See More From Book Club Friends

Sign up and log in to post, comment and join the conversation.

Book Club Friends is 100% Canadian 🇨🇦

James Lee Burke
Bitterroot
Book #3 of the Billy Bob Holland series
See the list of Billy Bob Holland books in order

Bitterroot

Following his acclaimed bestseller Purple Cane Road, James Lee Burke returns with a triumphant tour de force.

Set in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, home to celebrities seeking to escape the pressures of public life, as well as to xenophobes dedicated to establishing a bulkhead of patriotic paranoia, Burke’s novel features Billy Bob Holland, former Texas Ranger and now a Texas-based lawyer, who has come to Big Sky Country for some fishing and ends up helping out an old friend in trouble.

And big trouble it is, not just for his friend but for Billy Bob himself—in the form of Wyatt Dixon, a recent prison parolee sworn to kill Billy Bob as revenge for both his imprisonment and his sister’s death, both of which he blames on the former Texas lawman. As the mysteries multiply and the body count mounts, the reader is drawn deeper into the tortured mind of Billy Bob Holland, a complex hero tormented by the mistakes of his past and driven to make things—all things—right. But beneath the guise of justice for the weak and downtrodden lies a tendency for violence that at times becomes more terrifying than the danger he is trying to eradicate.

As USA TODAY noted in discussing the parallels between Billy Bob Holland and Burke’s other popular series hero, David Robicheaux, “Robicheaux and Holland are two of a kind, white-hat heroes whose essential goodness doesn’t keep them from fighting back. The two series describe different landscapes, but one theme remains constant: the inner conflict when upright men are provoked into violence in defense of hearth, home, women, and children. There are plenty of parallels. Billy Bob is an ex-Texas Ranger; Dave is an ex-New Orleans cop. Dave battles alcoholism and the ghosts of Vietnam; Billy Bob actually sees ghosts, including the Ranger he accidentally gunned down….But most of all, both protagonists hold a vision of a pure and simple life.”

In Bitterroot, with its rugged and vivid setting, its intricate plot, and a set of remarkable, unforgettable characters, and crafted with the lyrical prose and the elegiac tone that have inspired many critics to compare him to William Faulkner, James Lee Burke has written a thriller destined to surpass the success of his previous novels.

Author: James Lee Burke
Published: 2001
Page Count: 416

This page may include affiliate links.

Purchase on:

Amazon
Amazon

Book Club Discussion Questions For Bitterroot

Bitterroot
Discuss Bitterroot With Your Book Club Friends

Do you want to take a deeper dive intoBitterroot? Chat about themes, characters, settings, plots and let’s celebrate this book for our Book of the Month discussion!

Suggest Bitterroot

More Book Club Discussions

A Better Man
A Fatal Grace
A Great Reckoning
A Rule Against Murder
A Trick of the Light
A World of Curiosities
All the Devils Are Here
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
Beautiful Ugly
Bury Your Dead
Glass Houses
How the Light Gets In
How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future
Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)
Kingdom of the Blind
On Tyranny
State of Terror
Still Life
The Beautiful Mystery
The Boyfriend
The Briar Club
The Brutal Telling
The Crash
The Cruelest Month
The Frozen River
The Grey Wolf
The Housemaid
The Life We Bury
The Long Way Home
The Madness of Crowds
The Mighty Red
The Nature of the Beast
The River We Remember
The Rose Code
The Searcher
The Thursday Murder Club
See All Discussions

Highly Recommended Books by James Lee Burke Book Club Friends

Total Control
Neon Prey
A Fearsome Doubt
The Hidden City
A Trick of the Light
Stop Them Dead
Silent Bones
Death of a Village
Dust
The Critic
Breakdown: A V.I. Warshawski Novel
The Bear Trap: A Mike Bowditch Short Story
The Confessor
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
Weighed in the Balance: A William Monk Novel
A Game Called Malice: A Rebus Play
The Hunting Party
The English Spy
Dead Land: A V.I. Warshawski Novel
Saints of the Shadow Bible
Sinister Graves
The Case Has Altered: A Richard Jury Mystery
Chrysalis
The Lie Maker
The Inheritance
The Chessmen
The Last Precinct
What He Needed
Masked Prey
Justice Hall
The Torment of Others
Bittersweet Oblivion
Unnatural Causes
W is for Wasted
Pieces of Her: A Novel
The Messenger
Leave the Grave Green
A Conspiracy of Faith
Shamed
Disappearance of a Scribe
The Guilty
Kisscut
The Dove of Death
Rather be the Devil
The Third Wife
Die for Love
Flesh and Blood
Perfect People
Cover Her Face
Dark Fire
The 4th Man: An FBI Profiler / Detective D. D. Warren Story
The Killing Stones
Liberty Falling
Tombland
Jupiter's Bones
In Dark Company: A Kate Burkholder Short Story
A Guilty Thing Surprised
Seven Corpses All in a Row
Twilight
The Franchise Affair
Think Twice
Moriarty
An Irish Hostage
Cold
The Museum of Desire
Career of Evil
Beating About the Bush
Dangerous Minds
The Grownup
Feast Day of Fools
Talking to Strange Men
A Question of Death
A Shilling For Candles
To Love and Be Wise
Hide and Seek
The Dead Sea Cipher
Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha
A Breach of Security
Breakdown: An Alex Delaware Novel
Shadows in Bronze
The Flower Master
Bones: An Alex Delaware Novel
Hard Eight
Second Watch
A Spoonful of Poison
The House of Unexpected Sisters
The Caretaker: A Mike Bowditch Short Mystery
Headhunters
Broken Promise
Extreme Prey
The English Girl
The Floating Girl
With Child
A Room Full of Bones
One-way Tickets: A Case For Willows and Lane
The Bone Hacker
Ashworth Hall
The Poacher's Son
Prophet of Blood
Splinter the Silence
Different for Girls
Through a Glass
Smoke and Whispers
Lightning Strike
Four Aunties and a Wedding
The Old Success: A Richard Jury Mystery
On Eden Street: A Kings Lake Investigation
A Column of Fire
Bad Blood
Execution Dock: A William Monk Novel
The Searcher
The Vanishing Box
Flight of Dreams
Billy Straight: A Novel
The Red Queen
No Honor Among Thieves: An Ali Reynolds Novella
The Hollows
The Killing Hour
Sleeping in the Ground: An Inspector Banks Novel
The Understudy
Just One Evil Act
Devil's Delight: An Agatha Raisin Mystery
Earthly Delights
Fatal Pursuit
Battle Mountain
K is for Killer
The Jealous Kind
Justice: A Decker/Lazarus Novel
The Conditions of Unconditional Love
Silence in Hanover Close
The Camera Man: A DC Smith Investigation
A Sinister Revenge
The St. Zita Society
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
Zero Days
The Shadows We Hide
M is for Malice
Well-Schooled in Murder
Corridors of the Night: A William Monk Novel
Silent Partner
Blood Shot
The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel
The Travelling Companion
Home by Nightfall
Outsider
High Five
Hid from Our Eyes
The Rose Arbor
Echo Park
Devices and Desires
The Bone Garden
The American Agent
The Soul of Discretion
Buried Prey
A Question of Betrayal
Beneath the Surface
Night Prey
Hatchet Island
The Wire in the Blood
Lethal Prey
Hunger
Day of the Dead
An Unkindness Of Ravens
The Shadow Killer
Death in Brittany: A Mystery
A Banquet of Consequences
None of This Is True
Throttle
Trouble
Improbable Cause
The Bitterroots
Dead Water
The Night Crew
Snowblind
The Sedgemoor Strangler and Other Stories of Crime
A River in the Sky
The Last Voice You Hear
Moving Target
The Silkworm
Dead on Target: An Agatha Raisin Mystery
Dr. Death: An Alex Delaware Novel
Silent Night
The Hanging Garden
Never Say Die
Wife of Moon
Among the Wicked
Marble Hall Murders
Notorious Nineteen
A New Lease of Death
The Hallmarked Man
Wednesday's Child: An Inspector Banks Novel
The Black Ascot
Easy Prey
Ocean Prey
A Grave Denied
The Marco Effect
G is for Gumshoe
Death of a Green-Eyed Monster
Deep Freeze
Silent On The Moor
The Dancing Floor
The Right Thing to Do
Dissolution
Potboiler
Judgment Prey
Controller
The Distant Hours
Trick Or Treat
We Are All Guilty Here
Back of Beyond
Taking the Veil: MatchUp Collection
The Ghost Fields
Mary Higgins Clark and Elizabeth Peters Present More Malice Domestic
Fade to Red
Need You Dead
Dead Wrong
Tuesday's Gone
From Doon with Death
The Old Wine Shades
A Noise Downstairs
All the Devils Are Here
Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)
Death of an Honest Man
Prince of Darkness
The Death We Share
The Careful Use of Compliments
Badger's Moon
Bad Guys
The Best American Mystery Stories 2014
A Cold Treachery
The Lying Room
The Daughter of Time
The Hyde Park Headsman
A Treacherous Curse
The Gift: A Christmas Thriller Novelette
X
The Book Thing
Long Spoon Lane
Strangers in Time
Mary's Christmas
Don't Forget Me
Trigger Mortis
Quietly in Their Sleep
Vantage Point
Robicheaux
The Bride's Kimono
Want to Know a Secret?
Malice Domestic 1
In the Moon of Red Ponies
Dead Tomorrow
The Key to Rebecca
Grievous Sin
The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories
Spider Bones
The Patriarch
Rage: An Alex Delaware Novel
Playing With Fire
A Christmas Gathering
The Collector
Hornet Flight
The Executor: A Thriller
Caught
Bertie and the Crime of Passion
Alias Grace
The Cuckoo's Calling
Forever and a Day: A James Bond Novel
Still Life Deluxe Edition
I is for Innocent
Suffer Little Children
Lady of the Eternal City
Pentecost Alley
Skeleton Canyon
The Sweet Remnants of Summer
As the Pig Turns
Blonde Hair
The Face of a Stranger: A William Monk Novel
Monster: An Alex Delaware Novel
This Is Why We Lied: A Will Trent Thriller
Wolf to the Slaughter
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party
A Test of Wills
To Dwell in Darkness
Darkest Fear
Her Last Breath
Field of Bones
The Right Jack
Barriers to Entry
The Winners' Circle
Black Notice
Half of Paradise
The Buzzard Table
Triple
Death of a Traitor
Piranha to Scurfy
The Black Tower
Something Borrowed
The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds
The Forgotten
Death of a Ghost
Voices of Rome