Wayfaring stranger

What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

What this book is about

Weldon Holland survives the Battle of the Bulge and returns to Texas, where he falls in love with a woman in a displaced persons camp and begins building a life. But the Texas oil boom and the criminal interests around it are not done with him. James Lee Burke's standalone novel follows a new character — Weldon Holland, part of the same family Burke has used in other series — through wartime and post-war America. The Louisiana/Texas landscape is as immersive as ever; the moral concerns about exploitation and greed are continuous with the Robicheaux novels even as the protagonist is different.