Every Cloak Rolled in Blood

After the death of his daughter, a depressed, grief-stricken Aaron Holland Broussard is forced to adopt the serenity prayer and acknowledge he must accept the things he cannot change. His daughter, Fannie Mae, has passed, but her spirit lingers to guide him as he navigates hate, racism, misogyny, fanatical religion, and manifestations. In Montana, where the long and wide landscape promises open skies and freedom, Broussard sees dark, troublesome shadows, a revelation of what was and still is the brutality of human existence. Evil is manifested as Major Eugene Baker, who commanded the massacre of many Blackfeet people in 1870. Clarity is Ruby Spotted Horse, a Montana state trooper who holds evil at bay behind a door in her cellar. And hope is Fannie Mae, who precedes him in the afterlife and ensures him there is much he can still do, must do. Broussard encounters many of the same stylized characters as he did in Burke’s three previous novels of the “Holland Family Saga” series. Narrator Will Patton brings Burke’s world to life with casual but masterful confidence.