At the beginning of the twentieth century, as America grapples with forces of human and natural violence more powerful than humanity has ever seen, Bessie Holland yearns for the love that she has never known. She finds a soulmate and mentor in a brilliant but tormented suffragette English teacher, who inspires Bessie to fight the forces of evil that permeate her world.

Watching the vast Texas countryside being destroyed by an oil company and a menacing figure with a violent past, Bessie is prepared to defend her home and her family. But when she accidentally kills an unarmed man to defend her father Hackberry, she must flee to New York. There, her older brother introduces her to boys who will grow into gangsters, but as children admire and respect Bessie’s spirit and fortitude as she is cast into a gangland that yearns for justice and mercy.

A welcome return to the beloved Holland series and populated with characters both radiant and despicable, Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie is an epic story of a remarkable young girl who fights against potentially overwhelming forces.

Praise for James Lee Burke:

“James Lee Burke is the reigning champ of nostalgia noir.”—New York Times Book Review

“You can always count on Burke to deliver a white-hot page-turner.”—AARP Magazine

“Burke’s evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce wonder.”—Entertainment Weekly

“One of the finest novelists in North America.”—Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail

“James Lee Burke is one of a small handful of elite suspense writers whose work transcends the genre, making the leap into capital-L Literature.”—Bookpage