Wow. I was not thinking I would enjoy this book. First time reading this author, and I came in at the middle of a detective series. I think I had gotten it at a garage sale for a buck, and it sat in my unread book pile for years. But I had to find a book set in my home state for a book challenge group, and this was the first in the pile for Texas, so voila.

It took me about two weeks to really bother with it - I didn't like the writing style, didn't think I liked the characters, looked at reading it a chapter at a time until I got it done chore type of thing. And then.... it clicked. Reading James Lee Burke is like watching Mad Men. The story is told in what isn't said. And I was hooked.

I mean, there is Texas desert, and FBI and Russian gangsters and evil drug cartels and freakin' Al Qaeda. Air America and Nicaragua drug running in the history. I don't even like kitchen sink style thrillers! But I loved this one. I'll be looking up more to read from this author.