Helpful Score: 2
I am always struck by what a great writer Burke is. His command of the language is awesome! mixed in are such uniquely southern way of speaking that I wish I had a dictionary by my side! Highly recommended.
Stephany L. (Stephany) -
Helpful Score: 2
Superb writing and a throbbing pace lift two-time Edgar-winner Burke's powerful, many-layered 14th Dave Robicheaux novel (after 2003's Last Car to Elysian Fields), which involves venal and arrogant members of a wealthy family that can trace its lineage to fifth-century France as well as the machinations of the New Orleans mafia.A conversation between Robicheaux and a dying childhood friend about Ida Durbin, a young prostitute that Robicheaux's half-brother, Jimmie, loved and lost in the late 1950s, sets the ex-homicide detective on a path that eventually leads to several gruesome killings and his near downfall. Unemployed, his wife dead, his daughter in college, Robicheaux rejoins the New Iberia, La., sheriff's department at the urging of Sheriff Helen Soileau, who needs an extra hand as the murders mount. While the tendrils of the sometimes rambling plot unfold, Robicheaux and his impulsive former police partner, PI Clete Purcell, seek retribution for injustices caused by a wide range of corrupt villains. Burke masterfully combines landscape and memory in a violent, complex story peopled by sharply defined characters who inhabit a lush, sensual, almost mythological world.
Helpful Score: 2
Excellent read. Burke paints a portrait of Southern Louisiana and keeps you turning the pages.
Helpful Score: 1
Because I've listened to James Lee Burke's novels on audio, I have the 'sound of the cajun,' in my ears. His stories and characters are consistently colorful and sadly believable. His turn of phrase unique. The plot line never fails to surprise.
