Reading order · 4 books · 1971 to 2015 · Set in Texas border country
Hackberry Holland Books in Order
Hackberry Holland is a Texas lawyer and, later, an ageing county sheriff on the Mexican border, a man of conscience with a past in the Korean War.
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Series facts
- Books
- 4
- Published
- 1971 to 2015
- First book
- Lay Down My Sword and Shield
- Latest
- House of the Rising Sun (2015)
- Setting
- Set in Texas border country
The reading order
Every Hackberry Holland book in publication order. Choose a title for its cast and summary.
4 books · Set in Texas border country
- 1Lay Down My Sword and Shield1971With Hackberry HollandIn the late 1960s, Hackberry Holland, a Korean War veteran from a wealthy Texas family, gives up a career in politics to support striking Mexican farmworkers in the Rio Grande Valley.Buy on Amazon
- 2Rain Gods2009With Hackberry HollandIn a small Texas border county, ageing sheriff Hackberry Holland finds the bodies of nine young women, illegal immigrants, behind a church, and the case puts him in the path of a killer called Preacher Jack Collins.Buy on Amazon
- 3Feast Day of Fools2011With Hackberry HollandHackberry Holland, still sheriff, is drawn into a hunt for a Chinese defector in the desert, with Preacher Jack Collins and others on the trail.Buy on Amazon
- 4House of the Rising Sun2015With Hackberry HollandIn 1916, Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland is in Mexico during the revolution, searching for his estranged son, and possesses a sacred relic that others will kill for.Buy on Amazon
Do you need to read them in order?
Lay Down My Sword and Shield, from 1971, introduces Hackberry as a young lawyer; Rain Gods and Feast Day of Fools follow him as an old sheriff and can be read on their own. House of the Rising Sun goes back to an earlier Hackberry in 1916.
Who appears in which book
The series’ main characters, book by book. Lead means the book is told around them; minor covers cameos.
| Book | Hackberry Holland | Pam Tibbs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Lay Down My Sword and Shield | LLead | |
| 2 Rain Gods | LLead | MMajor |
| 3 Feast Day of Fools | LLead | MMajor |
| 4 House of the Rising Sun | LLead |
Characters in the Hackberry Holland books
2 characters from James Lee Burke’s chart, with the number of Hackberry Holland books each appears in.
| Character | Books | First in this series |
|---|---|---|
| Hackberry HollandTexas lawyer, later county sheriff | 4 | Lay Down My Sword and Shield 1971 |
| Pam TibbsHackberry’s chief deputy | 2 | Rain Gods 2009 |