Feast Day of Fools

A Novel

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HIS CELEBRATED THIRTIETH NOVEL!

James Lee Burke returns to the Texas border town of his bestseller Rain Gods, where a serial killer presumed dead is very much alive . . . and where sheriff Hackberry Holland, now a widower, fights for survival—his own, and that of the citizens he’s sworn to protect. When alcoholic ex-boxer Danny Boy Lorca witnesses a man tortured to death in the desert, Hackberry’s investigation leads him to Anton Ling, a mysterious Chinese woman known for sheltering illegals. Ling denies any knowledge of the attack, but something in her aristocratic beauty seduces Hack into overlooking the fact that she is as dangerous as the men she harbors. And when the soulless Preacher Jack Collins reemerges, the cold-blooded killer may prove invaluable to Hackberry. This time, he and the Preacher have a common enemy.

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Book details:

Simon & Schuster Audio |
6 disks |
ISBN 9781442344242 |
September 2011

$34.99 List Price

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Praise

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“An Indie Next List Pick for October 2011”

“Holy shit does this novel crush into its pages a whole war chest of bloody drama and brutal questions about what it means to be an American and a Christian and a Christian American in the new century. . . . James Lee... ”

– Benjamin Percy for Esquire

“Burke’s evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce wonder.”

– Entertainment Weekly

“James Lee Burke presses onward with his singular mission to rewrite the American western in Feast Day of Fools . . . Burke is constructing a whole mew mythology in this series, with characters haunted by history and driven by... ”

– The New York Times Book Review

“James Lee Burke's thirty superbly written mysteries and Westerns have always been allegorical, illuminating the grandest of themes. Over the years, he has written about racism, neocolonialism, the rape of the environment, the... ”

– Bruce DeSilva, The Associated Press

“He’s a genius, Burke, and I read everything he puts out. All his novels are about good vs. evil and how hard it is to overcome evil. This one’s about a Texas sheriff and two villains, one associated with the [drug]... ”

– Bill O'Reilly for the New York Post

“When the literary lights of the 21st century go marching in, James Lee Burke will be leading the parade. For five decades, Burke has created memorable novels that weave exquisite language, unforgettable characters, and social... ”

– Philadelphia Inquirer

“Riveting . . . Burke is creating an allegorical, almost Biblical setting here: The lost wander hopelessly in the desert, seeking revenge or redemption or some terrible mix of both. The moral center in all of this is Hackberry... ”

– The Miami Herald

“Like the hero of his 30th work, to be published Tuesday, James Lee Burke delivers--again. There's a reason Burke, 75, has earned the Grand Master title from the Mystery Writers of America and is tagged by some colleagues as the... ”

– New Orleans Times-Picayune

“Nobody turns suspense into poetry like James Lee Burke.”

– San Antonio Express-News

“At 75, Burke is writing each book as if it could be his final one. . . . [Feast Day of Fools] is soaked with a sense of mortality. . . . It's easy to hear echoes of Hemingway and Cormac McCarthy, but Burke is his own writer. He... ”

– The Columbus Dispatch

“Feast Day of Fools is a singular achievement, exploring the effects of moral decay on an aging man's heart, while it's also an allegory for America's corrupted soul. . . . In Burke's characteristic brutal, bold Faulknerian style,... ”

– Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“After 30 or so titles, fans of crime novelist James Lee Burke approach his books with certain expectations, whether the setting is Louisiana, Montana or south Texas. . . . There will be lyrical descriptions of the natural world,... ”

– Providence Journal-Bulletin

“Nobody writes quite like James Lee Burke. He gets better with each successive book. . . . Hold on tight, this is a wild ride.”

– Dayton Daily News

“Reading Feast Day of Fools is an experience in yin and yang. It's a beautiful poem shot full of lead. It's like a picture postcard slashed with a bloody knife. It's heartbreakingly gorgeous and sandpaper-harsh, both at the same... ”

– Flint Journal

“Holland is a quintessential Burke hero -- deeply moral, tortured by past sins, appalled at the depravity of our fallen world, and firmly committed to justice.”

– Wichita Eagle

“Burke writes masterfully, evoking the best images this side of Cormac McCarthy as he spins beautiful tales of horrible people doing terrible things. . . . Rarely do mysteries challenge readers this much. Or linger so long after... ”

– The Post and Courier (Charleston)

“Darkly lyrical and utterly chilling.”

– Tampa Bay Tribune

“Expertly plotted and paced . . . Burke's settings, like his characters, are brought to life in vivid impressionistic language. The novel moves among arid, Bible-like desert locales and nightmarish Mexican bars and whorehouses... ”

– The Roanoke Times

“[O]utstanding. . . . The richness of Burke's characters, always one of his strengths, reaches new heights . . . . The intricately plotted narrative takes numerous unexpected turns, and Burke handles his trademark themes of social... ”

– Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“As Burke steers the elaborately structured narrative toward its violent conclusion, we are afforded looks inside the tortured psyches of his various combatants, finding there the most unlikely of connections between the players.... ”

– Bill Ott, Booklist (starred review)

“The dialogue scenes, along with the action sequences, the South Texas landscape and the indelibly conflicted characters make you want to give Burke a medal.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“[Feast Day of Fools] further cements Burke’s status as one of America’s greatest contemporary novelists. . . . Burke weaves a tapestry of unique characters whose widely differing motivations enrich his tale. . . . This... ”

– Library Journal

“As the 30th book in James Lee Burke's highly regarded oeuvre, Feast Day of Fools takes readers on a spiritual journey of redemption with a careful and insightful look at the human heart with its capacity for violence and... ”

– ShelfAwareness.com

“If James Lee Burke worked his magic with a paintbrush, Feast Day of Fools would be the Sistine Chapel of his novels. . . . Reviewers have compared Burke to Cormac McCarthy, particularly his No Country For Old Men. Well, both... ”

– BlogCritics.org

“You know what is rare? A veteran and prodigious writer who never lets you down. Who, with each book, and I’m talking about a lot of books, makes you feel like you have discovered something new, learned some hidden truth about... ”

– Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author of The Lincoln Lawyer

“James Lee Burke is, quite simply, a genius, an exemplar of all that is great in American writing, and Feast Day of Fools is moving, and humane, and poetically, terrifyingly brilliant. As Burke gets older, he just gets better: in... ”

– John Connolly, New York Times bestselling author of The Burning Soul

“As is usual for Burke, this lyrical and violent crime novel excels in its descriptions and its honest portrayal of good and evil.”

– Canberra Times (Australia)

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Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

SOME PEOPLE SAID Danny Boy Lorca’s visions came from the mescal that had fried his brains, or the horse-quirt whippings he took around the ears when he served time on Sugar Land Farm, or the fact he’d been a middleweight club fighter through a string of dust-blown sinkholes where the locals were given a chance to beat up what was called a tomato can, a fighter who leaked blood every place he was hit, in this case a rumdum Indian who ate his pain and never flinched when his opponents broke their hands on his face.

Danny Boy’s black hair was cut in bangs and fitted his head...