House Of The Rising Sun by James Lee Burke

 

When we first meet Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland, he is in Mexico searching for his son, Ishmael.  Ishmael and his mother have lived a hard life, as a misunderstanding between Holland and Ishmael's mother, Ruby Dansen, left Ruby to raise their son on her own which wasn't easy in the years before World War I.  Holland was married to Maggie Bassett, a former madam and consort of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Holland wasn't sure how he ended up married to her and had been trying to find his way out but Maggie wasn't having it.  She did everything she could to break up his relationship with Ruby and she won that battle.

While Holland doesn't find Ishmael on his trip to Mexico he does find something else.  In a cantina out in the desert, he encounters a madam called Beatrice DeMolay.  She tells him that along with the massacred soldiers he has found, there are guns stored waiting on an Austrian gun dealer.  Holland searches the guns and finds what appears to be a religious icon.  He takes that with him, blows up the guns to keep them out of enemy hands and heads back to Texas.

That trip sets in motion the events of Holland's life in the years ahead.  Maggie leaves and Hackberry is alone on his ranch.  He continues to try to find Ruby and Ishmael but the trail is cold.  When Ishmael goes to fight in World War I, he comes home wounded.  In the meantime, the arms dealer whose icon Hackberry took all those years ago has never forgotten it.  He still wants it back and finds a way to take control of Ishmael from the hospital he is sent to for his wounds.  Hackberry knows it will take every ounce of strength and cunning he possesses to get Ishmael back.  Can he do it?

This is the fourth novel in the Hackberry Holland series.  I like the Dave Robicheaux series better but this novel was intriguing and the action carried the reader along.  Hackberry never managed to see himself as others did; he only saw his faults while others saw all his virtues.  He is totally loyal to those he considers family and friends and while he is violent it is usually hard to avoid.  This book is recommended for readers of thrillers.