Rain Gods by James Lee Burke

Abridged Audio Version

Yesterday, I finished listening to the abridged audio version of Rain Gods by James Lee Burke and narrated by actor, Will Patton. Approximate playing time is 6 hours, 49 minutes.

This is the first experience I can recall having with anything written by author James Lee Burke... I thought the writing was tight and really well done, even if Rain Gods show cased a lot of violence. Overall, I really enjoyed the story line and characters very much. I also felt like the abridgment for this audio version was seamless as I didn't notice any major gaps in the story as it unfolded. My favorite characters were Hackberry Holland and Pam Tibbs.

Will Patton did an excellent job of narrating Rain Gods. I've said it before and I'll say it again, a good narrator and well done audio production can make or break ones listening experience. In this case, I enjoyed listening to the narrator and thought the audio production was well done.

The following is the publisher's summary that I discovered on Audible's website:

When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he'd hoped to leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won't escape so easily.

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, plus 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.

I'm giving Rain Gods by James Lee Burke a rating of 9 stars out of 10 stars. This is my 6th read/listen of 2015.

Until my next post, happy reading!