“Feast Day of Fools” picks up where “Rain Gods” left off. Long-time Burke readers might recall that he previously wrote about Hack Holland in several short stories and in an early novel called “Lay Down My Sword and Shield.”
Hack is a Korean War veteran and a former POW. He is charged with enforcing the law in one of the most violent and lawless areas in the world; a Texas county along the porous Mexican border. Smugglers are trying to haul everything from drugs to illegal immigrants into Hack’s jurisdiction.
In “Rain Gods,” readers first encountered Burke’s most dastardly villain ever, the Thompson machine gun totin’, Bible quotin’ Preacher Jack Collins. In “Feast Day of Fools,” we find that Collins is still Hack’s nemesis, but in a bizarre turn of events they end up forging an unseemly alliance.
Collins has befriended a military researcher who is hiding out. This scientist has knowledge of military secrets that would be quite valuable to America’s enemies. A variety of hostile agents are scouring the borderlands in pursuit of this fugitive.
Sheriff Holland and his deputy, Pam Tibbs, are trying to locate him before anybody else does. There are some evil men who want to sell him and his secrets to the highest bidder. Then there are the federal agents who are under orders to silence him at all costs.
Hack suspects that Preacher Jack Collins knows the whereabouts of the fugitive. Locating Collins is a challenge. Hack observes that he “had failed miserably in dealing with Jack Collins, who killed people whenever and wherever he wished and seemed to walk through walls or leave no indicators of his presence except the funnel-shaped tracks of an animal.”
I interviewed James Lee Burke recently. He described some of the characters he depicts in this book as “morally insane.” There’s Krill — he became unhinged when a helicopter attack in central America killed his children. His associate, Negrito, is a serial murderer with his own private burial ground out in the desert.
Hackberry has demons of his own. He frequently recalls his nightmarish ordeal in a North Korean prison. He’s a former alcoholic and he feels tremendous guilt about acts he committed when he was younger. He also is haunted by memories of his late wife.
Then there’s Preacher Jack, one of the most despicable but strangely compelling characters imaginable. At one point, Jack encounters a rogue motorcyclist who fails to comprehend the Preacher’s lethal wit. Big mistake. James Lee Burke performs an act of literary wizardry with “Feast Day of Fools,” his most entertaining book yet. You will want to savor every single word.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Friday at 1:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 11 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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