My #4 for the year:
James Lee Burke "Every Cloak Rolled in Blood" (a Holland Family novel)
Wow, wow, wow.
James Lee Burke is one of the best writers in America today. His prose is lyrical. So much so that I feel myself sinking into his books the minute I start reading. His settings are so well drawn that they become characters in themselves. His various book series are different and interesting. His books are crime / good vs. evil.
Burke's longest running and most well-known series involves the character Dave Robicheaux, a cop who lives in and around New Iberia, Louisiana. Many of these books take side jaunts into New Orleans. They're gritty and tough, but also lyrical. I've read them all. Excellent series, and one I'd recommend reading in order as the main character and his sidekicks age and have important life experiences. There are a lot of Robicheaux books - probably 20 or more. James Lee Burke lived in New Iberia, Louisiana, and brings the setting, history and culture to life.
Burke's "secondary" series is interesting and unique. It involves the Holland Family. It's a different kind of series, with varied main characters who are all part of the Holland clan (dating back to a Civil War era great grandfather). Because they don't involve one singular character and don't take place in a particular chronological order, they don't necessarily need to be read in order. I think there are about 10 Holland family books. I did not read them in order, and didn't feel that it mattered. All are so varied that they work as stand alone books. They are set in Texas and Montana. James Lee Burke currently lives in Missoula, Montana, and his love for the area is clear.
Every Cloak Rolled in Blood is a humdinger. The main character is Aaron Holland Broussard, an 85 year old writer living in Missoula, Montana, whose ancestors include a WWI era Holland, a Texas Ranger and a Civil War era Holland. I mention this because although the book is set in the present day, it concerns itself with a code of honor handed down in families as well as the evils that men do (today) and the evils that men have done in the past. Some of these evils come back to haunt the events of the book - literally. There are literal ghosts in this book.
I loved it. My father, who is 86, and has read all of the James Lee Burke books along with me, and loves them all, felt that Every Cloak Rolled In Blood went a bit too far into the spectrum of the paranormal for his taste.
I, on the other hand, am a lover of history and genealogy. My taste in books runs to mystery, crime fiction, historical fiction, fantasy and horror. As such, Every Cloak Rolled in Blood ticked all my boxes. I finished it thinking "Yowza, Yowza, Yowza - go, James Lee Burke!" The book is also clearly very autobiographical, and I appreciated this author that I've loved for many years putting it all out there for me and for his long-time readers.
And now I'm off to read Another Kind of Eden by James Lee Burke. This one came out a couple of years ago but I downloaded it onto my kindle and forgot about it (duh). It'll be interesting, because it involves the same main character as Every Cloak Rolled in Blood. But it's set in the 1960's when Aaron Holland Broussard is a young man and an aspiring author. So back in time I go. I'm sure it'll be another great read.