5 comments about Burning Angel (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries).

1. I love almost everything about James Lee Burke including his prose, his characters and especially, the locations he writes about. But Burning Angel is the second book in a row where I had a problem with the plot.
   
   As usual, Dave Robicheaux (deputy with the New Iberia Sheriff's Department) has way too much going on. First, Robicheaux runs into a "friend" who grew up in New Iberia and ended up being a Canal Street fixer in New Orleans. Sonny Boy Marsallus has dabbled in almost everything including being a Latin American mercenary and an independent working for the DEA. Marsallus thinks his life is in danger and asks Robicheaux to hold a notebook with damaging information. A plantation owner is trying to gain possession of land that his grandfather deeded to the families of former slaves. Why he wants the land is a big mystery, but the mob also seems to be involved. It is also rumored that Jean Lafitte buried treasure there. Lots of bad guys hover on the edges and there always seems to be a hit out on Robicheaux.
   
   There were too many things going on in Burning Angel, and I had a hard time keeping them all straight. I'm ok with the the local crimes, the mob plots, and even the Viet Nam angle. But Burke gets very murky when delving into the world of clandestine operations in Latin America. Usually Burke wraps things up at the end, but there were an awful lot of loose ends hanging here. Even the epilogue wasn't much help.
   
   Despite the plot, there is still enough in Burning Angel to keep me reading. Burke regales us not just with the beauty of Louisiana, but also her ugliness (her racism, exploitation of the environment, the mob influence, poverty, the crime, etc.). Robicheaux's new partner, Helen Soileau, is also a good fit. She's unlike any woman he has teamed up with in the past. She's not always very politically correct and sometimes shows less restraint than Robicheaux. Clete Purcell and Helen loathe each other, but a grudging respect develops when they pull together to assist Robicheaux. It's rather comical.
   
   Even though the plot of Burning Angel was not as polished as previous books, Burke is still a better writer than most mystery writers today. I'm still determined to read them all and I have five more to go.



2. I thought "Black Cherry Blues" was bad, until I read this one. At least "Black Cherry Blues" has an ending.
   
   I wanted to give it zero stars but it was not one of the choices. First of all, I think James Lee Burke is a horrible writer. He tried too hard in his description of things throughout the book. Here's an example in one of the last pages:
   
   "...his GI haircut resembles a peeled onion under the sun....."
   
   Why bother with such description? It serves no purpose. Besides it doesn't make sense!!
   
   The above would have been tolerable if the story is good. There are too many subplots. In the end, all the subplots do not come together, like a good mystery is supposed to.
   
   It is the first book I have ever read (I read tons) where I did not know what happened in the end, not to mention the question to the following:
   
   1. What is in Sonny's notebook?
   2. Who is Charlie?
   3. What is Moleen hiding?
   4. What is the construction company trying to build, or dig up? Treasures?
   5. And what is up with different people seeing Sonny alive after he has been killed?
   
   I don't know if it's just me, but how can anybody give this book a 4 or 5-star, like some of the reviews I read. Maybe these same people can explain the book to me. Then again, I don't think I want to know. If James Lee Burke can be a best-selling author, then the standard of today's contemporary writers are dropping..........fast. Now that I am sufficiently depressed, maybe a good Agatha Cristie mystery will cheer me up.
   
   j



3. The Dave Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke have always had a spiritual component --see IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD-- but in BURNING ANGEL the supernatural darn near takes center stage with the presence of a real, honest-to-gosh no-doubt-about-it ghost. I loved the series before...now I'm really hooked.



4. Once again JLB has Dave dealing with people he knew back in New Orleans and Vietnam. Again it's some one who grew up around the Mafia in NO and he dealt with when he was in NOPD. Again it's a member of the local mafia and gentry that is behind a problem that doesn't ever seem to go away (a bad upbringing and abuse of them or their mother or both).
   
   What makes this one different is the inclusion of drugs for guns in south america and the american government involvement with both. An old friend from 'Nam shows up and gives a 'diary' to Dave which is purported to have info that will tie people in souteastern Louisiana to war crimes committed in Nicaragua. At the same time, one of the local gentry who has fallen onto hardtimes because of his involvement with a 'woman of color' is looking for a way out and big score. The big score is over use of his ancestral land for environmentally damaging industry which is nothing new in the polluted swamp-lands and marshes of the area around New Iberia.
   
   There is also the touch of the 'supernatural' when after his friend Sonny is killed; he seems to turn up all over the area, and is seen by Alafair, Clete and Batiste. A nudge from Sonny, saves Dave's life and determines that one of the bad guys will take his own life.
   
   There's a nice piece about Dave and Alafair, and dealing with your baby girl becoming a teenager and all that that implies to a parent. I thought he handled it very forthrightly and with honesty. Dave's as confused as to what to do as the rest of us mortals.
   
   For me, at least, it seemed that he walzed through this one, getting ready for something big in the next.



5. This series is SOOOOOOO good! Remember to read the titles in order, however. It is definitely a progressive series. See my review of Crusader's Cross for a general view of the series.

5 comments about In the Moon of Red Ponies: A Novel (Burke, James Lee).

1. Having become a James Lee Burke junkie over the last year, I couldn't wait to read "Moon". What a disappointment. Billy Bob and Temple in Montana just can't compare to Dave and Bootsie in Louisiana! The action wanes when it needs to wax - and Cletus is no where around to spice it up. If you like the Bayou stories, I'm afraid the Bitteroot Mountains won't elicit quite the same reading anticipation.



2. I've read just about everything Burke has written and this is one of the worst. The various parts just don't fit together and I found myself drumming my fingers and wishing it would just end. I suppose the good news is that it did. More and more the author has his main characters wallowing in self analysis and contemplating their navels at great length. If you like that you like it but there's too much of it for me. In addition the plot is kind of pasted together and imparts no belief that it could happen as written or that it makes sense. And the actions of the protagonist become increasingly tiresome. Enough.



3. The reader is hard to get used to, the story good, lot of twists and turns, keeps you interested.



4. Billy Bob Holland (yes Billy Bob) a former Texas Ranger, a Former DA, and now a current Defense attorney has just found out that Wyatt Dixon, a psycho who attempted to bury his wife alive, has been released from jail on a technicality. The local drunk has also been locked up again but this time is different because he was caught carrying a concealed weapon. Billy bob worries about Dixon as he goes to bail out Johnny American Horse (The local Drunk) from jail on the weapons charges.....
   
   To be fair I didn't choose this book. It was kind of forced on me by an acquaintance. I had a feeling by reading the title that this wasn't likely to be something I would enjoy but figured I would give it a shot. I couldn't even finish this one. It is that bad. I was literally laughing out loud at this author's prose. Like all books if they start a little weak I will give them 100 pages +/- and if 100 pages in I still just don't care about what's going on in the story it is time to move on. The book read like a bad combination of, Cheesy modern western and cheesy film noir.
   
   The Good: ??????
   
   The Bad: This author's style of writing is completely annoying. I literally began to laugh as I read his attempts at setting scenes. Every single scene every time is set with, "The hills were blanked with sun" "The sun was bright on the hillside" "We walked into the brilliance of morning sunshine" and on and on and on in every scene. These descriptions were paired with gems like "The air smelled of distant rain" "the air smelled of wet grass and pine" and "The sky was forked with lightning" or a variation thereof. Also every scene has "through the window I could see mountains in the back ground". Now I'm not talking every chapter or every other chapter. I am talking about every scene, which is every page to every third page. Also almost every scene introduces a new member of wild life: "White tail deer scampered across the path" "white tail deer walked up into the shadowed wood" "I was temporarily distracted buy a black bear ambling across the path" "Moose and elk crossed the stream in the distance". This stuff was so heavy handed in the book it became laughable and this was all in the first 120 pages.
   
   The characters are also not likeable. The hero is a defense attorney, his overbearing PI wife, the ex psycho reformed Christian killer, the drunken hero Indian and of course the over the top cop. I am reading this looking for a character to enjoy reading or at least to root against and what I found after 100 pages was that I just didn't care about any of them. Not only did I not care but I actually disliked them. Burke should have spent more time on his characters than on wild life and sun blanketed hillsides.
   
   The characters names are also pretty bad. I don't usually complain about this but had to here. Gems like: Billy Bob, Temple (Billy Bob's wife) Johnny American Horse and Lester Antelope.
   
   The story lacks a cohesive plot. Stories that don't follow conventional story lines are fine when all of the other components are in place however I don't think that is what is going on in "Red Ponies". I think the plot is just so meandering and slow to develop that it didn't even begin to make itself known in the portion I read.
   
   Overall: I could go on an on about how poor this book is but will just say to pass on this one.



5. "In the Moon of Red Ponies" is one of James Lee Burke's novels that features Billy Bob Holland, a defense attorney in Missoula, instead of his better known protagonist, Dave Robicheaux. The Holland books are subtler, taking a little longer to develop and distributing more of the action to the cast of characters. Burke's mastery of scene continues with gorgeous descriptions of Montana's natural riches. The captivating patterns of Burke's writing continue: the problem that can't be ignored by a man of conscience; an assortment of personalities in various degrees of disrepair; moments of startling, violent ferocity; small moments of hard-earned redemption; and the sanctuary of love-making.

5 comments about Jolie Blon's Bounce.

1. I won't add to the well written reviews and comments written so far. I mainly want to refute the reviewer who complained about the narration of Mark Hammer. It took a few minutes to get into but I think it's perfect for the bayou setting. The reader's voice seems etched with all the cares and woes of the characters who are woven through this fine novel. I hung on his every word and replayed many tracks to cement the impact of the incredible writing as transformed by the cadence and haunting voice of the reader.



2. Like many of the Dave Robicheaux books, this one is filled with violent people, many of whom the best can be said is that some day they will kill and be killed by one of their own kind. It's the in-between time that the rest of us have to be fearful. This one starts out with the murder of two woman in a similar way, both have been beaten brutally and raped prior to being murdered.
   
   
   
   But the real story is the one that follows Dave around during the whole of the investigation into the murders, and that is how do you deal with real evil without becoming part of the pattern. Dave almost goes off the wagon by taking pills after he is brutally beaten by a man who is proud to go by the name "Legion". Legion is one of the devil's disciples/minions who is mentioned in the "Book of Revelations". So there is a lot, a lot of allegory going on in this book about people and the sources of evil and what people do to aide and abet evil.
   
   
   
   In the end, the story plays out pretty much the way you expect it to if you've read any of the previous books by JLB, but this one ends with a quirky bit about a criminal that Dave calls the "Easter Bunny". EB is an albino who doesn't just break into peoples houses he does so for many reasons. In one segment Dave tells how EB broke into a Pet Store, and stole two large South American parrots. He then breaks into the house of a well-known ex-KKK leader (who is overseas), steals his computer records (which he sends to the FBI and IRS) and lets the birds loose in the guys house (they of course leave 'deposits' all over the place). I hope he brings this character back sometime in the near future.
   
   
   
   All in all, though it is a little heavy handed at times, and has more violence than I think is necessary (IMHO), it's an enjoyable story.



3. Jolie Blon's Bounce, A good story, a welcome addition to my "Dave Robicheaux" collection. I do worry that the author is about to kill "Dave" off. The other characters in the story seem to feel that was also. I do hope this is not so, as I really enjoy Dave's adventures in New Orleans.



4. I haven't been there physically, but James Lee Burke does a masterful job in placing you in the story. You can feel the heat while watching lightening flash across the night's sky. Your skin crawls with desperation of a depressed area. Your heart races with disgust as you are faced with one literature's most vile villains.
   Very good read and very smooth prose.
   
   James A. Forrest - Eye of the Storm



5. This crime novel has great descriptions of the area, wonderful langauge, great character names, and an interesting story. The character Legion is very evil and divine intervention "gets him" in the end. I love the Dave Robicheaux series .

5 comments about Dixie City Jam (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries).

1. After reading a bunch of bestseller but lackluster mysteries this summer, it was wonderful to discover an author of some substance-James Lee Burke. Dixie City Jam (the Dave Robicheaux series) reads more like a mystery written by a novelist, and Burke's literary style is unmatched by most mystery writers today.
   
   Dave Robicheaux, a former New Orleans PD policeman, is now a detective with the New Iberia sheriff's office. Robicheaux discovered a Nazi u-boat in Gulf waters, and now a number of people are lining up to find the sub's location. Will Buchalter is a spooky, brutal, neo-Nazi who is willing to stop at nothing to get his hands on the sub, and haunts Robicheaux and his family (leaving dead bodies in his wake). There are also several subplots involving drug deals, prostitution, mobsters, crooked cops, and a vigilante murderer killing drug dealers and cutting out their hearts.
   
   Burke's characters are a colorful bunch, and Robicheaux's former partner and now PI, Cletus Purcel, is probably the best of the bunch. He will have you in stitches as he goes against the mob. New Orleans is also a major player in Dixie City Jam, and the sultry, sensuous, steamy city (the locals call it The Big Sleazy) provides a fitting backdrop.
   
   Burke's writing is top notch, and his dialog between characters reads like Mike Hammer meets Spenser. Robicheaux has a background in literature (something rare in law enforcement) and it's easy to see that Burke is a serious writer who shares a love of literature with his fictional detective. Burke has received a number of deserved literary awards and was even nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
   
   The only negative about Dixie City Jam is that some of it seemed a bit unbelievable. How Buchalter could have gone on a crime spree lasting decades while eluding detection or capture was a stretch. But this doesn't detract from this otherwise fabulous book. Burke is another writer who I'm now motivated to read everything he's written. I've already started Last Car to Elysian Fields.



2. For the first time in a long time, Dave Robicheaux's life seems to be going well. His wife Bootsie's Lupus is under control, his business is doing well as is his daughter Alafair. Then Dave sees an old german sub, sunk during WWII and all kinds of strange things begin to happen in his life.
   
   This time the woman in Dave and Clete's lives are the targets of a lunatic, who has been murdering people all over the world. He has a compatriot who will surprise you later in the book. Most of the time Dave is busy chasing after this guy who seems to be a ghost and lives completely off the radar. No history or background and nothing in the NCIS computer files.
   
   Clete has more fun in this book than is legal; he fills a guys car with cement from a stolen cement mixer, and drives an earth grader through the guys brothers house. In between he gets some great lines and gets to spend a week fishing, while Dave runs around southeastern Louisiana chasing his ghost.
   
   As always, come the end, Dave works everything out; the good guys win and the bad guys get their just desserts. There is a great line from Stephen Crane in the book that I'll paraphrase as:
   
   Most people aren't nouns, their adverbs, spending their time modifying situation and dangers they have no control over.



3. Only a writer as talented as Burke could get away with a plot this far-fetched. Nazi submarines, nuns and psychopaths-- these are subjects that in the hands of a lesser writer would make us cringe and close the book. Burke somehow almost makes it believable. He definitely makes the material into a one of his trademark dark and absorbing reads.
   
   Bit by bit, Robicheaux is having his innocence and idealism chipped away. Dixie City Jam does not reveal what the readers will find underneath.
   
   I can believe that this is not the best of the Robicheaux books. The premise of the plot is just a bit too far-fetched. Still, the characters have some truly brilliant moments-- I particularly liked Tommy Bobalouba. This was the second Burke that I have read, and it only strengthens my desire to read the other books in the series.



4. Burke can do no harm with this series. All additions are wonderful and dark and thoughtful and memorable. See my review of his Crusader's Cross for a general picture.



5. James Lee Burke is a good writer, but this isn't a good book. The paperback edition is more than 500 pages long. The book would have benefited greatly from an editor who could wield a red pen and delete about 250 pages of excess fat.
   
   The story makes the protagonist, Dave Robicheaux, look like a dunce. He knows someone is out to intimidate him and his family but he takes no precautions. So time after time, the bad guys get into his house and physically abuse his wife and then him. It is hard to believe a former New Orleans' homicide detective who now works for the sheriff's office could be so stupid and cavalier.
   
   The story is written in the first person. Rather than explain some of the local New Orleans lingo, the author has Dave's friend Clete Purcel explain it to him. Pretty tedious.
   
   I recommend trying one of Burke's other books.

5 comments about Crusader's Cross: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries).

1. I have read most of James Lee Burke's books and this is by far and away the best plotted and written. Gone are most of those made up "folksy" sayings that no one from New Orleans to Lake Charles has ever heard uttered, except by the characters in these books. That is good.
   
   Also, a realistic look into the twisted mind of a recovering alcoholic.



2. I got this for a gift and it was delivered in plenty of time. Love the author but didn't know if the person I gave it to would.
   She did and now buys as many of James Lee Burke as she can.



3. As ususal, Burke writes an engaging tale; albeit an overused formula about good ole Dave, e.g. Robicheaux loses his control, beats the heck out of someone from a prominent politican to a low life that deserves it and always, with impunity; or he gets beat up and recovers from trauma that to most humans would be so debilitating that would cause everlasting drooling and eating meals through a straw. But still I read everything that Burke writes. He is the best at turning a phrase or succinctly describing an event or place like no one else. And each book has new phrases and descriptions; to wit: his prose on a Wal-Mart store in LA (or anywhere else) is right on. Burke is indeed brilliant and I will keep reading his writings...



4. Excellent work. All of Burke's Robicheaux novels are fantastic. Will end up reading all of them. I have 10 so far.



5. ... utterly confusing and mediocre plot.
   
   Burke has lost it as have many of the "celebrity" authors. Commercialism stifles creativity. I have moved on to newer, lesser well known authors such as Pilate by Steven Rage, Caliphate by Tom Kratzman, War against Islam, The Ezekiel Code,....
   
   Traditionalists and readers who don't care about plot will like Burke's book, but beware of same old, same old...
   
   You've been warned.

1 comments about Bitterroot.

1. I keep buying these books written by James Lee Burke. His writing is the very best and this one in particular was good. I love the delivery process.

5 comments about Pegasus Descending: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux).

1. Years ago, Dave Robicheaux witnessed a good friend's brutal death during a bank robbery at a time when Robicheaux was too drunk to intervene or help. This memory has followed him through sobriety and into his job as a detective with the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department. Robicheaux is unsettled when Trish Klein, his dead friend's daughter, shows up in his hometown, even more so that the men he thinks responsible for his friend's death are now living there. Robicheaux suspects Trish has vengeance on her mind and grows concerned when he learns Clete Purcel, his former partner and best friend, is involved with Trish. Even more discomfiting to Robicheaux is his investigation into the apparent suicide of a young college student that leads back to the men who killed his friend years earlier.
   
   Dave Robicheaux is a complex character, an alcoholic haunted by demons from his tour of duty in Vietnam. Married to a former nun, Robicheaux desperately tries to lead a good life and seeks redemption through her, but cannot shake the past nor his more primitive nature. James Lee Burke writes with a love and admiration for southern Louisiana, delivered with a Cajunesque lilt. The plot is twisty enough to keep the reader guessing, the characterization intriguing.



2. Mr. Burke's use of language, the descriptions of his characters and settings are remarkable. And, most importantly, a joy to read.



3. 
   James Burke can write beautifully, but his story telling abilities have deteriorated in this series and the books all run together in both theme and violent action. 1. Really bad people blow into town where they encounter
   Dave and Clete who simply must find a way to kill them lest they injure more innocent people. 2. Dave manages to act like a gentleman concerned about proprieties and southern manners while giving reign to violent tendencies that typically cause people to be put in prison. 3. Clete, his soul mate is less concerned about being a gentleman, but matches Dave's violent behavior in all ways except that he is generally in an alcoholic fog, whereas Dave is now an ex-alcoholic. 4. Most of the bad guys get killed rather than arrested.
   
   I heard James Lee Burke talk once and say his inspiration is often the old testament. His writing in this series is about the reality of evil and the idea that it must be opposed and contained at any cost by civilized vigilantes willing to step outside the norms of human behavior.
   
   It had been years since I had read one of these books. I had gotten bored. I won't read another unless one day I get a yen for this kind of comic book writing. More than bored I now feel repelled.



4. I have been a fan of Burke for a very long time, however I have cooled to his last few novels. They have become repetitive, and more importantly he has endeavored to interject politics into the fabric of his work. This has disappointed me in a huge way.



5. Twenty-five years ago, deep in his cups with a keg's worth of beer and accompanying chasers under his belt, an alcoholic Dave Robicheaux witnessed the gangland execution of his friend, Dallas Klein. Swearing off the sauce and finding a good woman who accepts and loves him for what he is, Robicheaux has spent the remainder of his life in recovery attempting to live down that unforgivable inability to stand and help his friend so long ago. What most rankles Robicheaux is that he is certain of the assassin's identity - Whitey Bruxal, a mobster with a lengthy well-documented gangland jacket - but, with no proof, he is unable to act on the knowledge!
   
   Now, out of nowhere, Dallas Klein's daughter, Trish Klein appears in town. In a set-up remarkably similar to Baldacci's Camel Club story of Annabelle Conroy's vendetta against mobster Jerry Bagger (both were published in 2006 so it's hard to say who beat whom to that plot-line punch), it looks like she's gunning for revenge against her father's murderer. Of course, as with any police procedural or psychological thriller worth its salt, James Lee Burke has expertly upped the ante with multiple plot lines that weave in and out of one another throughout the novel - a young girl's suicide after a drunken fraternity debauch and a brutal gang rape; the hit-and-run death of an aging drifter that, on the evidence of the post-mortem, has much more sinister overtones; and the complex life of the local black dope dealer.
   
   Although this is the apparently the 14th novel in which Burke has placed Robicheaux on center stage, this is the first time I've had the pleasure of sampling Burke's craftsmanship. And what an experience that was - his depiction of both the psychological mindscape and the physical landscape of a storm torn, poverty stricken Louisiana is outstanding. Any page opened at random will reveal Burke's masterful command of the language and his ability to create the most jarring and colourful metaphors and similes:
   
   "The recycled air was like cigarette smoke that had been trapped for days in a refrigerator full of spoiled cheese."
   
   On dealing with his own inner demons, for example:
   
   "But the succubus I had tried to exorcise by marrying a woman of peace still held title to my soul. I saw the room distort and the faces of the people around me turn into Grecian masks, and I heard a sound in my ears like the steel tracks of armored vehicles wending their way across an unforgiving land."
   
   The dialogue was creative, realistic, down to earth with a full, rich vocabulary of appropriate street lingo. The depth of characterization was wonderful (even though I was stepping into Robicheaux's world 13 novels after he was first created). The only "but" for me was the tortuous, almost Byzantine complexity of the plot. Don't let your attention drift or you may not find your way back.
   
   I'll be hunting the second hand book stores for the Robicheaux canon starting from the beginning tomorrow.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   Paul Weiss

2 comments about A Dave Robicheaux Audio Collection.

1. I enjoy the tales, and Will Patton's voices...+)... I do have to back up the cd now and then, when traffic, or daydreaming make me lose track of the plotline, but a well read story is a good use of car time!



2. I think this was an unbelievable deal. Most books on CD are around $20+ for one, this included 5 great stories.

5 comments about The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel.

1. James Lee Burke's latest Dave Robicheaux is not just brilliant, it is also tragic. Reading what happened after Katrina made me feel as if I had actually been there and this would be a difficult task for a writer to achieve.
   
   Burke does not preach, he educates the reader. Every so often throughout the book, he will make a comment and leave it for the reader to expand on what he had just said.
   
   He has been writing for a fair number of years and unlike so many other authors, he is not just writing out of routine, he is blazing a new trail for his characters.
   
   Thank you for another top read, Mr Burke.



2. I'm a huge James Lee Burke fan. I've read every book he's written and feel Tin Roof Blowdown is the best yet. With skill and deftness, he wove together the many different facets of society affected by Hurricane Katrina into a riveting story. As always, his style is gritty yet lyrical. His use of sensory detail drew this reader so deeply into the story I had to take "time-outs" to catch my breath.
   As a writer, I love to read his novels for the intricate plotting and lovely imagery. Tin Roof Blowdown is his best yet.
   
   Marilee Brothers aka Lee GrantierCastle Ladyslipper



3. Arrived in very good time. Excellent condition. Once I got into the book enjoyed the relevancy and story a lot. Wasn't sorry I recommended it for my book club, based on Amazon reviews.



4. This book is overwhelming. The devistation of Katrina left New Orleans in a dreadful state and Mr. Burke tells it like it is. With all the details of reality and sorrow. I was so overcome with emotion, it brought tears to my eyes and I felt so helpless and still do. If you did not read this you must, each of his books leave me with such a feeling of gratitude. He is a wonderful author and I thank him for sharing his part of the world with us.



5. I had wondered what James Lee Burke was going to do with the aftermath of Katrina. Was he going to continue with the fictional Detective series? Was he going to just ignore it and come out with something which had nothing to do with that hurricane and its affect on the region. But, of course, vintage James Lee Burke comes out with another powerful novel which indeed dealt with one of the most deadly and costly national disasters in history. No one but James Lee Burke can weave a national tragedy and a fictional character which makes everyone relive those terrible images those of us who do not live in New Orleans experienced. James Lee Burke is the king of crime fiction, and, like always, his books are always worth waiting for.

2 comments about Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel.

1. Swan Peak is a "pseudo-sequel" to Black Cherry Blues, the Edgar Award-winning third Dave Robicheaux novel. Like that previous book, it takes place in Montana, where Robicheaux, his wife Molly and longtime friend Clete Purcel go for a fishing trip partly meant to help them escape the devastation of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina (which was powerfully and sadly evoked in The Tin Roof Blowdown.) The fishing party are the guests of Albert Hollister, one of wealthy oil man Ridley Wellstone's many enemies, with whom Dave and Clete must soon contend after inadvertantly trespassing on his property. After being warned away by two thugs Clete is recognized by one of the men - a former associate of Mob Boss Sally Dio - as the man who engineered Dio's demise in a Montana plane crash (see Black Cherry Blues.) Things get more complicated when two college students are found murdered near Hollister's land; the emnity between Hollister and Wellstone makes the oil tycoon a possible suspect and Dave is recruited by the local authorities to help with the investigation. Meanwhile Clete becomes dangerously infatuated with Wellstone's sister-in-law, a beautiful country singer who's being stalked by a former lover who is himself on the run; he escaped from a Texas prison after nearly killing a brutally violent guard named Troyce Nix. When Nix comes to Montana in pursuit, Robicheaux first sees him at a revival meeting put on by the shady Rev. Sonny Click (who may have Wellstone connections) and immediately pegs him as a menace despite being unaware of the ex-military man's disgraceful involvement at Abu Graib. All of this might sound confusing here, but Burke combines his intertwining storylines so smoothly that it's easy to appreciate his masterfully graceful prose, as well as his poetic eye for detail in both landscape and character. Nobody writes crime novels like James Lee Burke, and Swan Peak shows he is at the peak of his considerable powers.
   Also recommended: A Stranger Lies There - winner of the Malice Domestic Award for best first mystery, it features a vividly rendered desert backdrop that should please fans of James Lee Burke's colorful Montana and Louisiana settings.



2. (3.5 stars) Following the decimation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, described in James Lee Burke's last novel, The Tin Roof Blowdown (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries), long-time New Iberia Parish detective Dave Robicheaux has accepted an invitation to recover emotionally on a ranch in western Montana. Robicheaux's long-time buddy Clete Purcell, who accompanies him, has not even started to recover. For Purcell, "the booze he drank and the weed he smoked and the pills he dropped didn't work anymore," and Robicheaux is desperately afraid for his friend.
   
   Within days of their arrival in Montana, the past catches up with them. Clete Purcell runs afoul of two thugs, one of whom once worked for a Nevada gangster who was killed with his entourage when their small plane crashed in the mountains. Purcell has long been suspected of having been involved in the crash. These two thugs now work for wealthy Ridley Wellstone, who is financing a charismatic ministry operated by his young wife. Running parallel to these two plot threads is the story of Jimmy Dale Greenwood, a young man horribly abused by a "gunbull" during a two-year prison sentence. His abuser is now in the same area of Montana, near Missoula and Flathead Lake, as Jimmy Dale. In yet additional plot lines, two young college students are found tortured and murdered in the hills behind the ranch where Robicheaux and Purcell are staying, and a Hollywood producer making a film nearby, and his companion, are shot and burned at a highway rest stop. As these disparate plot threads begin to overlap and explode in violence, Robicheaux and Purcel are up to their eyeballs in the action.
   
   Author James Lee Burke's vaunted ability to create vibrant characters and convey atmosphere through stunning descriptions is on full display here in Big Sky Country, with its fiercely independent residents and its spectacular natural resources. Despite the setting, however, the novel is extremely dark, filled with tormented, if not tortured, characters, all of whom are at the mercy of forces they cannot control. Extreme coincidence guides much of the action here, and though there are a few hints that one or two characters may, in time, set their lives in order, most "want their enemies hosed down with a flamethrower." Long biographies of the many individual characters provide their unfortunate backgrounds and suggest reasons for their violent behavior, though they do not do not explain the rare glimpses of empathy we see in some characters.
   
   A climactic scene of non-stop action, killing, and near death experiences attempts to show the ultimate connections among the characters and the plot lines, but the author never explains how some of the characters actually extricate themselves from the critical scene. Even Dave Robicheaux, the narrator, admits, "In truth, I cannot tell you with any exactitude what happened [that night]." Somehow, after following so many damaged characters and complex plot lines for four hundred pages, I expected a little more. n Mary Whipple
   
   Pegasus Descending: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux)
   Heaven's Prisoners
   The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
   A Morning for Flamingos