Rain Gods

A Novel

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Will Patton

Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he'd hoped to leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won't escape so easily.

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.

©2009 James Lee Burke (P)2009 Simon & Schuster Audio

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.

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.

Eloquent Writing and Reading

Will Patton is absolutely the best reader I have encountered. Burke is highly descriptive and employs memorable, believable characters, always with severe flaws. This was a really fun book to listen to...

A great listen

Generally, I download audiobooks that are of the 'brain candy' variety, as a change to some of the heavier reading I do for the sake of work and such, so this book came as a bit of a surprise to me, since I've never read anything by James Lee Burke.

The author's style is at turns lyrical and lovely, and harsh and gritty, and I'm not sure that there's anyone else who could have narrated this book as well.

I've since downloaded one of the author's Dave Robicheaux novels, and while it's a good book, I greatly prefer the characters in Rain Gods, and hope that there will be more books featuring Hackberry Holland as the main character.

At times, the writing in Rain Gods was a bit overdone, and some of the dialogue was kind of... well, a little more poetic than realistic, but even so, I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and would highly recommend it.

Absolutely fabulous

The story itself is spectacular, a real page-turner, and Will Patton's narration is impressive. I've just ordered all of James Lee Burke's other audiobooks;that's how great RAIN GODS was. I teach creative writing; will use this book as an example of excellent storytelling, concrete and specific details, and how to keep suspense until the very last second.

Stop and get the first Hack Holland before this

All three Hack Holland novels are great, but you get a lot of perspective on Hack and others in this book if you start with Lay Down My Sword and Shield. Dave Robicheaux novels don't require this, but I advise you read the Hack novels in order.

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.

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"....

The best contemporary American Novel

Narration great. This book is writing which is prose but often reads like poetry. The characters are totally Americana but have the power of characters from Dostoevsky, thinking especially of the Brothers Karamazov.
It was hard to put down. The story was well woven.

an ending worth waiting for

Parts of this book were so funny. The storyteller is flawless..