Feast Day of Fools Audiobook By James Lee Burke cover art

Feast Day of Fools

A Novel

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Feast Day of Fools

By: James Lee Burke
Narrated by: Will Patton
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.99

Buy for $14.99

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Celebrated crime master and two-time Edgar Award winner James Lee Burke returns with a gorgeously crafted, brutally resonant chronicle of violence along the Texas-Mexico border.

Sheriff Hackberry Holland patrols a small Southwest Texas border town, meting out punishment and delivering justice in his small square of this magnificent but lawless land. When an alcoholic ex-boxer named Danny Boy Lorca begs to be locked up after witnessing a man tortured to death by a group of bandits, Hack and his deputy, Pam Tibbs, slowly extract the Indian man’s gruesome tale. It becomes clear that the desert contains a multitude of criminals, including serial murderer Preacher Jack Collins (whom The New York Times called “one of Burke’s most inspired villains”).

Holland’s investigation leads him to Anton Ling, a mysterious Chinese woman whose steely demeanor and aristocratic beauty compel Hackberry to return to her home again and again as the investigation unfolds.

James Lee Burke is at his engrossing and atmospheric best in this, his thirtieth novel, as Hackberry plumbs the depths of man’s inhumanity to man - from killers-for-hire, to the U.S. government, to the misguided souls in search of a better life across the border.

©2011 James Lee Burke (P)2011 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Crime Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction

Critic reviews

“As Burke steers the elaborately structured narrative toward its violent conclusion, we are afforded looks inside the tortured psyches of his various combatants, finding there the most unlikely of connections between the players. This is one of Burke’s biggest novels, in terms of narrative design, thematic richness, and character interplay, and he rises to the occasion superbly, a stand-up guy at the keyboard, as always.... Though he is best known for his Dave Robicheaux series, the broader canvas of this Hackberry Holland adventure makes a fittingly grand stage on which to play out such a landmark event in American publishing.” (Bill Ott, Booklist)
“The dialogue scenes, along with the action sequences, the South Texas landscape and the indelibly conflicted characters make you want to give Burke a medal.” ( Kirkus Reviews)
"James Lee Burke is, quite simply, a genius, an exemplar of all that is great in American writing, and Feast Day of Fools is moving, and humane, and poetically, terrifyingly brilliant. As Burke gets older, he just gets better: in doing so, he gives hope to the generation of writers influenced by him, while simultaneously reminding us of how far we still have to go to be that good.” (John Connolly, New York Times best-selling author of The Burning Soul)
All stars
Most relevant  
Will Patton is an excellent reader. Sorry but the story didn't follow a logical path.

Not as good as previous stories of Hackberry.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Will Patton’s narration of JL Burke’s richly embroidered cultural identities and the history in which they live is a pure gift in Audible’s library. No writer captures the nuanced truths of his characters and the shameful, mostly hidden, cruel history of our country’s exploitation of people and place as does James Burke. And he somehow manages to find the streaks of gold in the souls of characters who are otherwise wretchedly bereft of obvious goodness. I want to live in every landscape he creates. To witness the stories there.

Burke’s writing & Patton’s narration are a Brilliant pairing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.