8220;America8217;s best novelist8221; (The Denver Post ) brings back one of his most fascinating characters8212; Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland, cousin to lawman Billy Bob Holland8212;in this heart-pounding bestseller. In a heat-cracked border town, the bodies of nine illegal aliens8212;women and girls, killed execution-style8212;are unearthed in a shallow grave. Haunted by a past he can8217;t shake and his own private demons, Hack attempts to untangle the grisly case, which may lead to more bloodshed. Damaged young Iraq vet Pete Flores, who saw too much before fleeing the crime scene, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives. Sorting through the lowlifes who are hunting down Pete, and with Preacher Jack Collins, a Godfearing serial killer for hire, in the mix, Hack is caught up in a terrifying race for survival8212;for Pete, Vikki, and himself.
After a very long hiatus, Hackberry Holland is back. Last heard from in LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD (1971), Hack has since decided that after running the rat race as a lawyer and a politician, he wants a quieter life. So he takes over the sheriff's office in a little town in south Texas. Things are going pretty well until nine bodies turn up. Now he's got to unravel the organized-crime connections that have left these Asian prostitutes and drug-runners dead--which means he needs to track down and protect a pair of witnesses, as well as find the moralizing vigilante known as the Preacher who kills in creepily thoughtful ways. Solving these crimes--and preventing future ones--is made all the more difficult by the waves of people moving into Hack's territory in Hurricane Katrina's destructive wake.
- Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres, Mystery + Crime
- Subgenre: Suspense, General
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Edition: Abridged
- Language: English
- Format: audioCD
- Release Date: September 27, 2011
- Date Published: September 20, 2011
- Author: James Lee Burke
- Narrator: Will Patton (Narrator)