Cimarron Rose

Lucas Smothers, nineteen and from the wrong end of town, has been arrested for the rape and murder of a local girl. His lawyer Billy Bob Holland is convinced of Lucas's innocence but proving it means unearthing the truth from a seething mass of deceit and corruption. A corruption endemic in the way it can be only in a gossipy small town where everybody knows everybody else's business. Billy Bob's relationship with Lucas's family is not an easy one. Years back he was a close friend of Mrs Smothers, too close according to her husband Vernon. And when Lucas overhears gruesome tales of serial murder from a neighbouring cell in the local lock up, the waters are muddied even further and Lucas himself looks like a candidate for an untimely death.

The cheapest new copy of Cimarron Rose is £9.89 at LoveReading; the cheapest used copy is €2.50 at Label Emmaüs. Prices checked 13 Nov 2026

More by James Lee Burke