Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

James Lee Burke is one of my favorite modern authors, he writes majestic books that span years and even generations, so I was highly interested when I had s chance to read and review one of his short story collections.

Harbor Lights is a masterpiece, with Burke's talent concentrated like lightning caught in a bottle, eight freestanding, short stories (each of which is an individual gem of heroism and highlights Burke's addictive storytelling ability).

Harbor Lights is a collection of stories that offer pretty dark and gloomy scenarios. The author refuses to serve us the anticipated tales of poetic justice. The protagonists of these stories, even when destined to suffer the injustice of the system, realise their own shortcomings and even empathise with the agents who try to defeat them. But each story, while set in a deeply dark and depressing environment, never denies its readers a glimpse of the harbor lights that are illuminated on a distant horizon.

This is my first James Lee Burke book. Harbor Lights is a story collection which move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons, and trailer parks across the South, weaving together stories of love, friendship, violence, survival, and revenge. It was not my favorite but I will be reading more of James Lee. Burke.

I'm kind of mixed on this offering, as I really like the author and have enjoyed several of his latest novels. This collection was a mixed bag for me. All the tales were dark, pretty gloomy, moral struggles of right and wrong, many set in the not-too-distant past, mostly Southern in setting and feel. Not being Southern, it is news to me that many from the South have an ingrained guilt about past history, mostly as it relates to the effects of slavery. I guess I can understand that on an intellectual level, but I personally don't get it. Several of the stories are infused with this guilt that carries over, apparently into every aspect of life. I just don't get it, so it's hard to empathize.

Burke writes beautifully, creating lyrics with words. There aren't many who do it better. To appreciate the author fully I think one needs to be open to the lament and pain suffered in the past. Some of us can do that better than others.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

Even though I had read most of these stories previously they are good enough to read again. Harbor Lights by James Lee Burke is a short story collection of great stories and they are mostly very dark. Burke is one of my all time favorite authors and he has a way with words few others have. Some of the stories are a little supernatural but even though I don't usually read that stuff I love it when Burke is writing them. I have not come across another author that can write so effortlessly despite what time he sets his stories in. I must thank Atlantic Monthly Press, Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for letting me read this great book. It's highly recommended by me.

Any new book published by James Lee Burke is an event worth celebrating. I really prefer his longer fiction, but a collection of short stories is still, for me, a satisfying feast. This collection features at least one story I’d read before (there may be others, but I’ve been reading his material for so long I really can’t be sure). There’s also a novella that is published here for the first time.

As is the way with JLB, the themes are consistently dark and feature acts of extreme violence. The settings and timeframe vary but a certain bleakness, or at least a sense of threat, permeates every tale. One of my favourite stories is set in a prison, where an inmate tries (unsuccessfully as it turns out) to mind his own business and simply get through his days peacefully. Another tells of a man who wishes to publicise an event he’s witnessed in order to forewarn others, but as a result he finds himself pitted against the forces of evil. As I worked through these tales a I noticed that a degree of metaphysical activity started to creep in. This is the 42nd book penned by this author that I’ve read, and my experience is that this element is a relatively new component in his writing - although it’s fair to say that his novel In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead (1993) strongly featured such elements.

The novella – entitled Strange Cargo – is a direct follow-up to his 2022 novel Every Cloak Rolled in Blood. Novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has now purchased an antebellum home built by his ancestors in Southern Louisiana, where he continues to be regularly visited by the spectre of his late daughter, Fannie Mae. As is frequently the case in Burke’s tales, a bully – this time in the form of the local sheriff – is to become a threatening figure in his life. In addition, Aaron starts to find himself visiting places and meeting people who haven’t existed here for many years. It’s a haunting story which features the author’s recurring themes of regret, loneliness and an ache for things to return to the way they used to be.

It’s a not a collection I was able to work through at any pace, partly because each story here takes it’s emotional toll. Also, although the writing is beautiful, if stubbornly uncompromising, the author’s constant references to historical events kept interrupting my flow as I researched yet another happening of which I was previously unaware. I’m a huge admirer of Burke’s writing and I’d urge anyone who hasn’t yet dipped into his catalogue, but who enjoys literary crime fiction or who simply appreciates top quality writing, to give him a go.

Harbor Lights: Stories by James Lee Burke opens with the title story. It was in 1942, the narrator and his father were out in the Gulf south of Louisiana, when they saw the bodies floating in their life vests. His dad called it in without identifying themselves or their boat. Despite Mr. Broussard’s attempt to not draw evil into their lives, it soon arrives anyway.

Nobody believes one could drive across the floor of a lake, but he saw it happen in “Going Across Jordan.” He rode the trains with Buddy Elgin and worked jobs hardly anyone else would do. Drifting the way they did was a good life until they wound up in a place where things went sideways. Communists are a societal concern, but they are more worried about a certain bully and his connections.

“Big Midnight Special” comes next and takes readers from the Northern Rockies to Summertime in the South. Prison Life to be specific and one man trying to get through each day by keeping to himself. Inmate Jody Prejean has other plans for our narrator, Arlen, and intends to get his way.

It was just a few days after Pearl Harbor in Yoakum, Texas, as “Deportees” begins. Aaron and his mother have shown up at the deep south Texas farm of his grandfather. A hard man on his family, he will go the extra mile for those who show up on his land after having crossed the border. Giving aid to those who crossed the nearby imaginary boundary for this nation puts him crosswise with others who can use their position to bully.
Delbert Hatfield always keeps his head down and focuses on his goal of getting tenure. Unfortunately, his daughter got herself into trouble in “The Assault.” Her situation and his own start going downhill in more ways than one.

He works the oil fields and likes to go to Hungry Gator and drink when off. He isn’t looking for anything other than a steady flow of booze. The Hungry Gator is where she met him in “The Wild Side Of Life..” Loreen Walters is pretty, married, and trouble in a way all bored married women are. Elmore is warned off as word got out about what went on in the bar though all they had were drinks together. Elmore should have listened as her and his past both come back to bite him.

He and his son are lost with a broke down car in “A Distant War.” Fortunately, they broke down near some sort of nightclub or diner. For Francis and his son, Morgan, the place is an oasis on this November evening. Or is it really?

He tries to keep his loneliness and depression at bay in “Strange Cargo.” He tries to keep his mind on the current state of things while knowing his way of life and the beauty of the land is slowly rotting away. He tries to live quiet and private, but Sheriff Jude Labiche won’t leave him alone. He just wants what he wants, but the Sheriff won’t abide that.

Harbor Lights: Stories is a short story collection full of tales that don’t rest easy on the reader. Each one is highly atmospheric, dark, and frequently tells of bullies rejected and otherwise, using their power to make things harder than they have to be for folks who just want to live in peace. The tales here span the country and the decades and frequently are populated with characters that can see the dead and hear their messages to the living. Escape is not possible as every little thing digs one deeper into the dark pit of the evil one will do to another human being. Nothing is straight forward in Habor Lights: Stories other than that regardless of time and place, weak people will always use whatever power they have to try and control others. Resisting them will have rippling consequences.

Habor Lights: Stories is not a cozy read or one that makes the reader feel good about others. This book is dark, often very grim, read of very good short stories. One that burns into your brain and linger on after the read is finished.


My reading copy came by way of NetGalley and the publisher, Grove Atlantic, with no expectation of a review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023

James Lee Burke continues to be one of our greatest writers and I always enjoy his short story collections. Jesus Out to Sea remains a favorite.
Burke's writing is trending darker these days; while always edgy and engaged with the struggle between good and evil, light and dark, those themes are now so much more intense.
This is a great story collection and classic Burke with his atmospheric details and extended phraseology. A must-read!

(Please see notes to the Publisher re the mistake on the burning of Tara)

Harbor Lights (Atlantic Monthly Press January 2024) by James Lee Burke is a collection of
eight varied and gripping short stories by the multiple award-winning, bestselling author of the
long-running Dave Robicheaux series. While harrowing in places, the stories collectively are
stunningly powerful and impeccably crafted.

The book also includes a previously unpublished novella, “Strange Cargo,” in which an aging
author returns to his ancestral home in Louisiana and confronts evil both in the present and from
the past. “Strange Cargo” is in some ways an intelligent ghost story, and it leans heavily upon
some well tracked Southern tropes—a pot-bellied, evil sheriff for example. It also returns to
some of Burke’s frequent themes, perhaps best summed up with C. Vann Woodward’s phrase,
“the burden on Southern history.” The advanced readers copy also contains a glaring mistake, in
which the narrator reflects upon Tara, the home of Scarlett O’Hara, burning down in Gone with
the Wind. Tara did not burn in either the book or the movie. For all this, “Strange Cargo” and the
other seven stories are well worth reading given the power of these tales.

As these are stories written by a master at his trade, readers know to expect quality in the
phrasing and language. And Burke does not disappoint. He writes with a sharp knife. However,
within his tight prose readers should expect violence, cynicism, moral quandaries, unrelenting
bleakness at times, a struggle between good and evil in which evil often has the upper hand, and
a gut-punch quality in many of the endings. There is a kind of casual brutality in the stories, and
that could well be off-putting to many. “Strange Cargo” in particular has several incidences of
cruelty and brutality. Yet, Burke is, as he nearly always is, brilliant in the sheer glory of what he
writes. His characterizations, his settings and world-building, and his plotting are, simply put,
among the best out there. Still, these stories are disturbing. They are rife with tension and
conflict, replete with the opposite of the happy ending, and the bursts of disturbing violence can
be unnerving. But that’s the price one pays for the privilege of reading Burke.

James Burke is a great author and I usually love his books. But this collection of short stories veered into the weird and supernatural too much for my enjoyment. Some of the short stories would make great novels. Some should have never been published.

This short story collection was assigned to me for review and publication in an upcoming print or online issue of Library Journal

Harbor Lights, which includes seven short stories and one novella, is the first collection of short fiction from James Lee Burke since 2007 when the author published a ten-story collection titled Jesus Out to Sea.

Burke's stories, no matter their length, have always focused on the very real battle between good and evil, and have featured main characters incapable of ignoring evil when confronted with it. At one point in "Strange Cargo," the novella's central character explains this impossible to deny obligation to directly confront evil when it drops into his lap by saying that he really doesn't want to do what he is about to do, but knows that if he doesn't do it he will never again find peace of mind or be able to live with himself. This is typical of a James Lee Burke hero. The author's books have always been darker than most, with the very real forces of evil, no matter what form they take, portrayed as formidable obstacles for good people to survive, much less overcome. Now, if anything, Burke manages to up the ante with Harbor Lights.

In one story, a man is just trying to get his son home safely after their car has broken down in the middle of nowhere, and he has to seek the help of threatening strangers. In another, a college professor is drawn into the fight when his seventeen-year-old daughter comes home in a taxi after being brutally beaten outside a local bar. What both men will learn is that sometimes there is simply no one turn to for help, even those paid to do so; that if they are not willing to fight back, they and those closest to them will lose everything.

The evil that Burke portrays in Harbor Lights often exists in the form of corrupt law enforcement officers. Some of these stories expose the utter darkness of prison life dominated by brutal guards who exploit the system and the inmates. One is about WWII federal agents who try to destroy a man after he reveals details to the press about the enemy submarine he and his son watched sink an oil tanker off the U.S. coast. The stories in Harbor Lights are a reminder that evil does not always appear where it is expected, that it is often embodied by the very people tasked with the difficult job of fighting it.

Readers of the Holland Family series of books will recognize some of the central characters in these stories as direct descendants of Hackberry Holland often reflect on their gunfighter ancestor, a man who himself teetered on the border of good and evil during his lifetime.

By my count (far from official), James Lee Burke has now published forty-seven books, and I have read some thirty-eight of them. For that reason, I knew what to expect from Harbor Lights. What I did not expect is how much a page-turner it is, or how much I enjoyed it. I highly recommend this one to Burke fans, and I warn the rest of you to hang on tight because Harbor Lights is a wild ride.

These stories are just terrific, dark, edgy, disturbing but beautifully written, Burke is a master and never disappoints:

James Lee Burke’s new book, Harbor Lights, is a set of short stories and one novella that is bleaker than many of his other books. There appear to be two.central themes running through the book: stories of revenge, and stories of how the ghosts of the South’s past continue to haunt its present (In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead comes to mind).

Like other collections, there are outstanding tales (such as Harbor Lights, and the novella Strange Cargo), and some that just didn’t work for me. But even these not so great stories are filled with Burke’s outstanding writing. This collection is not light reading, but despite the despair present in many of these stories, I found myself engrossed in them and not able to stop reading.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of Harbor Lights.

In a series of short stories, author James Lee Burke is given free rein to explore his ability to flourish with words. The stories all contain his vivid descriptions, but they succeed or not inconsistently. As a fan of the author I enjoyed seeing him untethered.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC

Sorry it was DNF , I couldn't push myself mire, it was so slow with political ideas. I am sorry not my type

Harbor Lights is the first James Lee Burke book I have read. Strictly speaking, this book is not a novel. It is, instead, a series of vignettes. Some are focused on a single character’s life, while others are varied by time or location. These stories cannot be classified as uplifting. Just the opposite. These are stories of despair about people whose lives have too often reached rock bottom.

Burke shows readers a side of life not often the focus of fiction. This is literary studies, which is likely where Burke’s stories belong. While these stories depict lives many readers would prefer not to see, I have no doubt that these stories would ring true to many people. Perhaps that proves their worth. Maybe we all need a greater appreciation and understanding of our fellow man. Truthfully, there is a grittiness to this life I might not want to recognize, but I am still glad that I read this collection of stories. .

Thank you to the author and to Grove Atlantic for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was not an easy book to read, but I am glad I read it. These are the stories students should read. Thank you to NetGalley for making it so easy for me to access this book.

This is my first book by James Burke. I couldn't get into any of the stories, though the writing is quite good. I like reading short stories, so the length of the stories was not the problem. The locations and the timelines were too far off for me and I was not interested in any of the characters. Fans of James Lee Burke might like this, but it was not for me.

The good thing about this book, is that it's like the author's other books in transporting you to the south. There are also lots of colorful characters, but the stories are not for me. The first ones are strange, the last ones are too much nonsense, and even though I like history, I like my novels set in the present.

Why have I never read James Lee Burke before. Flawed characters trying to do the right thing but being hindered, often by law officers who should be helping. The time, place and landscape is so well drawn. Each story is complete and perfect to read in one sitting. I became so emotionally invested in the characters and still keep thinking about their predicament. I don’t think I’ll forget some of these stories for a very long time