If you want beautiful writing that carries you along then James Lee Burke is masterful! This book is both autobiographical and the usual crime affair but be warned...if you don't like the supernatural elements that Burke brings in then those are present here. It is very thought provoking though not always easy to discern what is actually going on. Fans will like it even if it is confusing at times. For newcomers to be honest I'd start with the back catalogue and work your way to this one.

Every Cloak Rolled In Blood won't be to everyone's taste, it won't even be to every James Lee Burke's fan's taste. I know from reading reviews over the years that many readers find JLB's forays into the mystical,spiritual and supernatural in his later thrillers puzzling and frustrating. This book is almost the reverse with a further episode of the Holland saga wound around a compendium of philosophy,history,, social commentary ,the metaphysical, musings on the afterlife,good,evil and so much more. There's so much more to this book than "just a story".

The book features an elderly novelist ,Aaron Holland Broussard, mourning the death of his daughter Fannie Mae. After tackling a couple of young desperadoes up to no good on his property Broussard discovers that they knew Fannie Mae and their kind words about her see him deciding to give them a break and a chance rather than calling the police.. From then on he discovers the truth of "no good turn goes unpunished" and finds himself involved in the world the mad,bad and deeply strange of the opoid-ridden small town the lads are from.One of his few allies is state police officer Ruby Spotted Horse........and when their friendship develops things really odd indeed.

That introduction barely scrapes the surface of a quite remarkable book that often reads like a Stephen King novel ,an elderly man's look back at his life and the disintegration of the America he used to know as JLB speaks through Broussard's voice and pieces of wisdom ,insight and introspection liberally sprinkled into the tale. I'm not sure I completely understood everything and I was caught out as the supernatural plays a far larger part than in previous JLB books but as ever the writing is superb, poetic in places. Yes it's a bit strange but it's a book to drop any expectations of when you begin to read it,forget you were not expecting something like this from JLB and take your time,read,reflect and listen to what a very wise man is trying to pass on to you in his own special way..

James Lee Burke has described this book as his best ever,while it confused me at times and it certainly wasn't the book I was expecting I'd agree with him.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for an advance copy of Every Cloak Rolled in Blood, the fifth novel in the Holland Family series, set in present day Montana.

I have been reading Mr Burke’s work for 30 years and while I enjoy them I have always had difficulty with his protagonists’ thought patterns and reasoning. Whether this is because I’m thick or simply don’t have the same life experiences I don’t know. Every Cloak Rolled in Blood is no different, I enjoyed it in a baffled kind of way, because Mr Burke can tell a story, mixing low level crime with social commentary.

The author calls this his most autobiographical novel to date. I can see this in Aaron Holland Broussard’s age and circumstances- he has recently lost his daughter, Fanny Mae, who died of natural causes, as did Mr Burke. His grief is tangible, overwhelming and easy to identify with. He is a solitary man, so it’s easy to understand the fact that he sees Fanny Mae, talks to her and takes advice from her. The mind works in mysterious ways.

That, however, does not explain the supernatural elements to the novel. I’m not getting in to that, because I didn’t understand it all. Suffice to say that the author seems to believe that the cruelty and evil of the past live on and have an influence on the cruelty and evil of today. It’s powerful writing and concepts, whether you buy in to it or not. Have evil spirits been released or is a folie à deux with his grief making him susceptible to the evil spirit theory that state trooper Ruby Spotted Horse, herself a victim of grief, believes? It’s an interesting conundrum. The best thing about it is that it makes the reader think.

The crime element of the novel is fairly standard Burke fare. Aaron gets mixed up with some truly evil people and some who have done bad things through a mixture of bad choices and a worse upbringing. In this case drugs are at the heart of it, meth, not oxy as I would have suspected, and then there are the murders that lurk in the background of the story. It’s a realistic mix, perhaps overshadowed by the supernatural, but perhaps not as evil seems to be omnipresent.

Every Cloak Rolled in Blood is a lyrical ode to grief and well worth a read, so I have no hesitation in recommending it.

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
This is writing of the highest order, absolute quality.
Completely involving the reader in the brilliant characters and story, atmospheric clever descriptive imaginative and intelligent engaging from first to last. Did I completely understand it all, NO did that in any way spoil the book for me NO WAY, that's my failing not its. Part murder mystery, part ghost story sometimes heart wrenchingly sad others laugh out loud funny always interesting.
Completely and utterly recommended.

Drags the reader right into the plot from day one. Delightful and charming… I absolutely adore this series. Deliciously moreish… If you haven’t already discovered this series then what are you waiting for???’

The literary crime writing giant that is James Lee Burke writes his most autobiographical and philosophical novel yet, a requiem, he channels the overwhelming loneliness, grief over the loss of his daughter, Pamala, into his character of 85 year old writer, Aaron Holland Broussard, who has lost his beloved animal loving 54 year old daughter, Fannie Mae. There are strong elements of the spiritual and metaphysical in the narrative which reflect on and blends the evil and dangers in a present day divided contemporary America with its historical evil, so powerful that it burns right into the present, and this is not an abstraction. Located in Montana, Broussard lives alone on his large and remote ranch, a young man, Leigh, paints a swastika on his barn door, which is how he comes to meet State Trooper, Ruby Spotted Horse, who has been scarred by her own grief and loss.

Broussard initially struggles with the surprise of the violence and misery sealed in Ruby's cellar, the monsters imprisoned under the earth, illustrated by Major Eugene Baker and his slaughter of the Blackfeet in 1870. Finding he can see what others cannot makes him vulnerable, he is aware that it could be perceived as the product of his all too real depression, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, psychoneurotic anxiety, ennui and daily misery. He sees and engages with the ghost of Fannie Mae, he desperately needs to see her, his greatest fear that she will leave him. In her memory, he tries to help two young men, Leigh and Jake, from a life of crime in an opiate addicted community, and finds himself locked in a battle with a number of unsavoury individuals, including a biker club, a problematic minister, and a notorious murdering drug dealer.

Fannie Mae guides Broussard through the nightmare of threats, murders, messy chaos and mayhem from the past and the present that look set to destroy him, instrumental in helping him face the challenges that come his way. Broussard is a father, a parent mourning the loss of his child, feeling the unbearable pain as he negotiates a intensely bleak and dark past, present and future, but as the novel draws to a close, there are shards of light and hope to be found. Burke refers to this book as his best, it is beautifully written, thoughtful as he probes the evil, the horrors and influence of American history that refuses to be erased, the tentacles of insanity which reach out and taint our present, at an individual and national level. This might not be for everyone, but I found this to be a profoundly moving read. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Every cloak rolled in blood by James Lee Burke.
Novelist Aaron Holland Broussard is shattered when his daughter Fannie Mae dies suddenly. As he tries to honor her memory by saving two young men from a life of crime amid their opioid-ravaged community, he is drawn into a network of villainy that includes a violent former Klansman, a far-from-holy minister, a biker club posing as evangelicals, and a murderer who has been hiding in plain sight.
A really good read. A new author for me. Well written. 4*.