Rain Gods
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $22.46
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Will Patton
-
By:
-
James Lee Burke
About this listen
As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs attempt to untangle the threads of this complex and grisly case, a damaged young Iraq veteran, Pete Flores, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives, hoping to outwit the bloodthirsty criminals who want to kill Pete for his involvement in the murders. The only trouble is, Pete doesn't know who he's running from: drunk and terrified, he fled the scene of the crime when the shooting began. And there's a long list of people who want Pete and Vikki dead: crime boss Hugo Cistranos, who hired Pete for the operation; Nick Dolan, a strip club owner and small-time gangster with revenge on his mind; and a mysterious God-fearing serial-killer-for-hire known as Preacher Jack Collins, with enigmatic motives of his own.
With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a host of cold-blooded killers on Pete and Vikki's trail, it's up to Sheriff Holland to find them first and figure out who's behind the mass murder before anyone else ends up dead. In this thrilling and intricate work, James Lee Burke has once again proven himself a master storyteller and a perceptive chronicler of the darkest corners of the human heart.
©2009 James Lee Burke (P)2009 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Lay Down My Sword and Shield
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Against the backdrop of growing civil rights turmoil in a sultry border town, the hard-drinking ex-POW attorney Hackberry Holland yields to the myriad urgings of his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends to make a bid for a congressional seat - and finds himself embroiled in the seamy world of Texas powerbrokers.
-
-
The Publisher's Summary is Anemic
- By Cat F. on 02-25-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- A Billy Bob Holland Novel, Book 1
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Texas attorney and former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland has many secrets. Among them is Vernon Smother's son, Lucas, a now-teenaged boy about whom few know the truth - Lucas is really Billy Bob's illegitimate son. When Lucas is arrested for murder, Billy Bob must confront the past and serve as the boy's criminal attorney. Billy Bob knows the propensity of the town, Deaf Smith, Texas, to make scapegoats out of the innocent and to exploit and sexually use the powerless.
-
-
Buy the other version
- By Mike on 01-27-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Wayfaring Stranger
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.
-
-
Near perfect. One of Burke's Best.
- By David Shear on 07-17-14
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
Lay Down My Sword and Shield
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Against the backdrop of growing civil rights turmoil in a sultry border town, the hard-drinking ex-POW attorney Hackberry Holland yields to the myriad urgings of his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends to make a bid for a congressional seat - and finds himself embroiled in the seamy world of Texas powerbrokers.
-
-
The Publisher's Summary is Anemic
- By Cat F. on 02-25-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- A Billy Bob Holland Novel, Book 1
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Texas attorney and former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland has many secrets. Among them is Vernon Smother's son, Lucas, a now-teenaged boy about whom few know the truth - Lucas is really Billy Bob's illegitimate son. When Lucas is arrested for murder, Billy Bob must confront the past and serve as the boy's criminal attorney. Billy Bob knows the propensity of the town, Deaf Smith, Texas, to make scapegoats out of the innocent and to exploit and sexually use the powerless.
-
-
Buy the other version
- By Mike on 01-27-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Wayfaring Stranger
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.
-
-
Near perfect. One of Burke's Best.
- By David Shear on 07-17-14
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
White Doves at Morning
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the center of the tale are James lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from the slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willy Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite personal and political conflicts, both men join the Confederate Army, determined not to back down.
-
-
Where's Will?
- By Luke on 03-01-17
By: James Lee Burke
-
To the Bright and Shining Sun
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this novel, Burke brings his brilliant feel for time and place to a stunning story of Appalachia in the early 1960s. Here Perry Woodson Hatfield James, a young man torn between family honor and the lure of seedy watering holes, must somehow survive the tempestuous journey from boyhood to manhood and escape the dark and atavistic heritage of the Cumberland Mountains.
-
-
Classic!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-09-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Thirteen Moons
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magnificent novel by one of America's finest writers is the epic of one man's remarkable journey, set in 19th-century America against the background of a vanishing people and a rich way of life. At the age of 12, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map, and sent alone into the Indian Nation to run a trading post as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home.
-
-
Best Novel of 2006!
- By Thomas on 10-23-06
By: Charles Frazier
-
The Cold Dish
- A Walt Longmire Mystery
- By: Craig Johnson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Introducing Wyoming's Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times best-selling author of Dry Bones, the first in the Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, full of memorable characters.
-
-
Not Your Ordinary Western Novel (Series)
- By Dataman on 09-12-12
By: Craig Johnson
-
The Son
- By: Philipp Meyer
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Shepherd, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching examination of the bloody price of power, The Son is a gripping and utterly transporting novel that maps the legacy of violence in the American west with rare emotional acuity, even as it presents an intimate portrait of one family across two centuries. Eli McCullough is just twelve-years-old when a marauding band of Comanche storm his Texas homestead and brutally murder his mother and sister, taking him as a captive.
-
-
Five Stars for the Lone Star, The Son, & Meyer
- By Mel on 06-04-13
By: Philipp Meyer
-
The Convict and Other Stories
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Steven Boyer, Louis Moreno, Richard Poe, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"America's best novelist" ( The Denver Post), two-time Edgar Award winner James Lee Burke is renowned for his lush, suspense-charged portrayals of the Deep South – the people, the crime, the hope and despair infused in the bayou landscape. This stunning anthology takes us back to where Burke's heart and soul beat -- the steamy, seamy Gulf Coast -- in complex and fascinating tales that crackle with violence and menace, meshing his flair for gripping storytelling with his urbane writing style.
-
-
Haven't read a a Jee Burke I didn't like
- By Toni R. on 09-15-12
By: James Lee Burke
-
Nightwoods
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Frazier puts his remarkable gifts in the service of a lean, taut narrative while losing none of the transcendent prose, virtuosic storytelling, and insight into human nature that have made him one of the most beloved and celebrated authors in the world. Now, with his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister’s troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine. Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape....
-
-
Beautiful writing and powerful narration
- By MB2312 on 10-20-11
By: Charles Frazier
-
No Country for Old Men
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.
-
-
Exceptional, engrossing, frightening.
- By P. Giorgio on 07-27-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
- A Song of Ice and Fire
- By: George R. R. Martin
- Narrated by: Harry Lloyd
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young, naïve but ultimately courageous hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall towers above his rivals—in stature if not experience. Tagging along is his diminutive squire, a boy called Egg—whose true name is hidden from all he and Dunk encounter. Though more improbable heroes may not be found in all of Westeros, great destinies lay ahead for these two . . . as do powerful foes, royal intrigue, and outrageous exploits. Featuring more than 160 all-new illustrations by Gary Gianni, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a must-have collection that proves chivalry isn’t dead—yet.
-
-
What separates Lloyd from Dotrice
- By Pusang Tulog on 10-14-15
-
New Spring
- The Wheel of Time Prequel
- By: Robert Jordan
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For three days battle has raged in the snow around the great city of Tar Valon. In the city, a foretelling of the future is uttered. On the slopes of Dragonmount, the immense mountain that looms over the city, a child is born, an infant prophesied to change the world. That child must be found before he can be killed by the forces of the Shadow.
-
-
Read it after reading others in the series
- By Stacy Fair on 12-13-07
By: Robert Jordan
-
Angels and Demons
- By: Dan Brown
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization, the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra.
-
-
A must for fans of The Da Vinci Code
- By Geoffrey on 04-14-04
By: Dan Brown
-
The Trackers
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.
-
-
So Good
- By Ray Stewart on 04-28-23
By: Charles Frazier
Related to this topic
-
Illegal
- A Novel
- By: Paul Levine
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trial lawyer Jimmy “Royal” Payne was his own worst enemy - until now. Haunted by personal tragedy and wanted by the cops, Payne needs to skip town. What he doesn’t need is Tino Perez, a gutsy twelve-year-old Mexican boy in search of his missing - and undocumented - mother. But Payne’s ex-wife, an L.A.P.D. detective he still loves, makes him a deal: help the boy or go to jail. Soon Payne is following Tino into the darker side of the American dream.
-
-
Great opening chapters; very vivid characters!
- By Wayne on 01-31-16
By: Paul Levine
-
Preparation for the Next Life
- By: Atticus Lish
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.
-
-
Incredible craftsmanship.
- By B.J. on 04-23-15
By: Atticus Lish
-
Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
-
-
Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
-
The Ploughmen
- A Novel
- By: Kim Zupan
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the center of this searing fever-dream of a novel are two men - a killer awaiting trial and a troubled young deputy - sitting across fromeach other in the dark, talking through the bars of a county jail cell: JohnGload, so brutally adept at his craft that only now, at the age of 77, has he faced the prospect of long-term incarceration; and Valentine Millimaki, low man in the Copper County sheriff's department, who draws the overnight shift after Gload's arrest.
-
-
Perceptive Narration
- By Abby Elvidge on 09-22-16
By: Kim Zupan
-
Fourth of July Creek
- A Novel
- By: Smith Henderson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
-
-
The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
-
Provinces of Night
- By: William Gay
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E.F. Bloodworth has returned to his home - a forgotten corner of Tennessee - after 20 years of roaming. The wife he walked out on has withered and faded, his three sons are grown and angry. Warren is a womanizing alcoholic, Boyd is driven by jealousy to hunt down his wife's lover, and Brady puts hexes on his enemies from his mamma's porch. Only Fleming, the old man's grandson, treats him with the respect his age commands, and sees past all the hatred to realize the way it can posion a man's soul.
-
-
Story and Narration a perfect match
- By 99hedys on 10-03-15
By: William Gay
-
Illegal
- A Novel
- By: Paul Levine
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trial lawyer Jimmy “Royal” Payne was his own worst enemy - until now. Haunted by personal tragedy and wanted by the cops, Payne needs to skip town. What he doesn’t need is Tino Perez, a gutsy twelve-year-old Mexican boy in search of his missing - and undocumented - mother. But Payne’s ex-wife, an L.A.P.D. detective he still loves, makes him a deal: help the boy or go to jail. Soon Payne is following Tino into the darker side of the American dream.
-
-
Great opening chapters; very vivid characters!
- By Wayne on 01-31-16
By: Paul Levine
-
Preparation for the Next Life
- By: Atticus Lish
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.
-
-
Incredible craftsmanship.
- By B.J. on 04-23-15
By: Atticus Lish
-
Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
-
-
Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
-
The Ploughmen
- A Novel
- By: Kim Zupan
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the center of this searing fever-dream of a novel are two men - a killer awaiting trial and a troubled young deputy - sitting across fromeach other in the dark, talking through the bars of a county jail cell: JohnGload, so brutally adept at his craft that only now, at the age of 77, has he faced the prospect of long-term incarceration; and Valentine Millimaki, low man in the Copper County sheriff's department, who draws the overnight shift after Gload's arrest.
-
-
Perceptive Narration
- By Abby Elvidge on 09-22-16
By: Kim Zupan
-
Fourth of July Creek
- A Novel
- By: Smith Henderson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
-
-
The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
-
Provinces of Night
- By: William Gay
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E.F. Bloodworth has returned to his home - a forgotten corner of Tennessee - after 20 years of roaming. The wife he walked out on has withered and faded, his three sons are grown and angry. Warren is a womanizing alcoholic, Boyd is driven by jealousy to hunt down his wife's lover, and Brady puts hexes on his enemies from his mamma's porch. Only Fleming, the old man's grandson, treats him with the respect his age commands, and sees past all the hatred to realize the way it can posion a man's soul.
-
-
Story and Narration a perfect match
- By 99hedys on 10-03-15
By: William Gay
-
Descent
- By: Tim Johnston
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the day Caitlin vanishes the lives of her family members are irrevocably altered, each assuming blame for that day's tragic events. As the initial days of hope are replaced by weeks of anxiety and despair, they find themselves increasingly isolated, each wondering: Is she still alive? Will we ever know what happened?
-
-
Even a Monkey Knows the Value of a Stick
- By tooonce72 on 01-09-15
By: Tim Johnston
-
A False Dawn
- By: Tom Lowe
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the death of his wife, Sean O'Brien makes a promise to her that he has no plans to break - until he starts building a new life in an old cabin on a remote stretch of a tropical river in the heart of Florida. It's there that he discovers an injured young woman who whispers a cryptic message into his ear.
-
-
Wonderful first novel in the Sean O'Brien series
- By Wayne on 05-07-17
By: Tom Lowe
-
Burn What Will Burn
- By: C. B. McKenzie
- Narrated by: Bon Shaw
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bob Reynolds doesn't recognize the body in the creek, but he does recognize the danger of it. He's a newcomer to town, not entirely welcome and not entirely on good footing with the sheriff. So far he's kept his head down, mostly over the bar at the Crow's Nest. But he has interests other than drinking and spending his inheritance, including one that goes by the name Tammy Fay Smith and who may have caught the sheriff's eye as well.
-
-
An Author to Check Out
- By L. O. Pardue on 07-24-16
By: C. B. McKenzie
-
The Lost Country
- By: William Gay
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Edgewater is a harbinger of doom. Estranged from his family, discharged from the navy and touched by a rising desperation, he sets out hitchhiking home to East Tennessee, where his father is slowly dying. On the road, separately, are Sudy and Bradshaw, brother and sister, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish. All, in one way or another, have their pasts and futures embroiled with D. L. Harkness, a predator in all the ways there are.
-
-
One of the finest novels I have read!
- By Donald B. Eager on 09-06-21
By: William Gay
-
The Deep Blue Good-By
- A Travis McGee Novel, Book 1
- By: John D. MacDonald
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.
-
-
Before the A-Team, there was Travis McGee
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-12-16
-
House of Sand and Fog
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III, Fontaine Dollas Dubus
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.
-
-
I suspect I am going to be in the minority . . .
- By BogKid on 01-12-04
By: Andre Dubus III
-
Niceville
- By: Carsten Stroud
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A boy literally disappears from Main Street. A security camera captures the moment of his instant, inexplicable vanishing. An audacious bank robbery goes seriously wrong: Four cops are gunned down; a TV news helicopter is shot and spins crazily out of the sky, triggering a disastrous cascade of events that ricochet across twenty different lives over the course of just 36 hours. Nick Kavanaugh, a cop with a dark side, investigates. Soon he and his wife, Kate, a distinguished lawyer from an old Niceville family, find themselves struggling to make sense of it all.
-
-
Good Story- Wrong Reader
- By Stacy on 06-28-14
By: Carsten Stroud
-
Last Call
- By: Tim Powers
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player 20 years ago and hasn’t returned to Las Vegas, or held a hand of cards, in 10 years. But troubling nightmares about a strange poker game he once attended on a houseboat on Lake Mead are drawing him back to the magical city. For the mythic game he believed he won did not end that night in 1969—and the price of his winnings was his soul. Now, a pot far more strange and perilous than he ever could imagine depends on the turning of a card.
-
-
Powers is Under-represented on Audible
- By tim on 01-18-11
By: Tim Powers
-
The Current
- A Novel
- By: Tim Johnston
- Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene - half-frozen but alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community's memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river 10 years earlier and whose killer may still live among them.
-
-
Exceeded my expectations in every way
- By MelSA on 02-03-19
By: Tim Johnston
-
Borders of the Heart
- By: Chris Fabry
- Narrated by: Chris Fabry
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. D. Jessup finds his line in the desert near Tucson, as far from his home as the moon. He’s traded his guitar and the songs in his head for the daily grind of an organic farm - a mind-numbing existence that dulls the pain of his memories. His boss has one rule: if J. D. sees an illegal, call Border Patrol. But when an early morning ride along the fence line leads him to Maria, a beautiful young woman near death, J. D.’s heart pushes him toward another choice.
-
-
Good Christian Fiction
- By Kathleen Yamauchi on 05-06-15
By: Chris Fabry
-
Rain Dogs
- By: Sean Doolittle
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was one hell of an inheritance for former Chicago reporter Tom Coleman: a broken-down pickup truck, ramshackle campground, a canoe livery - and one pot-smoking, barely working employee he doesn’t need, doesn’t want, and can’t afford. But the truth is, after losing a child and a marriage, Tom doesn’t really care.
-
-
Narration is awful
- By Karen Martin on 03-09-21
By: Sean Doolittle
-
The Confessions of Al Capone
- By: Loren D. Estleman
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1944 Al Capone, the most notorious Mob boss in history, has already been released from prison. Though Capone is no longer the enormously powerful force who dominated Chicago’s underworld for years, he is still a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI chief knows that if he can somehow manage to get Capone to reveal details of crimes he and his Outfit committed, the Bureau has a good chance of nailing key members who now are active in the wartime black market.
-
-
Interesting story
- By Michael on 02-07-17
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Lay Down My Sword and Shield
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Against the backdrop of growing civil rights turmoil in a sultry border town, the hard-drinking ex-POW attorney Hackberry Holland yields to the myriad urgings of his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends to make a bid for a congressional seat - and finds himself embroiled in the seamy world of Texas powerbrokers.
-
-
The Publisher's Summary is Anemic
- By Cat F. on 02-25-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
Wayfaring Stranger
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.
-
-
Near perfect. One of Burke's Best.
- By David Shear on 07-17-14
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- A Billy Bob Holland Novel, Book 1
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Texas attorney and former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland has many secrets. Among them is Vernon Smother's son, Lucas, a now-teenaged boy about whom few know the truth - Lucas is really Billy Bob's illegitimate son. When Lucas is arrested for murder, Billy Bob must confront the past and serve as the boy's criminal attorney. Billy Bob knows the propensity of the town, Deaf Smith, Texas, to make scapegoats out of the innocent and to exploit and sexually use the powerless.
-
-
Buy the other version
- By Mike on 01-27-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
White Doves at Morning
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the center of the tale are James lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from the slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willy Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite personal and political conflicts, both men join the Confederate Army, determined not to back down.
-
-
Where's Will?
- By Luke on 03-01-17
By: James Lee Burke
-
Lay Down My Sword and Shield
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Against the backdrop of growing civil rights turmoil in a sultry border town, the hard-drinking ex-POW attorney Hackberry Holland yields to the myriad urgings of his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends to make a bid for a congressional seat - and finds himself embroiled in the seamy world of Texas powerbrokers.
-
-
The Publisher's Summary is Anemic
- By Cat F. on 02-25-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
Wayfaring Stranger
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when 16-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile. Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp.
-
-
Near perfect. One of Burke's Best.
- By David Shear on 07-17-14
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- A Billy Bob Holland Novel, Book 1
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Texas attorney and former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland has many secrets. Among them is Vernon Smother's son, Lucas, a now-teenaged boy about whom few know the truth - Lucas is really Billy Bob's illegitimate son. When Lucas is arrested for murder, Billy Bob must confront the past and serve as the boy's criminal attorney. Billy Bob knows the propensity of the town, Deaf Smith, Texas, to make scapegoats out of the innocent and to exploit and sexually use the powerless.
-
-
Buy the other version
- By Mike on 01-27-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
White Doves at Morning
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the center of the tale are James lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from the slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willy Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite personal and political conflicts, both men join the Confederate Army, determined not to back down.
-
-
Where's Will?
- By Luke on 03-01-17
By: James Lee Burke
What listeners say about Rain Gods
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Richard
- 07-17-09
Dynamic Duo
The best writer teams up with the best narrator for an enjoyable audio book. This book is similar to No Country For Old Men. Just similar but a very different story and it is better in several ways. For one it is twice as long so you get twice as much enjoyment. Two there are some nice characters in this book. Sheriff Hackberry Holland for one but every time they said his name I thought Huckleberry Hound and chuckled. Strange name. Will Patton does a super job as usual and I only wish he could go back and read all Burke's books. There are many of them but they are useless to me with other narrators. Pretty convoluted and fast paced. Worth a credit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
52 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Tim
- 08-06-09
A Modern Masterpiece
This book and the narration are so good that they almost deserve a class of their own. As another reviewer noted this story does bear a passing resemblance to No Country for Old Men, so if you liked that movie that's likely a good indicator for this book. I'm not a huge fan of Burke, I find his Louisiana novels (much like True Blood on HBO) a little hard to take, but this Texas badlands story is simply a masterpiece. The narration is spectacular, it's a little disconcerting that the lead villain sounds exactly like George W Bush, but it's hard to imagine how it could be improved upon. The story is complex with many interwoven threads so you need to be able to give the story your reasonably full attention to really appreciate the mastery of plot and language deployed here. The chief bad guy (W.) may be the best drawn and most complex literary monster since Hannibal Lector. The hero is grittier than a sandwich eaten at the beach, the cavalcade of supporting cast have such a comprehensive range of character flaws and challenges that it does get a bit Dostoyevsky grim from time to time, but never ceases to enthrall.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
29 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Chip Atkinson
- 01-18-10
Eloquent Writing and Reading
Will Patton is absolutely the best reader I have encountered. Burke is highly descriptive and employs memorable, believable characters, always with severe flaws. This was a really fun book to listen to...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ChellyBelle
- 09-24-09
A great listen
Generally, I download audiobooks that are of the 'brain candy' variety, as a change to some of the heavier reading I do for the sake of work and such, so this book came as a bit of a surprise to me, since I've never read anything by James Lee Burke.
The author's style is at turns lyrical and lovely, and harsh and gritty, and I'm not sure that there's anyone else who could have narrated this book as well.
I've since downloaded one of the author's Dave Robicheaux novels, and while it's a good book, I greatly prefer the characters in Rain Gods, and hope that there will be more books featuring Hackberry Holland as the main character.
At times, the writing in Rain Gods was a bit overdone, and some of the dialogue was kind of... well, a little more poetic than realistic, but even so, I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and would highly recommend it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Nancy
- 10-02-09
Absolutely fabulous
The story itself is spectacular, a real page-turner, and Will Patton's narration is impressive. I've just ordered all of James Lee Burke's other audiobooks;that's how great RAIN GODS was. I teach creative writing; will use this book as an example of excellent storytelling, concrete and specific details, and how to keep suspense until the very last second.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R. Conley
- 02-13-12
Stop and get the first Hack Holland before this
All three Hack Holland novels are great, but you get a lot of perspective on Hack and others in this book if you start with Lay Down My Sword and Shield. Dave Robicheaux novels don't require this, but I advise you read the Hack novels in order.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bisonman
- 06-25-24
Good story but flawed
I love Burke and Patton reads him perfectly. This one had some very odd and unbelievable scenes though. Not his best work, IMO. Still a fun listen
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Mike
- 07-17-09
James Lee Burke Meets Cormac McCarthy
In Rain Gods, Burke takes the same narrative style found in his Dave Robicheaux series and transplants it to Southern Texas. We have a new assortment of, as Dave would say, "moral imbeciles" pursuing and being pursued by the novel's protagonist, Hackberry Holland, an aging lawman. It's "No Country For Old Men", but with Burke's special brand of dialogue and narration as opposed to the lean, stripped down style of McCarthy. Will Patton, as always, does a great job of telling the story but not getting in the way of it. Once again Burke does a great job of exploring the darker side of humanity and the road to redemption. However, Hackberry's sidekick, Pam Tills, is a poor substitute for Clete Purcell.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- rhl60
- 03-10-10
Burke never fails to entertain
The more I read Burke, the more I appreciate his sensibilities. He puts thought into his characters, his plots, and his writing. As a keen observer of the natural world, his settings invariably serve as a stark foil to the human machinations at play. The hobbled dignity and isolation of his protagonists serve the genre well, and the reader always learns from them. Will Patton is outstanding as a narrator. Burke has done it again with a great "read"....
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- PD
- 08-05-09
The best contemporary American Novel
Narration great. This book is writing which is prose but often reads like poetry. The characters are totally Americana but have the power of characters from Dostoevsky, thinking especially of the Brothers Karamazov.
It was hard to put down. The story was well woven.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful