Book Review: Every Cloak Rolled in Blood by James Lee Burke
Published by Simon Schuster, May 24, 2022

★★★★☆ (3.75 Stars rounded up)
Mixed Opinion:
Though not set in America's finest hour, James Lee Burke pens one for the ages and pours his heart and soul into a powerful and poignant finale for his epic Holland Family novels.

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The Holland Family saga continues at the valedictory stage, with Aaron Holland Broussard, the Texas-born pragmatic hero of two prior books, now in Big Sky Country...

But I digress.

One of the reading pleasures I get from a James Lee Burke novel is derived from the author's evocative prose - lyrical, descriptive, vivid. Simply - poetry in motion!

The "Holland" saga.
From the TX /LA coastline to the Rockies, and now to the Bitterroot Mountains in the Bonanza State, JLB's "Holland Family" saga is a masterful typification of the "Great American Novel". It all starts with the Holland farmers' confrontations with Bonnie and Clyde who insist on encroaching on their land after those infamous bank heists in Book 1, "Wayfaring Stranger" (2014); followed by "House of the Rising Sun" (2015).

In "The Jealous Kind" (2016), we have our first glimpse of coming-of-age third generation scion, Aaron Holland Broussard, in a milieu of power, lust and desire.

Followed by "Another Kind of Eden" (2021) where we see Aaron as a college-educated aspiring novelist turned farm laborer, inwardly a broken Korean War veteran ravaged by PTSD with ghosts haunting his dreams, beset with life altering decisions.

All above, compelling 5.0 star reads.

// Every Cloak Rolled in Blood (Book 5, Hackberry /Weldon Holland Books) //

Aaron Holland Broussard, the rough and tumble Texas-born pragmatic hero of two prior books, is now in Montana, a successful and wealthy but discombobulated 80-year-old writer, with some IMDB credits and more of his books out for scripts.

Broussard, incongruous with his personal and political disposition in prior books, comes across as a social justice warrior beset by racial injustice, the occult, by ghosts of Indian tribal massacres of the past, and by present-day dregs of society, even as he mourns the recent tragic loss of his beloved daughter, a victim of drug trafficking and violence.

With the plot largely based on the author's own life experience, Brossard finds himself in USA 2020, all but embroiled to the hilt in the ugliness and divisiveness.

Served on a platter for literary consumption with all its unpalatable orts:
- Covid19, masks and social distancing (in the wide open spaces and vast wilderness of the Land of Shining Mountains);
- A vilified "lying" president (cum agent of Russia);
- BLM (sanitized of the rioting, looting, arson, corruption and the leader's $6M home);
- Bikers. White supremacists, i.e. anyone not in lock-step with the narrative.

Oh, but we all could have been spared, as the exquisite prose is rendered banal, uninspired, cliched.

"A new president!", the "work of fiction" writer further exclaims as he wades into the quagmire. Not that the previous one was wholly palatable, but 1% Joe 14M more than BHO? Unguarded postal ballot boxes in parks, malls and alleys? Brought up as it were, ergo followed-through to the senility and disgrace of a totally failed leadership with American families suffering.

Perhaps the faithful readership of Dave Robicheaux and Holland Family saga novels are simply not quite ovine enough, and would just rather reserve the right to think for themselves.

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Conclusion: Though not set in America's finest hour, James Lee Burke pens one for the ages and pours his heart and soul into a powerful and poignant finale for his epic Holland Family novels.

(RIP Pamala Roberta Burke McDavid.)

Review based on an advanced reading copy courtesy of Simon Schuster and NetGalley.

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 in their drug-ravaged community, he is drawn into a network of villains 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. Aaron’s only ally is state police officer Ruby Spotted Horse, a no-nonsense woman who harbors some powerful secrets in her cellar. Despite the air of mystery surrounding her, Ruby is the only one Aaron can trust. That is, until the ghost of Fannie Mae shows up, guiding her father through a tangled web of the present and past and helping him vanquish his foes from both this world and the next. Drawn from James Lee Burke’s own life experiences, Every Cloak Rolled in Blood is a devastating exploration of the nature of good and evil and a deeply moving story about the power of love and family.

I have only found James Lee Burke in the last few years and started with the Dave Robicheaux series. The 4th in the Holland Family series was offered on NetGalley which I really liked although I ordinarily don't read paranormal, but Burke does a wonderful job in his characters, setting and descriptions. He stated that this book was more personal as he had recently lost his own daughter. He is a powerful writer, probably one of the best around today. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read the latest in the Holland Family series.

The impact of the pandemic and the death of his daughter have led James Lee Burke to write this most original of his novels. It is personal, reflective, hopeful and accepting. Ostensibly it centers around an 85 year old author on a large Montana ranch whose daughter has died, people involved in the meth trade, a reservation, and a plethora of ghosts. But by creating others who see the ghosts as well, the reader cannot help but wonder — is the author delusional and certifiable because he is haunted by the ghosts of his daughter and a vile long dead soldier who massacred Indians? Or is he so delusional that even the seemingly shared ghost visions are additional delusions. One way or another he is determined not to go gently into that good night from which he will not awaken. The story hits viscerally with the reader feeling his pain, his hope, his desolation, his fear, his isolation, and his courage. This book does not reverberate with the musicality of his descriptions like his other novels. Instead it grabs your heart and sorrow and drags it past violence and hopelessness into the land of hope, isolation, and the beauty of nature. There is beauty and hope and love here. Moving. Exceptional. Burke always delivers. Highest recommendations.

Author James Lee Burke has written a powerful reflection on death and loss in EVERY CLOAK ROLLED IN BLOOD while mixing his fiction with autobiography. We don’t need to guess at this; he opens the book with an obituary to his daughter, Pamela, who died a year ago. He makes clear his own life and this story are intermingled for various reasons, the most important of which is the excruciating pain experienced by parents who outlive a child.

This book is equal parts literature and requiem; Burke is an amazing writer. To read his work is to get lost in another time and place completely. He creates magic with vocabulary. In this story, he conflates his daughter’s death with all of the deaths of which he is aware. He now mourns for a community, a nation and perhaps for the world.

This biblical level of behavior tends to overwhelm the specifics of the rest of the plot, leaving this book a bit unwieldy. But, this is a minor complaint in the overall scheme of things. The book is worth reading and the author is a master. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Gorgeous and poetic writing are the hallmark of James Lee Burke’s new novel, Every Cloak Rolled in Blood. As he notes in the forward to the book, Mr, Burke lost his daughter recently, and this becomes the foundation for ECRIB, with many autobiographical elements in the book.

Aaron Bouchard is an elderly novelist, living alone on a ranch in a remote area of Montana, and unable to cope with the death of his adult daughter, Fannie Mae. The novel opens with his barn door being vandalized by a father and son, and he later confronts the pair over the incident. This is quickly followed by an attempted break in of his property by two brothers, who have issues of their own. We soon meet a variety of interesting and flawed characters, including Ruby, a Native American police officerwho believes there are evil spirits living in an area off of her cellar. Aaron soon begins to see supernatural occurrences, including conversations with his deceased daughter, and also begins to question his own sanity.

This summary doesn’t really do justice to a novel that is so beautifully written. Mr. Burke, like his main character Aaron, is 85 years old, and his writing is still superb. I reveled in the beauty of his sentences. I’ve only ever read his Dave Robicheaux books, and while ECRIB was different, especially with the incorporation of a lot of supernatural elements, the book was still fabulous. I can understand why he’s been called the best American author alive.

Many thanks to Somin and Schuster, and to Netgalley, for providing an ARC of this wonderful novel.

This was billed as "the most autobiographical novel to date" by James Lee Burke and I have to agree. Full disclosure: I'm a fan and I'd read anything Burke writes, but this book struck on an entirely different level than anything else he's done before.

The basic plot line revolves around novelist Aaron Holland who is grieving the death of his daughter, an experience that Burke knows too well.

Set in Montana, exploring the gap between good and evil, real and supernatural, life and death, this may be Burke's finest work. I have always preferred the Robicheaux series to the Holland novels, but it is impossible to deny the beauty of this novel.

I just finished reading the newest book by James Lee Burke. I'm a huge fan of the Robicheaux series and I was equally impressed with the Holland series. This was first time reading a book in this series. The story takes place in the mountainous area of Lolo Montana. A place I first read about in the Lewis and Clark book Undaunted Courage. Burke does a wonderful job detailing the beauty of the area as well as the underlying evil of the area dating back to the slaughter of the Indians in the colonial era. As usual his character development is superb and his style of writing is rich. My only complaint is his twists into the supernatural, not my favorite genre. I consider him one of the best writers we have and I highly recommend this book.

More and more, James Lee Burke has been employing otherworldly elements in his narratives, but this time there is a heartbreaking reason. After losing his daughter, JLB deals with his grief by revisiting the continuing Holland saga, his central character is his own age, also lives in Montana, and has lost his own beloved daughter. That spectre imbues both plot and style in this exploration of the ways that the past has never really passed. "Certain kinds of loss are forever. Not many people understand that." As a rule I steer away from metaphysical treatments, but it works here in the hands of a favorite writer.

4.25 Stars

When Author Aaron Broussard loses his beloved daughter, Fannie Mae, he struggles with protracted, overwhelming grief amid the animosity of a murdering drug dealer, a minister more aligned with hell than heaven, and a ghoulish nineteenth-century apparition with a history of atrocities committed against Native Americans under the guise of military duty.

Utterly alone in a world turned brutally cruel, Broussard seeks the assistance of Ruby Spotted Horse, a state police officer, when vandals graffiti his barn and he suspects their malicious intent will only escalate. Embracing Fannie Mae’s simultaneous and sporadic visitations, he’s convinced of her immortality and determined she never move on without him.

Ripe with primal emotion and a delicious supernatural undercurrent, EVERY CLOAK ROLLED IN BLOOD is a tantalizing suspense-paranormal hybrid that managed to hold my interest (once I rose above the derisive and unwelcome political sprinklings). I had to know: What resided in Ruby’s basement, and what would happen if someone released those entities on the world? Was Fannie Mae’s impromptu presence merely the result of a medication-induced psychosis, perpetuated by Aaron’s paralyzing grief? The author answers those questions satisfactorily without destroying the magic that defines a fulfilling supernatural work. Written with a talented veteran’s skill, Burke gives readers an unforgettable novel, and I highly recommend this most recent offering. My gratitude to James Burke, Simon & Schuster, & NetGalley for the ARC.

The panoramic immersive vistas are unparalleled, no other author comes close to putting a visual into words on paper as clearly as Mr. Burke. The mountains of Montana, the snow, the Indian battlegrounds, the wildlife and bitter cold felt like the last real frontier left on earth.
I requested this book based on the subject matter not knowing, with my own personal raw emotions, if I would be able to read it. I too had a very tragic death in my family one year ago today. This certainly made Aaron Holland Broussard a relatable character. The loss of a child is indescribable, I'm not a writer and will not try.
This was a relatively short novel, not necessarily a quick read if you immerse yourself in the sweeping descriptions and reread passages as I tended to. Sometimes I had to put it down when humanity's brutality was too difficult to fathom.  There are many painful subjects addressed, war, racial prejudices, death, murder, inequality, and hatred, to list a few. It isn't roses and rainbows, but there is love and some romance.
This is part of the Holland family saga series and I haven't read them all. This will certainly be one of the most memorable.
Thank you to the author for sharing such personal feelings and emotions with others.
Thanks also to NetGalley for the advance digital copy of "Every Cloak Rolled in Blood" by James Lee Burke and to Simon & Schuster. These are my personal honest thoughts and opinions given voluntarily.

Every Cloak Rolled in Blood is a continuation of the Holland Family series and features Aaron Holland Broussard, an elderly writer who is suffering after the unexpected death of his daughter. It’s hard to tell at times whether Broussard is experiencing a psychotic break or if he has truly blundered into the realm of spirits, both evil and benign.

Burke himself has lost a daughter, and that probably accounts for the depth of emotion in this book. The story made me cry more than once. I found no fault with the plot, the writing is brilliant (as always), and Broussard and his daughter’s ghost very sympathetic characters. Burke feels this is his best novel, and I agree that it’s the best of his novels I’ve read so far.

This is an extraordinary story that is heartrending. In the introduction, you learn that the author used his own grief of losing his precious daughter in this story – especially reading this as someone who just lost her mother. My heart grieves along with the character in the book and with the author himself.
As part of the Holland family saga, this book jumps further in the life of Aaron Holland Broussard. At 85 years of age we learn that he has become a successful writer, not unlike the books author he is also struggling with the loss of his daughter.
Filled with grief and life and hope, this is may very well be James Lee Burke's best book ever.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to the publisher & Netgalley for an early copy of this title! I have been a fan of James Lee Burke for the last 15 years & have always loved his Robicheaux novels! With his last two books, I have became just as excited when I see a new book in the Holland Family series on the horizon! Burke has the wonderful ability to use his perfect prose and engaging dialogue to create some of the most complex, yet human characters ever put on the page. Every Cloak Rolled in Blood is Burke at his best! Much like how the Tin Roof Blowdown reflected the pain Burke felt about the destruction Hurricane Katrina caused to New Orleans.... the reader can feel the deep emotional devastation the loss of his daughter Pamala had on this novel. This one deserves a read and most of your readers will love it as well!

EVERY CLOAK ROLLED IN BLOOD
by James Lee Burke
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: May 24

Dare I admit that this is my first James Lee Burke book? How can I have missed him?

Every Cloak Rolled in Blood is drawn in part from his life, as MC Aaron Holland, a novelist, grieves the death of his daughter, Fannie Mae.

He tries to prevent two young men from ruining their lives through crime in an opioid-addicted town, and in so doing, encounters earthly and supernatural forces.

Amid the violence there are gorgeous passages, deftly penned characters, dialogue that rings true, and a narrative that won't let you go. A gripping story I'm sure glad I didn't miss and I recommend you don't either.

Thanks to the author, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

#EveryCloakRolledInBlood
#JamesLeeBurke #SimonSchuster #NetGalley #fictionbyamasterwriter #novelbasedonauthorslife #griefinfiction
#goodandevilinfiction #supernaturalforces
#myfirstjamesleeburkebutnotmylast
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Every new JLB novel is a reason to celebrate, and as always, his prose and mood, and pace are all terrific. The tragedy that he has suffered in his own life recently with the death of his daughter is heartfelt, and brave of him to spill it onto the page. I think he is one of our great modern writers, and I hope this is another bestseller, but on a personal note, purely my own feeling, I’m not a fan of the paranormal. Totally get what he was doing and needing for this book, but I could have done without that aspect of the story. That said, thrilled to read this one, and hopeful for the next.

One of the most gripping books I have read in a long time. I discovered this author about 20 years ago and since then I have read everything by him and I must say he is a master with the written word. Every Cloak Rolled In Blood by James Lee Burke will definitely be one of this year's best books. I understand why he himself thinks this is one of his best books and for those that know something about him and his family you will get it. I can not understand how you would feel going through these things. I will forever be grateful that I discovered Burke and his work. He is in my mind a brilliant storyteller and I do hope we will get mory stories from this great author. Although I do not read fantasy or sci-fi I find the way he incorporates the supernatural in his books fitting. I highly recommend this book. I am grateful that I got this advance copy of #EveryCloakRolledInBlood by @JamesLeeBurke from @SimonBooks and #Netgalley

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Aaron is grieving after losing 1his daughter. Aaron cones to someone aid which has consequences he never thought of and is unsure of who is trustworthy. Thus book grabbed my attention from the start.

On the author’s own website he’s posted a tribute to his late daughter, Pamela, who died in July 2020. It’s an extraordinarily moving piece, the absolute pain and despair experienced by a parent losing one of their children is manifest here. It’s no coincidence that in this book, his latest, the major character is a writer of the same age (85) living in the part of America Burke has now made his home and who is also grieving the recent loss of a daughter. The similarities go further: an upbringing in southern Louisiana and a long term struggle with alcohol (the dirty boogie, as he calls it) also feature in both of their lives. So when the publicity for this book states that it’s Burke’s most accurate novel it’s easy to see the truth in this claim.

This is his thirteenth novel featuring a member of the Holland family. On this occasion we catch up again with Aaron Holland Broussard, who was first introduced to us in Another Kind of Eden. Aaron now lives on a large plot of land outside of Lolo, a small town in Missoula County, Montana. It appears from the start that his mind is somewhat scrambled by the loss of his daughter, Fanny Mae, and when he spots a young man spray painting a swastika on his barn door and shortly after intercepts a pair of brothers as they attempt to break into his house a chain of events is set in motion that, it seems, will ensure that things can only end badly.

There are rumours that drug running killer known as Jimmie the Digger is operating in the area and soon one dead body turns up and then another. We meet a cast of characters, including the ex-Klansman father of the boy who painted the symbol on Broussard’s barn, each more unhelpful, unfriendly or downright threatening than the last. Even the local state trooper who calls on Aaron in relation to the barn incident appears distracted and dismissive. It seems that there’s no room for softness and empathy in this place, everyone has sharp elbows and hurtful words. Humour is a stranger here.

JLB is adept at exploring the history and origins of human cruelty and in the telling of this tale there are references to historical events that took place in Dachau, Nanking, Hiroshima, at Big Hole and on Pork Chop Hill. But the slaughter he refers to most often is that carried out on this piece of land in 1870 by a band of American soldiers. Led by Colonel Eugene Baker, the troops massacred a group of Piegan Blackfeet Indians on the Marias River. It turns out that the trooper who visited Broussard earlier, Ruby Spotted Horse, is a descendent of one of those killed that day.

As events unfolded I confess that I found it hard to interpret some scenes. Visions of new meetings with his daughter started to invade Broussard’s mind and as he, at last, seemed to have found an ally in Ruby he discovered that monsters from the past inhabit her basement. Are Aaron’s meetings with Fanny Mae a result of psychosis brought on by the medication he’s taking to fight anxiety and depression? Such events might be explained away thus, but as the supernatural became ever more integrated with what might be considered ‘real life’ it started to feel increasingly like viewing a Picasso painting: I thought I knew what I was looking at but I wasn’t quite sure.

The writing, as ever with this author, is wonderful. Words are placed with precision, creating amazingly colourful and highly textured images. The predominant feeling evoked here is that of the rawness, the utter sadness and the desperation experienced by Aaron resulting from the loss of his daughter, and of course this is an achingly personal emotion for the author. How readers feel about the way in which the story is told will, I believe, depend on their reaction to the metaphysical elements in play here. It’s a device Burke has used sparingly in the past but more extensively of late. Yet, for those who are able to embrace this style and can decipher the puzzle he presents, such is the power of this book that they might feel it is actually amongst the best he’s written.

Just a few days ago I wrote a short review of James Lee Burke’s previous novel “Another Kind of Eden” where I proclaimed the brilliance in Burke’s writing. Thus due to the kindness of NetGalley I got the opportunity to read Burke’s latest work entitled “Every Cloak Rolled In Blood.” This new story has been described by Mr. Burke as his most biographical as well as a homage to his daughter, who passed away a year or so ago far too young.
I would like to give a couple sentence review of his new book and tell all of you how fantastic this latest novel is from the “master.” However, for the first time (perhaps ever) I cannot automatically give “Every Cloak Rolled In Blood” five stars. I feel as if JLB has channeled his inner Stephen King as the supernatural undertones that have been emerging in his recent works has “broken out” and taken over his narrative. As we begin reading we renter the world of the Holland family that we have encountered in several previous works and meet Aaron Holland Broussard, now an eighty-five year old man, long-time widower, now a famous and wealthy writer in deep pain from his recent loss of his beloved daughter. Broussard gets involved with a whole host of unsavory types, some alive, others ghosts, and some that start the story alive but renter the saga as ghosts.
Other reviews have already been posted that describe the weird goings-on on and around Broussard’s expansive ranch in rural Montana. Though all sorts of activities take place the dominant narrative is the passionate, heart-breaking conversation between Broussard and his ghostly recently deceased daughter Fanny Mae. Having buried two of my three children my heart goes out to Broussard/ Burke. I am able to look past his righteous indignation at those of us on the other side of the political spectrum ( didn’t know we conservatives are That Evil but…)
But having read all of Mr. Burke’s Dave Robicheaux detective series I had hoped the story would not trip across the line from detective/mystery/family saga to fantasy. I have read all the five star reviews and am sad to be in the minority this time: I am glad to have read “Every Cloak Rolled In Blood” but can only give this novel three lonely stars.

(3). James Lee is at it again. Deep into the spiritual world, deeper than I can ever recall. This time we are in Montana, with all kinds of everything and all kinds of nothing exploding around us. A very interesting protagonist, who gives us remarkable and totally fantastic looks at life from a present and historic view. The references are wild, but not nearly as wild as the presence and power of the supernatural in this book. Burke’s wonderful writing style and his new found ability to keep his stories moving more quickly make this a very interesting read. Good stuff.