf brings a young girl into his life - and with her comes a netherworld of murder, deception and homegrown crime.
-
-
Where is the unabridged version?
- By Richard J. Strasma on 01-03-16
By: James Lee Burke
-
White Doves at Morning
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the center of the tale are James lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from the slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willy Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite personal and political conflicts, both men join the Confederate Army, determined not to back down.
-
-
Where's Will?
- By Luke on 03-01-17
By: James Lee Burke
-
To the Bright and Shining Sun
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this novel, Burke brings his brilliant feel for time and place to a stunning story of Appalachia in the early 1960s. Here Perry Woodson Hatfield James, a young man torn between family honor and the lure of seedy watering holes, must somehow survive the tempestuous journey from boyhood to manhood and escape the dark and atavistic heritage of the Cumberland Mountains.
-
-
Classic!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-09-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Thirteen Moons
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magnificent novel by one of America's finest writers is the epic of one man's remarkable journey, set in 19th-century America against the background of a vanishing people and a rich way of life. At the age of 12, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map, and sent alone into the Indian Nation to run a trading post as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home.
-
-
Best Novel of 2006!
- By Thomas on 10-23-06
By: Charles Frazier
-
The Cold Dish
- A Walt Longmire Mystery
- By: Craig Johnson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Introducing Wyoming's Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times best-selling author of Dry Bones, the first in the Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, full of memorable characters.
-
-
Not Your Ordinary Western Novel (Series)
- By Dataman on 09-12-12
By: Craig Johnson
-
The Son
- By: Philipp Meyer
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Shepherd, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching examination of the bloody price of power, The Son is a gripping and utterly transporting novel that maps the legacy of violence in the American west with rare emotional acuity, even as it presents an intimate portrait of one family across two centuries. Eli McCullough is just twelve-years-old when a marauding band of Comanche storm his Texas homestead and brutally murder his mother and sister, taking him as a captive.
-
-
Five Stars for the Lone Star, The Son, & Meyer
- By Mel on 06-04-13
By: Philipp Meyer
-
The Convict and Other Stories
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Steven Boyer, Louis Moreno, Richard Poe, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"America's best novelist" ( The Denver Post), two-time Edgar Award winner James Lee Burke is renowned for his lush, suspense-charged portrayals of the Deep South – the people, the crime, the hope and despair infused in the bayou landscape. This stunning anthology takes us back to where Burke's heart and soul beat -- the steamy, seamy Gulf Coast -- in complex and fascinating tales that crackle with violence and menace, meshing his flair for gripping storytelling with his urbane writing style.
-
-
Haven't read a a Jee Burke I didn't like
- By Toni R. on 09-15-12
By: James Lee Burke
-
Nightwoods
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Frazier puts his remarkable gifts in the service of a lean, taut narrative while losing none of the transcendent prose, virtuosic storytelling, and insight into human nature that have made him one of the most beloved and celebrated authors in the world. Now, with his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister’s troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine. Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape....
-
-
Beautiful writing and powerful narration
- By MB2312 on 10-20-11
By: Charles Frazier
-
No Country for Old Men
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.
-
-
Exceptional, engrossing, frightening.
- By P. Giorgio on 07-27-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
New Spring
- The Wheel of Time Prequel
- By: Robert Jordan
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For three days battle has raged in the snow around the great city of Tar Valon. In the city, a foretelling of the future is uttered. On the slopes of Dragonmount, the immense mountain that looms over the city, a child is born, an infant prophesied to change the world. That child must be found before he can be killed by the forces of the Shadow.
-
-
Read it after reading others in the series
- By Stacy Fair on 12-13-07
By: Robert Jordan
-
Angels and Demons
- By: Dan Brown
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization, the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra.
-
-
A must for fans of The Da Vinci Code
- By Geoffrey on 04-14-04
By: Dan Brown
-
The Blade Itself
- By: Joe Abercrombie
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 22 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies. Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.
-
-
Characters drive the story. The Narrator rocks!
- By Brian Alsobrook on 11-01-16
By: Joe Abercrombie
Publisher's summary
As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs attempt to untangle the threads of this complex and grisly case, a damaged young Iraq veteran, Pete Flores, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives, hoping to outwit the bloodthirsty criminals who want to kill Pete for his involvement in the murders. The only trouble is, Pete doesn't know who he's running from: drunk and terrified, he fled the scene of the crime when the shooting began. And there's a long list of people who want Pete and Vikki dead: crime boss Hugo Cistranos, who hired Pete for the operation; Nick Dolan, a strip club owner and small-time gangster with revenge on his mind; and a mysterious God-fearing serial-killer-for-hire known as Preacher Jack Collins, with enigmatic motives of his own.
With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a host of cold-blooded killers on Pete and Vikki's trail, it's up to Sheriff Holland to find them first and figure out who's behind the mass murder before anyone else ends up dead. In this thrilling and intricate work, James Lee Burke has once again proven himself a master storyteller and a perceptive chronicler of the darkest corners of the human heart.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
Illegal
- A Novel
- By: Paul Levine
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trial lawyer Jimmy “Royal” Payne was his own worst enemy - until now. Haunted by personal tragedy and wanted by the cops, Payne needs to skip town. What he doesn’t need is Tino Perez, a gutsy twelve-year-old Mexican boy in search of his missing - and undocumented - mother. But Payne’s ex-wife, an L.A.P.D. detective he still loves, makes him a deal: help the boy or go to jail. Soon Payne is following Tino into the darker side of the American dream.
-
-
Great opening chapters; very vivid characters!
- By Wayne on 01-31-16
By: Paul Levine
-
Preparation for the Next Life
- By: Atticus Lish
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.
-
-
Incredible craftsmanship.
- By B.J. on 04-23-15
By: Atticus Lish
-
Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
-
-
Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
-
The Ploughmen
- A Novel
- By: Kim Zupan
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the center of this searing fever-dream of a novel are two men - a killer awaiting trial and a troubled young deputy - sitting across fromeach other in the dark, talking through the bars of a county jail cell: JohnGload, so brutally adept at his craft that only now, at the age of 77, has he faced the prospect of long-term incarceration; and Valentine Millimaki, low man in the Copper County sheriff's department, who draws the overnight shift after Gload's arrest.
-
-
Perceptive Narration
- By Abby Elvidge on 09-22-16
By: Kim Zupan
-
Fourth of July Creek
- A Novel
- By: Smith Henderson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
-
-
The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
Illegal
- A Novel
- By: Paul Levine
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trial lawyer Jimmy “Royal” Payne was his own worst enemy - until now. Haunted by personal tragedy and wanted by the cops, Payne needs to skip town. What he doesn’t need is Tino Perez, a gutsy twelve-year-old Mexican boy in search of his missing - and undocumented - mother. But Payne’s ex-wife, an L.A.P.D. detective he still loves, makes him a deal: help the boy or go to jail. Soon Payne is following Tino into the darker side of the American dream.
-
-
Great opening chapters; very vivid characters!
- By Wayne on 01-31-16
By: Paul Levine
-
Preparation for the Next Life
- By: Atticus Lish
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.
-
-
Incredible craftsmanship.
- By B.J. on 04-23-15
By: Atticus Lish
-
Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
-
-
Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
-
The Ploughmen
- A Novel
- By: Kim Zupan
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the center of this searing fever-dream of a novel are two men - a killer awaiting trial and a troubled young deputy - sitting across fromeach other in the dark, talking through the bars of a county jail cell: JohnGload, so brutally adept at his craft that only now, at the age of 77, has he faced the prospect of long-term incarceration; and Valentine Millimaki, low man in the Copper County sheriff's department, who draws the overnight shift after Gload's arrest.
-
-
Perceptive Narration
- By Abby Elvidge on 09-22-16
By: Kim Zupan
-
Fourth of July Creek
- A Novel
- By: Smith Henderson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
-
-
The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
-
Provinces of Night
- By: William Gay
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E.F. Bloodworth has returned to his home - a forgotten corner of Tennessee - after 20 years of roaming. The wife he walked out on has withered and faded, his three sons are grown and angry. Warren is a womanizing alcoholic, Boyd is driven by jealousy to hunt down his wife's lover, and Brady puts hexes on his enemies from his mamma's porch. Only Fleming, the old man's grandson, treats him with the respect his age commands, and sees past all the hatred to realize the way it can posion a man's soul.
-
-
Story and Narration a perfect match
- By 99hedys on 10-03-15
By: William Gay
-
Descent
- By: Tim Johnston
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the day Caitlin vanishes the lives of her family members are irrevocably altered, each assuming blame for that day's tragic events. As the initial days of hope are replaced by weeks of anxiety and despair, they find themselves increasingly isolated, each wondering: Is she still alive? Will we ever know what happened?
-
-
Even a Monkey Knows the Value of a Stick
- By tooonce72 on 01-09-15
By: Tim Johnston
-
A False Dawn
- By: Tom Lowe
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the death of his wife, Sean O'Brien makes a promise to her that he has no plans to break - until he starts building a new life in an old cabin on a remote stretch of a tropical river in the heart of Florida. It's there that he discovers an injured young woman who whispers a cryptic message into his ear.
-
-
Wonderful first novel in the Sean O'Brien series
- By Wayne on 05-07-17
By: Tom Lowe
-
Burn What Will Burn
- By: C. B. McKenzie
- Narrated by: Bon Shaw
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bob Reynolds doesn't recognize the body in the creek, but he does recognize the danger of it. He's a newcomer to town, not entirely welcome and not entirely on good footing with the sheriff. So far he's kept his head down, mostly over the bar at the Crow's Nest. But he has interests other than drinking and spending his inheritance, including one that goes by the name Tammy Fay Smith and who may have caught the sheriff's eye as well.
-
-
An Author to Check Out
- By L. O. Pardue on 07-24-16
By: C. B. McKenzie
-
The Lost Country
- By: William Gay
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Edgewater is a harbinger of doom. Estranged from his family, discharged from the navy and touched by a rising desperation, he sets out hitchhiking home to East Tennessee, where his father is slowly dying. On the road, separately, are Sudy and Bradshaw, brother and sister, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish. All, in one way or another, have their pasts and futures embroiled with D. L. Harkness, a predator in all the ways there are.
-
-
One of the finest novels I have read!
- By Donald B. Eager on 09-06-21
By: William Gay
-
The Deep Blue Good-By
- A Travis McGee Novel, Book 1
- By: John D. MacDonald
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.
-
-
Before the A-Team, there was Travis McGee
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-12-16
-
House of Sand and Fog
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III, Fontaine Dollas Dubus
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.
-
-
I suspect I am going to be in the minority . . .
- By BogKid on 01-12-04
By: Andre Dubus III
-
Niceville
- By: Carsten Stroud
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A boy literally disappears from Main Street. A security camera captures the moment of his instant, inexplicable vanishing. An audacious bank robbery goes seriously wrong: Four cops are gunned down; a TV news helicopter is shot and spins crazily out of the sky, triggering a disastrous cascade of events that ricochet across twenty different lives over the course of just 36 hours. Nick Kavanaugh, a cop with a dark side, investigates. Soon he and his wife, Kate, a distinguished lawyer from an old Niceville family, find themselves struggling to make sense of it all.
-
-
Good Story- Wrong Reader
- By Stacy on 06-28-14
By: Carsten Stroud
-
Last Call
- By: Tim Powers
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player 20 years ago and hasn’t returned to Las Vegas, or held a hand of cards, in 10 years. But troubling nightmares about a strange poker game he once attended on a houseboat on Lake Mead are drawing him back to the magical city. For the mythic game he believed he won did not end that night in 1969—and the price of his winnings was his soul. Now, a pot far more strange and perilous than he ever could imagine depends on the turning of a card.
-
-
Powers is Under-represented on Audible
- By tim on 01-18-11
By: Tim Powers
-
The Current
- A Novel
- By: Tim Johnston
- Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene - half-frozen but alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community's memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river 10 years earlier and whose killer may still live among them.
-
-
Exceeded my expectations in every way
- By MelSA on 02-03-19
By: Tim Johnston
-
Borders of the Heart
- By: Chris Fabry
- Narrated by: Chris Fabry
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. D. Jessup finds his line in the desert near Tucson, as far from his home as the moon. He’s traded his guitar and the songs in his head for the daily grind of an organic farm - a mind-numbing existence that dulls the pain of his memories. His boss has one rule: if J. D. sees an illegal, call Border Patrol. But when an early morning ride along the fence line leads him to Maria, a beautiful young woman near death, J. D.’s heart pushes him toward another choice.
-
-
Good Christian Fiction
- By Kathleen Yamauchi on 05-06-15
By: Chris Fabry
-
Rain Dogs
- By: Sean Doolittle
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was one hell of an inheritance for former Chicago reporter Tom Coleman: a broken-down pickup truck, ramshackle campground, a canoe livery - and one pot-smoking, barely working employee he doesn’t need, doesn’t want, and can’t afford. But the truth is, after losing a child and a marriage, Tom doesn’t really care.
-
-
Narration is awful
- By Karen Martin on 03-09-21
By: Sean Doolittle
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Wayfaring Stranger
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.
-
-
Near perfect. One of Burke's Best.
- By David Shear on 07-17-14
By: James Lee Burke
-
Heaven's Prisoners
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vietnam vet Dave Robicheaux has turned in his detective's badge, is winning his battle against booze, and has left New Orleans with his wife for the tranquil beauty of the Louisiana bayou. But a plane crash on the Gulf brings a young girl into his life - and with her comes a netherworld of murder, deception and homegrown crime.
-
-
Where is the unabridged version?
- By Richard J. Strasma on 01-03-16
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Bob Holland is a lawyer for the people of sunbaked Deaf Smith, in southern Texas. Although occasionally he is haunted by memories of a violent past, his life is serene—until a local guitarist, Lucas Smothers, lands in jail for raping and murdering a young woman. As Billy Bob gathers information to defend him, the evidence soon points to the son of a wealthy local businessman. In the ensuing battle, money is pitted against the law. But a deeper struggle also arises, for Lucas is Billy Bob’s illegitimate son.
-
-
It was okay
- By Dawn Y on 06-13-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
Wayfaring Stranger
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.
-
-
Near perfect. One of Burke's Best.
- By David Shear on 07-17-14
By: James Lee Burke
-
Heaven's Prisoners
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vietnam vet Dave Robicheaux has turned in his detective's badge, is winning his battle against booze, and has left New Orleans with his wife for the tranquil beauty of the Louisiana bayou. But a plane crash on the Gulf brings a young girl into his life - and with her comes a netherworld of murder, deception and homegrown crime.
-
-
Where is the unabridged version?
- By Richard J. Strasma on 01-03-16
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Bob Holland is a lawyer for the people of sunbaked Deaf Smith, in southern Texas. Although occasionally he is haunted by memories of a violent past, his life is serene—until a local guitarist, Lucas Smothers, lands in jail for raping and murdering a young woman. As Billy Bob gathers information to defend him, the evidence soon points to the son of a wealthy local businessman. In the ensuing battle, money is pitted against the law. But a deeper struggle also arises, for Lucas is Billy Bob’s illegitimate son.
-
-
It was okay
- By Dawn Y on 06-13-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
To the Bright and Shining Sun
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this novel, Burke brings his brilliant feel for time and place to a stunning story of Appalachia in the early 1960s. Here Perry Woodson Hatfield James, a young man torn between family honor and the lure of seedy watering holes, must somehow survive the tempestuous journey from boyhood to manhood and escape the dark and atavistic heritage of the Cumberland Mountains.
-
-
Classic!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-09-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Harbor Lights
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Gary Furlong, Matt Pittenger, Michael David Axtell, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harbor Lights is a story collection from one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella. These eight stories move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons, and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival, and revenge
-
-
Virtue Signaling
- By Malandro on 01-30-24
By: James Lee Burke
-
Lonesome Dove
- By: Larry McMurtry
- Narrated by: Lee Horsley
- Length: 36 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove will make listeners laugh, weep, dream, and remember.
-
-
The Narrator’s breathing is unbearable!!!
- By Basic Review on 08-28-19
By: Larry McMurtry
-
Cimarron Rose
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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. As a result, he incurs enemies that are far more dangerous than any he faced as a Texas Ranger.
-
-
worth it
- By Vivian on 03-01-07
By: James Lee Burke
-
Thirteen Moons
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magnificent novel by one of America's finest writers is the epic of one man's remarkable journey, set in 19th-century America against the background of a vanishing people and a rich way of life. At the age of 12, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map, and sent alone into the Indian Nation to run a trading post as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home.
-
-
Best Novel of 2006!
- By Thomas on 10-23-06
By: Charles Frazier
-
Cold Mountain
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Charles Frazier
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished American in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor.
-
-
Cold Mountain (Unabridged)
- By M. Dunn on 02-09-04
By: Charles Frazier
-
Clete
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clete Purcel—private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spots—is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal—his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Son
- By: Philipp Meyer
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Shepherd, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching examination of the bloody price of power, The Son is a gripping and utterly transporting novel that maps the legacy of violence in the American west with rare emotional acuity, even as it presents an intimate portrait of one family across two centuries. Eli McCullough is just twelve-years-old when a marauding band of Comanche storm his Texas homestead and brutally murder his mother and sister, taking him as a captive.
-
-
Five Stars for the Lone Star, The Son, & Meyer
- By Mel on 06-04-13
By: Philipp Meyer
-
The Trackers
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.
-
-
So Good
- By Ray Stewart on 04-28-23
By: Charles Frazier
-
Witness to a Trial
- A Short Story Prequel to The Whistler
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A judge’s first murder trial. A defense attorney in over his head. A prosecutor out for blood and glory. The accused, who is possibly innocent. And the killer, who may have just committed the perfect crime.
-
-
Mislead
- By Anne on 11-05-16
By: John Grisham
-
The Cold Dish
- A Walt Longmire Mystery
- By: Craig Johnson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Introducing Wyoming's Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times best-selling author of Dry Bones, the first in the Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, full of memorable characters.
-
-
Not Your Ordinary Western Novel (Series)
- By Dataman on 09-12-12
By: Craig Johnson
What listeners say about Rain Gods
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Richard
- 07-17-09
Dynamic Duo
The best writer teams up with the best narrator for an enjoyable audio book. This book is similar to No Country For Old Men. Just similar but a very different story and it is better in several ways. For one it is twice as long so you get twice as much enjoyment. Two there are some nice characters in this book. Sheriff Hackberry Holland for one but every time they said his name I thought Huckleberry Hound and chuckled. Strange name. Will Patton does a super job as usual and I only wish he could go back and read all Burke's books. There are many of them but they are useless to me with other narrators. Pretty convoluted and fast paced. Worth a credit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
52 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Tim
- 08-06-09
A Modern Masterpiece
This book and the narration are so good that they almost deserve a class of their own. As another reviewer noted this story does bear a passing resemblance to No Country for Old Men, so if you liked that movie that's likely a good indicator for this book. I'm not a huge fan of Burke, I find his Louisiana novels (much like True Blood on HBO) a little hard to take, but this Texas badlands story is simply a masterpiece. The narration is spectacular, it's a little disconcerting that the lead villain sounds exactly like George W Bush, but it's hard to imagine how it could be improved upon. The story is complex with many interwoven threads so you need to be able to give the story your reasonably full attention to really appreciate the mastery of plot and language deployed here. The chief bad guy (W.) may be the best drawn and most complex literary monster since Hannibal Lector. The hero is grittier than a sandwich eaten at the beach, the cavalcade of supporting cast have such a comprehensive range of character flaws and challenges that it does get a bit Dostoyevsky grim from time to time, but never ceases to enthrall.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
29 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Catherine
- 07-25-09
Divided Loyalties and Sultry Prose
Only a master writer can leave you rocking on a see-saw between grinding your teeth over the moral imbeciles and cheering for the women of courage and backbone in this book. You think you'd hate these guys, but Burke finds and shows you just enough of their humanity that you understand the main characters.
Take your time and enjoy the pictures painted because you're going to be right there, smelling and tasting the Texas days and nights. This author gets under your skin with the characters; he doesn't tell you through trite phrases and meaningless gestures.
No highbrow literature here. Just a fine story, skillfully told. If you haven't read James Lee Burke before jump right in. If you have, you'll feel right at home. The narrator is like a fine barbecue, slow and low so the story is so tender it falls off the bone.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
21 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Deborah
- 07-23-09
Will Patton deserves an Oscar...
I agree with Richard. Let Will Patton go back and record all the Dave books. It would be a great literary event to start with Heaven's Prisoners and follow Dave through his life. After hearing Patton's first reading of Burke's books years ago, I just can't listen to another reader. Will is Dave is Burke's voice.
To this book...I had a hard time with the Hack/Pam thing and was sorry to see him give in. I liked him keeping his wife's memory as enough. The book was a little more graphically violent than some of of Burke's others, but the story was good. It was a little convoluted and I kept getting some of the peripheral characters mixed up...there seemed to be a lot of bad guys and their henchmen.
Anyway, not the best Burke book but an excellent adventure nonetheless. I loved the ending. He was one crazy dude.
I hope Mr. Burke has 100 more books in him.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Snoodely
- 08-23-09
Dark poetry
Although "Rain Gods" introduces a new protagonist and a new locale into James Lee Burke's repertoire, it has the same beautiful, sad, poetic delivery as Burke's Dave Robicheaux series that preceded it. It also has the same undercurrent of anger, desperation, and violence as those previous novels. It seems Burke always writes about low-lifes: the dark underbelly of society. Sometimes I don't know why I keep listening to Burke's novels, because they always make me feel bad; but I can't seem to stay away from them. I can't think of another author who writes so beautifully and so skillfully. Will Patton provides the perfect voice for Burke's novels, with his soft, understated southern accents. I recommend this novel to almost everybody.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Old Hippy
- 08-27-09
What a great listen!
I really enjoyed this one, and was sorry when it was over. Fascinating word portraits of the SouthWest (I know, I used to live there and his descriptions are vivid!) The characters, with the possible exception of Preacher, are real, engaging and you can't help but develop your own attachments and personal interests in almost all of them. The protagonist Hackberry and his deputy Pam almost come to life in Burke's writing, and they are wonderfully believable characters. While there is the predictable good versus evil climactic battle of sorts, it isn't overdone with pyrotechnics and gore, it just sort of comes off as real life. This is a really good book, and the narration is top notch. You really can tell the characters by their unique voices given by Will Patton, and almost don't need the author saying "he said" "she said". I must check out more of Burke and Patton!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- ShieldA
- 12-13-09
Best James Lee Burke in years
I enjoyed Moon of the Red Ponies very much, and thought the narrator was excellent. But this one has surprised me with how good Burke still is. I thought the story was going to be predictable, but surprises appear in the plot. And Will Patton is the best at reading Burke's novels - someone had complained about his Dave Robicheaux reading not being an authentic Louisiana accent. But I don't care how accurate the accent is -- his narration of the story just knocks me out. All around recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Mike
- 07-17-09
James Lee Burke Meets Cormac McCarthy
In Rain Gods, Burke takes the same narrative style found in his Dave Robicheaux series and transplants it to Southern Texas. We have a new assortment of, as Dave would say, "moral imbeciles" pursuing and being pursued by the novel's protagonist, Hackberry Holland, an aging lawman. It's "No Country For Old Men", but with Burke's special brand of dialogue and narration as opposed to the lean, stripped down style of McCarthy. Will Patton, as always, does a great job of telling the story but not getting in the way of it. Once again Burke does a great job of exploring the darker side of humanity and the road to redemption. However, Hackberry's sidekick, Pam Tills, is a poor substitute for Clete Purcell.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Ed
- 07-12-10
Better than Tin Roof Blowdown
James Lee Burke exceeded my expectations with this well-written story with equally well-developed and interesting characters. Preacher Collins is every bit as interesting a character as is Hannibal Lecter. Listeners will be questioning whether there is some good in him. As the book goes on listeners will find themselves changing their attitudes about Nick Dolan. And they will love his wife, Esther. Sheriff Hackberry is interesting but, more than anything, he takes the author's perspective in helping the listener understand how the characters relate and interact. You don't get too much better than James Lee Burke's writing in this book. The story in another author's words would not be nearly as compelling. And I was surprised, if not blown away by Will Patton's narration. It was flawless. Another top ten book in my Audible collection of about 150.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- rhl60
- 03-10-10
Burke never fails to entertain
The more I read Burke, the more I appreciate his sensibilities. He puts thought into his characters, his plots, and his writing. As a keen observer of the natural world, his settings invariably serve as a stark foil to the human machinations at play. The hobbled dignity and isolation of his protagonists serve the genre well, and the reader always learns from them. Will Patton is outstanding as a narrator. Burke has done it again with a great "read"....
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful