Description: James Lee Burke's 1997 novel Cimarron Rose introduced a new character to the many fans of his Dave Robicheaux series: Billy Bob Holland, defense attorney, former police officer, and Texas Ranger, now living in the dusty little town of Deaf Smith in the hill country north of Austin.

Billy Bob, like all Burke characters, is a man with a history. The ghosts of his ancestors haunt this marvelously realized story of age-old feuds and of the sometimes subtle, sometimes violent, but always insidious conflicts between the haves and the have-nots. Whether it's manifested as a slight at a country club or a conflagration with Mexican-American gangbangers, tensions between the newly rich and those desperate to climb into circles of wealth and power at any cost animate a story with the vivid local detail, breathtaking action, and inimitable cast of characters Burke fans have come to expect.

As Billy Bob Holland's father tells him: "Heartwood trees grow in layers; like the spirit does, Grandpa Sam used to say. You just got to keep the roots in a clear stream and don't let nobody taint the water for you."

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