Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie

The kaleidoscopic fifth installment in MWA Grand Master Burke’s Holland Family saga (after Every Cloak Rolled in Blood) follows 14-year-old Bessie Mae Holland as she navigates threats to her family in WWI-era Texas. The action kicks off with Betsy’s brother, Cody, losing an eye during a dispute with local bully Jubal Fowler. Betsy and Cody’s father, former Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland, struggles to suppress his violent instincts while confronting Jubal’s father, Winthrop, but Bessie shoots Winthrop, wounding him, and ends up in jail. A friendly drifter tampers with evidence to get Bessie released, and Cody flees to New York City, where he’s sucked into the criminal underworld. Meanwhile, Indian Charlie, an unscrupulous security guard for the Atlas Oil Company, seeks revenge against Hackberry for an old criminal case, putting Bessie—who longs to join her brother in New York—in harm’s way. Vivid, atmospheric prose (“The grit [was] so dense it could knock a squirrel out of a tree, the dust so high the sun was a pink wafer”) enhances Burke’s wrenching portrayal of Betsy’s hope for a better life. This is another winner from a crime writer at the top of his game. Agent: Anne-Lise Spitzer, Philip Spitzer Literary. (June)