Hackberry Holland (from Burke's 2009 Rain Gods) is a small-town Texas sheriff with a big-time past--as a politician, a lawyer for the ACLU, a whoremonger, an alcoholic and a prisoner of war in Korea. He feels worn and battered. He cares for his staff, and he loves his young chief deputy with all the conflicted angst of an old man who should know better. He has a history with the main antagonist, Preacher Jack Collins, a self-educated killer with a complexity that belies his obvious sociopathic tendencies.
The story begins in the desert with a grisly torture by an ex-CIA operative named Krill and his bestial sidekick, Negrito. The plot unfolds slowly at first, picking up the pace as important elements fall into place and the characters are developed. There's Anton Ling, a woman who gives succor to immigrants from across the Mexican border, who herself has a mysterious past and deeds she wishes to atone for. Reverend Cody Daniels, founder of the Cowboy Chapel, with shady ties to the bombing of an abortion clinic, is a menacing and pitiable character with his own complex mix of needs and hopes.
No one ends in this book the way they began--each growing, changing or dying as the plot slams its way to the conclusion--and readers are all the better for it. 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 self-delusion as well as its ability to love and to hope. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer and editor