Book Description
Detective Dave Robicheaux is facing the most painful and dangerous case of his career. A troubled young woman breezes into his hometown of New Iberia, Louisiana. She happens to be the daughter of Robicheaux's onetime best friend -- a friend he witnessed gunned down in a bank robbery, a tragedy that forever changed Robicheaux's life.
In Pegasus Descending, James Lee Burke again explores psyches as much as evidence, and tries to make sense of human behavior as well as of his characters' crimes. Richly atmospheric, frightening in its sudden violence, and replete with the sort of puzzles only the best crime fiction creates, Burke's latest novel is an unforgettable roller coaster of passion, surprise, and regret.
The twists begin when Trish Klein -- the only offspring of Robicheaux's Vietnam-era buddy -- starts passing marked hundred-dollar bills in local casinos. Is she a good kid gone bad? A victim's child seeking revenge? A promiscuous beauty seducing everyone good within her grasp? And how does her behavior relate to the apparent suicide of another "good" girl, an ace student named Yvonne Darbonne, who apparently participated in a college frat orgy before her death?
Can Robicheaux make his peace with the demons that have haunted him since his friend's murder so many years ago? Can he figure out how a local mobster fits into all the schemes and deaths? Can Robicheaux's life be whole again when it has been shattered by so much tragedy?
Once again, Burke proves why he is the virtual poet laureate of southern Louisiana, and why his novels, especially those featuring Dave Robicheaux, stand as brilliant literature and entertainment for our time.
Customer Reviews:
A really good read.......2007-10-08
I discovered James Lee Burke in the summer of 2007, and Pegsus Descending was the second of his books I read. The first was Crusader's Cross. Burke isn't for everyone, and the fictional detective Dave Robicheaux is a complex person, with many, many issues and faults, yet the writing is so compelling and descriptive that I was easily swept up into the Louisiana world of Burke and his characters. I'm not literary critic, but I know what I like, and I like these stories. Once begun, you'll find it hard to not want more of Dave Robicheaux and his world of whores, murderers, pimps, corrupt cops, evil politicians, beautiful women, ugly men, ex-nuns, alcoholic nightmares and yes, honor, integrity, and redemption.
Solid Novel, but With Flaws.......2007-10-03
I've read every James Lee Burke book twice and love most of them, although some are definitely better than others. If you've never read this series, you simply MUST start at the beginning, with Neon Rain. If you try to jump into the series somewhere in the middle, you'll have no idea what's going on. As far as Pegasus Descending goes, the writing is just as top-notch as Burke's other novels; poetic, haunting, brilliant and as lyrical as a complex piece of music. That being said, though, Burke tried to do too much plot-wise in this one. There are at least four major plots going on all at once, which only tie together loosely at the end. What seems like the main plot is barely addressed at all, with the other sub-plots taking control after the first few chapters. It seemed like Burke had ideas for 2 or 3 different books and tried to cram them all together in one novel. That being said, though, Pegasus Descending is worth a read and is still far better than most new mysteries.
I love James Lee Burke.......2007-10-01
A few years ago, I picked up "In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead" at my public library. I have loved James Lee Burke since then. I went back and read all his earlier novels and anxiously await the arrival of each new novel. I was 3rd in line to get "Tin Roof Blowdown" from the library and my husband said "GO BUY IT!"
Pegasus Descending was excellent, as usual.
James Lee Burke rules!
skip this one.......2007-09-26
I read this just to be "caught up" before reading Tin Roof Blowdown. Just skip this book. I think every cliche from every previous book is in here. There are so many different plots going on you can never keep track and half of them never get resolved. WHAT is the deal with all the criminals having grown up with Dave AND having crippled/diseased wives? Why does Clete ALWAYS end up with a girlfriend that is one of the bad guys?
Why does the river always smell like fish spawning? Why do all the male characters smell like testosterone?
Post Katrina Murder, Greed and Passion in New Iberia Parish.......2007-09-18
Another twisting, weaving tale of murder, madness, greed and survival in New Iberia Parish awaits the fans of the amazing James Lee Burke. We accompany Detective Robicheaux as he ponders the clues and wreckage left behind at one gruesome, swampy killing field after another. The reader is treated to a mixture of rot, mildew and blooming hibiscus that permeates the post-Katrina landscape blended with the odors of Cajun cooking and home-made whiskey.
Burke's legendary gift of transporting us to the depths of Southern Louisiana; with its' vivid history, many contradictions and primitive, wacky characters, is in full tilt boogie here!
Download Description
"Critically acclaimed and bestselling crime writer James Lee Burke returns to Louisiana where his ever-popular hero, Dave Robicheaux, sleuths his way through a hotbed of sin and uncertainty. For Dave Robicheaux, life in Louisiana is filled with haunting memories of the past -- images from Vietnam, the violent streets of New Orleans, and his own troubled youth. In Crusader's Cross, a deathbed confession from an old schoolmate resurrects a story of injustice, the murder of a young woman, and a time in Robicheaux's life he has tried to forget. Her name may or may not have been Ida Durbin. It was back in the innocent days of the 1950s when Robicheaux and his brother, Jimmie, met her on a Galveston beach. She was pretty and Jimmie fell for her hard -- not knowing she was a prostitute on infamous Post Office Street, with ties to the mob. Then Ida was abducted and never seen again. Now, decades later, Robicheaux is asking questions about Ida Durbin, and a couple of redneck deputy sheriffs make it clear that asking questions is a dangerous game. With a series of horrifying murders and the sudden appearance of Valentine Chalons and his sister, Honoria, a disturbed and deeply alluring woman, Robicheaux is soon involved not only with the Chalons family but with the murderous energies of the New Orleans underworld. Also, he meets and finds himself drawn into a scandalous relationship with a remarkable Catholic nun. Brilliant, brooding, and filled with the author's signature lyricism, Jim Burke's latest novel is a darkly suspenseful work of literature. "
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful!!.......2007-10-04
This was my first JLB novel and I really enjoyed it. The writing was very smooth and the story was interesting and engaging the whole time. No slow spots. Which I appreciate big time. I'm off to read another.
Jimmy Burke You Are A Damn Fine Writer!.......2007-09-20
So, I started reading James Lee Burke when I was a sales rep for a publisher and another rep recommended the first "Dave Robicheaux" novel "Neon Rain". Good God! That book gave me the chills and I read each new installment, as they came out. At some point I kept buying the books, but my reading pile got too big and they got buried and I missed a chunk of Dave's life while mine was going on. This summer I got some lake time and brought up "Crusader's Cross" (although I'd missed reading a few prior to to this one) and, like your favorite pair of shoes, just slid right into it, just opened it up and couldn't put it down. Dave and Cletus have aged a bit and are still taking their licks, and handing out their fair share, but Burke has not lost anything over the years, in fact, he just keeps getting better. Get it, read it and pass it on to a friend. Burke is a treasure!
A Master Crime Novel.......2007-09-17
In CRUSADER'S CROSS James Lee Burke's protagonist Dave Robicheaux, along with his brother Jimmy, is saved from a potential shark attack by a mysterious woman named Ida Durbin in 1958. Jimmy falls for her; then she disappears-- perhaps violently, may even be murdered. Burke spends the next 300 or so pages unraveling that mystery with a plot that has more twists and turns than a two-lane mountain highway and is peopled with prostitutes, televangelists, a nun, pimps, hired killers (button men), crooked police officers and bail bondsmen.
Dave is of course an alcoholic-- goes to AA meetings on occasion-- is a little bit crazy--his friend Clete describes him as having "polka dot giraffes running around in his head"-- has read THE GREAT GATSBY, is excited by violence, but has the mind of a poet. It is fascinating to see all the ways he describes the sky: "marbled with yellow and gold clouds," "yellow with rust," "pink with sunrise," "a chemical green," etc. And he has a dozen different ways to describe taking someone out: "boil you in your own grease," "blown out of his socks," you'll be made into a "speed bump," you'll get your ticket punched or your doors blown out. His definition of God-- via Dave's father-- as someone who has a sense of humor and always keeps his word. He, in addition to being a sure shot, is also a philosopher. His description of a visit to a Wal-Mart is right on the money. "The sweeping breadth of the store's interior was crowded with people for whom a Wal-Mart is a gift from God. In my hometown, most of these are poor and uneducated, and assume that the low-paying jobs that define their lives are commonplace throughout the country. The fact that the goods they buy are often shoddily made, the clothes sewn in Third World sweatshops by people not unlike themselves, is an abstraction that seems to have no application to the low price on the item." Mr. Burke strews kernels like this throughout the book.
CRUSADER'S CROSS is a novel you miss when you are not reading it. It you are not careful it will eat up your day.
James Lee Burke strikes again.......2007-09-16
Burke is a wonderful writer. His greatest gift to his readers is his ability to put us in a location and evoke the atmosphere. This second greatest gift is his respect for his characters-they are NEVER one-dimensional. And, finally, he never cheats by offering us cheap or easy outs. Even when we reeeeally don't want Dave to take the drink or spout off or draw the weapon, he has been written to always be Dave, as have Clete and other recurring characters (including the state of Lousiana!)
Crusader's Cross is as dark as the Robicheaux books get, but you'll have a hard time putting it down. It will help if you are familiar with the characters, but probably not essential (can't say for sure because there is no Burke book I won't read, so I am well acquainted with these folks.) The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is that I reserve those for Pulitzer material. Don't let that discourage you. This is an excellent book.
Can this guy write or what! .......2007-07-06
I picked Crusaders Cross up expecting a run of the mill detective novel and was absolutely leveled by Burke's prose. Burke writing literally breathes Louisiana onto the page. Writing of this caliber is rare in the crime fiction genre. Burke elevates a complex but still relatively pedestrian crime novel, into something else entirely. His writing is insightful, perceptive, and lyrical - evoking a sense of time and place that is stunning.
The plot itself is multilayered. A deathbed confession gets our hero Dave Robicheaux to start looking into the disappearance of a prostitute who Dave and his half brother Jimmy met back in 1958. Meanwhile, a serial killer is abducting and brutally murdering women. Before long Dave must content with hit men who have been dispatched to punch his ticket, a budding romance with a nun, trumped up charges of sexual molestation, a mentally unstable woman who handcuffs him to his bed, and a hard fall 'off the wagon' with subsequent memory loss that results in Dave becoming the prime suspect in one of his own murder investigations.
The cast of characters is the literary equivalent of a royal flush. Dave's buddy Clete Purcel stands out though as one of the most entertaining characters I've ever come across.
Crusaders Cross is the first James Lee Burke novel I've read, but it certainly won't be the last. Brilliant writing and a complex multilayered plot. Well worth reading.
Average customer rating:
- My gosh, it is NON-Fiction
- Trained Brain Explains Spain without Strain
- Best travel writing ever
- A truly great book
- An overlong and somewhat dated love- letter to Spain
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Iberia
James A. Michener
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ASIN: 0449207331
Release Date: 1984-10-12 |
Book Description
"Massive, beautiful...Unquestionably some of the best writing on Spain...The best that Mr. Michener has ever done on any subject...Stunning...Memorable."
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Here, in the fresh, vivid prose that is James Michener's trademark, is the real Spain as he experiences it. He not only reveals the celebrated Spain of bullfights and warror kings, painters and processions, cathedrals and olive orchards; he also shares the intimate, often hidden Spain he has come to know, where toiling peasants and their honest food, the salt of the shores and the oranges of the inland fields, the congeniality of living souls and the dark weight of history conspire to create a wild, contradictory, passionately beautiful land, the mystery called Iberia.
Customer Reviews:
My gosh, it is NON-Fiction.......2006-10-19
As a James Michener fan I thought this would be his usual excellent book. It may be good for others, but it wasn't for me. Well duh, it is NON-Fiction. I'm sorry but it didn't have the usual Michener way of grabbing you. This is probably a great book for a studious reader, someone interest in the details of Spain (Iberia). Unless that's you maybe you should skip this one.
Trained Brain Explains Spain without Strain.......2006-05-25
I've never been to Spain, but after reading Michener's mammoth work on the country, I wish I had gone long ago. I have this sneaking feeling that the place has changed out of all recognition since he published this 795 page tome in 1968. Perhaps it has become more like the rest of Europe or even more like the rest of the world than it was during the latter part of Franco's long rule. Is it still "Spanish", whatever that may mean ? Maybe, but not the same way. I'm sure I've missed that old Spain of Franco's time and maybe (also) that's not such a bad thing. What role bullfighting and flamenco play in contemporary Spain is probably open to question. Does the Catholic church have the same power that it did ? Does it still have power over the schools ? Certainly censorship has disappeared and we see any number of modern films, full of sex, from the once "protected" society. Prices have increased, poverty diminished, the cities have grown and the countryside been drained of people. Spain is now indubitably a land to which immigrants come, not one from which they go. All big changes in the last 40 years. So, you might ask, why should I bother to read an out-of-date book like this ?
You should read this book if you're going to Spain. Sure, it's not about the society you're going to see, but it's about the recent past there. It tells you a thousand things you could still see, you could find, taste, experience. You might be interested to know what things used to be like if you've already been to Spain in the last 20 years. You should read it as an intense portrait---warts and all---of a particular country, a country that has played a major role in world and European history. What you will get from this superb book is a flavor, whether your taste runs to social analysis, history, architecture, bullfighting, people, nature, or just simple travel. It's one of the great travel books of the English language, not, by the way, one of Michener's eventually rather formulaic, boring novels. Even if his political predictions and those of the Spaniards he interviewed were often off base seen in hindsight, he deals with all the issues--the landowners, the church, the Guardia Civil, the economy, Catalan and Basque separatism, the arts, and the general ability to rule and be ruled. The style is extremely readable, the photographs by Robert Vavra, outstanding, the maps satisfying. Read the other reviews of IBERIA. You'll see I'm not just whistling Dixie here. Viva España !
Best travel writing ever.......2006-05-02
I've been reading "Iberia" in preparation for a trip to Spain, and in it I've found some of the best travel writing I've ever read--and I've read a few. Michener focuses on several cities in Spain, but most of the time these are mere settings for his fascinating discourses on the history, culture and politics of a country he obviously has long been attached to. DO NOT make the mistake I did of reading just the parts that coincided with our trip--every chapter is fascinating, and now I find I'm going back and reading the parts I skipped the first time.
To call this book outdated is a bit silly--it was published in 1968 and represents a highly intelligent and well-informed look at Spain at that time, as Franco's power was waning. If he were alive today I think Michener would have been pleased. Things have turned out far better than he thought they would; he was skeptical that a two-party democracy would ever work in Spain.
I've read much of Michener's fiction but now that I've read this, I wonder if he missed his true calling. The fiction is a good way to get a feel for a place, but I know people who advise skipping the first hundred pages, and skimming through the rest. Of course this book is long too, but quite different--I read 600 of the 900 pages in 2 days--it's that good.
I can't recommend this strongly enough--by now the info on tapas bars is long outdated, but for a quirky, personal, well-informed view of Spain on the eve of democracy, I doubt you'll do better.
A truly great book.......2005-11-04
an avid fan of Michener's fiction, I decided to pick this book up to see how Michener dealt with nonfiction. I can without hesitation say that Michener is at his best in this genre. "Iberia" is a stunning achievement of meticulous care and fascinating recounting of events.
His account of Spain, though dated now by thirty years, made me feel as if I were there travelling side by side with Michener. It is wonderfully detailed and always engaging. A note of caution the spain michenor describes is not present day spain,the book is more a passionate history.
An overlong and somewhat dated love- letter to Spain .......2005-09-04
This is not a Michener novel but a Michener personal travel journal about the Spain he traveled in for thirty years and knew very well. It is rich with information about all aspects of Spanish culture and life. Michener was a writer who loved people, and loved talking to them . And this book contains the accounts of hundreds of conversations on all aspects of Spanish life.
It describes in great detail some of the main areas and cities of Spain, Madrid, Cordoba, Salamanca, Sevilla, and the Entremurada region.
It gives a tremendous amount of detail on different kinds of food and places of accomodation.It is often in this regard very critical.
Michener is a very good writer but not a great one. And there are passages of the book which are very interesting but fail to reach a higher level of poetic inspiration.
A number of the set pieces in the book are truly wonderful. I greatly enjoyed his account of the medieval Jewish traveler Binyamin Mitudela and the comparison Michener makes between his travels and times and Mitudelas.
The book is dated in certain ways. It is of course not up - to- date politically. But also in attitude. I think no editor today would allow the passage in which Michener talks about why all young married Spanish women are fat and content. And how they know in the land of no- divorce their husbands will not leave them even though all the husbands definitely take more attractive women as mistresses.
Michener writes a lot about bullfighting a sport he admires. I however found many years ago in the one bullfight I attended a lot of cruelty. I think more people today would share my concern that the cruelty to the animals simply does not justify the glorious spectacle of the bullfight.
On the whole I think it is possible to learn a lot from this book about Spain, and too about James Michener.
Customer Reviews:
Lovely reflection of Spain.......2006-03-22
Published in 1968, 'Iberia' is James Michener's tribute to Spain, drawn from his travels there beginning in the 1930s through the late 60s. Not only does he describe the different regions of Spain, but as he does in his novels, he delves into Spain's culture, politics and history and even its ecology (there is a beautiful chapter written about Las Marismas, a large swampland in the south). This is a wonderfully written and fascinating book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about or travel to Spain.
Spain and family.......2005-01-25
In the summer of 1976 I read this book shortly after Franco died and before I arrived for a years's study in Madrid. I found it a terrific read. I arrived in Spain with more knowledge than most of my American friends.
I have just finished re-reading it. My 17 year old daughter is going to summer school this year in Tarragona for a month, to work on her Spanish skills. I hope she enjoys this as much as I did.
My wife and I have returned to Spain on numerous occasions, to vacation, to visit friends, to just visit. We are never bored. This book was and is a large part of that.
Iberia prepared me for a memorable visit to Spain.......1998-12-28
I read (and looked at) Iberia while preparing to visit Spain in 1969. I had already read Hawaii and Caravans by Michener, which are 2 great stories, but this photo essay about Spain astounded me. Although I thought I was prepared, I knew how to speak Spanish, I had lived in Peru for about 3 years, I had seen bullfights, I knew about geography, etc, Michener's short but in depth reflections about places in Spain made me hungry for a trip there, to try to experience some of what he wrote about. The photos are an integral part of this book, I can't remember the name of the photographer.
This book should still be in print! I'll look in a library now.
Average customer rating:
- A little too gritty for my tastes
- First in Robicheaux series
- Just love all his books so far - this was no exception!
- He gets more complex with every book
- Obscure title, complex plot.
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A Morning for Flamingos
James Lee Burke
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
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ASIN: 0316117218 |
Book Description
A CAJUN COP INFILTRATES THE MOB... BUT IS HE TOO CLOSE?
Clutching the shards of his shattered life, Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux has rejoined the New Iberia police force. While transporting two death-row prisoners, Dave is wounded and his partner killed -- reopening the doors to a past he would have rather kept closed.
Now he's trailing a killer into the heart of the Big Easy's underworld. Increasingly possessed by his undercover role, Robicheaux surprisingly forms an intimate bond with a Mafia don. Embroiled in a world of drug dealers, prostitutes and double-crosses, Robicheaux must still confront his most dangerous enemy -- himself.
Rich with fascinating characters and dramatic plot twists, the audio debut of James Lee Burke and his Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux recalls the best of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe -- tough, complex and thoroughly entertaining.
Customer Reviews:
A little too gritty for my tastes.......2007-05-07
On the recommendation of a column in my local newspaper, I bought several in these in the series, a little too much in the language department for my tastes. Nevertheless, you certainly can picture it in your minds eye. So, although I purchased several, I only read about the first third in one. I did not throw them away, I passed them along. There are others authors out there for me.
First in Robicheaux series.......2007-03-09
This is truly one of the best books I've ever read by a contemporary author. I found the plot line to be involving and interesting and was really committed to the character development of the main character as well as those around him. The book was recomended to me by my brother-in-law who thought if I liked it, I'd go on to read the series. I've ordered them and look forward to seeing how this personality develops. I strongly recommend it to you.
Just love all his books so far - this was no exception!.......2006-07-22
The bitter sweet - the great imagery! PURE Burke!
He gets more complex with every book.......2006-07-04
Dave Robicheaux is contemplating life after passing fifty and finds that he is bored with his life. When offered a chance to go under cover by his friend in the DEA, he jumps at the chance. His only request is that Clete goes along as his backup, which no one wants because of Clete's history.
Dave is trying to help bust the biggest drug dealer in the New Orleans area, but finds himself drawn to him as another ex-Vietnam vet who is still suffering from what went on over there. Addicted to black speed and with a handicapped son this drug importer is a multi-faceted character.
In between Dave has to deal with a psychotic killer whose trying to kill him; a NOPD snitch who puts his life in danger because of a crooked cop; drug smugglers, wiseguys and gun monkeys. On top of it all he is reunited with his first love (Bootsie) who he left at home when he went off to 'Nam.
In the end, somethings come out right, some not and some we won't find out for another few books. Oh, yeah, he marries Bootsie and they go back to Bayou Teche to raise Alafair together.
Obscure title, complex plot........2005-09-29
Interesting, uncommon characters, both good guys and bad guys. Very much New Orleans in flavor, this story holds your attention as much because of the unusual interactions between the characters as for the manipulations of the plot....which has a real surprise at the end, with almost no foreshadowing. A cut above most cop/detective stories in style and characterization, "Flamingos" is much closer to Grahame Green than Mickey Spillane...so choose accordingly. I intend to read much more of the work of James Burke.
Book Description
Smitten by a love of hot peppers, journalist Richard Schweid traveled to the capital of the U.S. hot sauce industry, New Iberia, Louisiana. This is Cajun country, and capsicum (as hot peppers are known botanically) thrive in the region's salty, oil-rich soil like nowhere else. At once an entertaining exploration of the history and folklore that surround hot peppers and a fascinating look at the industry built around the fiery crop, Schweid's book also offers a sympathetic portrait of a culture and a people in the midst of economic and social change.
This edition of Hot Peppers has been thoroughly updated and includes some twenty-five recipes for such deliciously spicy dishes as crawfish ŽtouffŽe, jambalaya, and okra shrimp gumbo.
Book Description
With Penumbra, Carolyn Haines branched out from the cozy Southern mysteries that made her name and into more serious territory. With her next literary crime novel, she moves to 1944 New Iberia, Louisiana, where Henri Bastion, a wealthy plantation owner, has been brutally eviscerated. Deputy Raymond Thibodeaux finds Adele Hebert covered in blood and hovering over the body. When Adele claims to be the loup garou, a legendary Cajun shape shifter disguised as a wolf, and panic ensues in this small town already living under the pressure of wartime poverty, Raymond is determined to prove that shes been framed.
Customer Reviews:
Straight into the Bayou.......2007-02-15
Carolyn Haines has done it again. With her prose that flows as smoothly as the dark waters of the swamps of Louisiana, she plunges the reader into this land of superstition, spirits and mystery. Haines has always been a story teller of the first degree, but she gets better and better. Don't be misled. This is not one of Haines' golden happy girl tales (see the Delta Mystery Series) though they are wonderful in their own right. Fever Moon keeps the reader on the edge of the page, but don't read it without turning on all the lights.
Amazon.com
In this winner of the 1990 Edgar Award for best mystery novel, Dave Robicheaux, a former New Orleans policeman, is pursued by a psychopath and flees his home on the Bayou Teche, in the heart of Louisiana, to find a new life in Montana. After settling near the Blackfoot River Canyon, Robicheaux finds himself smack dab in the middle of an illegal Mafia takeover of Indian lands. As he struggles to expose the truth, he must face some hard facts about himself, especially after the appearance of an old Cajun friend, Dixie Lee Pughe.
Book Description
BACK IN THE UNDERWORLD HE TRIED TO LEAVE BEHIND
Haunted by the memory of his wife's murder and his father's untimely death, ex-New Orleans cop Dave Robicheaux spends his days in a fish-and-tackle business. But when an old friend makes a surprise appearance, Robicheaux finds himself thrust back into the violent world of Mafia goons and wily federal agents. From the Louisiana bayou to Montana's tribal lands, Robicheaux is running from the bottle, a homicide rap, a professional killer and the demons of his past.
Rich with fascinating characters and dramatic plot twists, the audio debut of James Lee Burke and his Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux recalls the best of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe -- tough, complex and thoroughly entertaining.
Customer Reviews:
Decent reading.......2007-06-17
My first book by this author, and definitely not the last. There is quite decent plot in it, even though sometimes one asks oneself, is the main character masochist or what? Some outcomes are predictable, but generally a good mystery book. I also like the description of Montana.
The South, Love it or leave it!.......2006-11-10
James Lee Burke has a way with words that captivate you from the first sentence. The first page of this book will have your heart racing towards the end! Will Patton has to be from Louisiana.He has a natural southern draw I have been hearing all my life. Very good Book!!
Cajun in Big Sky Country.......2006-06-24
This is the most intricate story in the series so far. Once again a friend of Dave's comes into his life and makes a disaster of it. Once a well known rock 'n hilbilly blues player, Dixie Lee, has fell on hard times. He had to leave the business and is now buying oil drilling leases in Montana, for the same company that Dave's father worked for when he was killed on an exploding oil rig.
Dave is implicated in a murder, which of course he didn't committ, and has to head up to Montana to find the one man who can prove his innocence (the real murderer). So he packs up Alafair (after a strange interlude where he takes her to Texas and buys her a horse) and they head up to Big Sky country. When he gets up there he finds that he old New Orleans PD partner, Cletus is working for a 'made-man' named Sal 'The Duck'.
Quick summary: Dave doesn't get along with Sal, Sal puts a contract out on Dave, Dave beats him up, Contract killer tries to kill Dave, Cletus saves Dave and kills contact killer, Dave finds killer from Louisiana, proves he killed two indians, bad guy goes to jail, Dave cleared in LA, Dave and Alafair go back to LA. It's actually very well done.
An aside: it seems that every woman who hangs around with Dave is asking to be raped and murdered, except for Alafair's teacher, who is smart enough not to have sex with him (and we all know that virgins are never killed by the murdering crazies).
Looking foreward to the next installment.
Excellent Robicheaux Mystery!!!!.......2006-02-28
Dave Robicheauxis one Cajun who subscribes to the philosophy: "hit first, before they hit you." When Dave's old college roommate, Dixie Lee, comes into town, he asks Dave to look into the possibility that his coworkers may have killed two guys in Montana. Robicheaux gets pulled back to his old ways, and sure enough, he gets letters that threaten Alafair's life. So Dave beats the crap out of them, only to find out that he's now being charged with murdering one of them. He follows the clues to Montana, where he hopes to solve the crime before he goes to jail. There he gets involved with the mob, an illegal land scheme, two missing Native Americans, his old partner, Clete Purcel, and a beautiful Native American named Darlene. The plot is much better than the two previous novels. I enjoyed the ending and Burke's exceptional writing. This one deserved to win the Edgar Award!
Robicheauax travels west.......2006-01-18
With 7 or 8 (New Orleans settings) JLB novels under my belt I feel that I can speak with some expertise.
Burke has a very interesting lead with Dave Robicheauax. An on again-off again policeman who seems to have a very good sense of police work and bringing justice to the bad guys, he has a lot of help from his green eyed friend Cletus (most of his characters have green eyes !!) and with a touch of vodoo here and there. He really needs a glossary in the back to interpret the police/prison/cajun/black phrases and words he uses.
His discriptions of the South Lousiana area are without equal. In this one he goes to Montana which is the setting for another series of his novels.
Amazon.com
In New Iberia, Louisiana, memories are long and dangerous, and the past and present are seldom easy to untangle. Homicide investigator Dave Robicheaux is trying to help Letty Labiche, a New Iberia girl on death row for killing the man who molested her and her sister as children, when chance brings him to Zipper Clum, a pimp and pornographer who recognizes Robicheaux secondhand through a 30-year haze:
"Robicheaux, your mama's name was Mae.... Wait, it was Guillory before she married. That was the name she went by ... Mae Guillory. But she was your mama," he said.
"What?" I said.
He wet his lips uncertainly.
"She dealt cards and still hooked a little bit. Behind a club in Lafourche Parish. This was maybe 1966 or '67," he said.
Clete's eyes were fixed on my face. "You're in a dangerous area, sperm breath," he said to Zipper.
"They held her down in a mud puddle. They drowned her," Zipper said.
To Robicheaux, whose memories of the fun-loving Mae are few and bittersweet, the news comes like a bolt of lightning. Though she abandoned him to the uncertain mercies of a violent, alcoholic father, he loved her, and his desire to find her killers--cops in the pay of the Giacano crime family, according to Clum--is instantaneous and deeply felt. Unfortunately, Zipper Clum meets the wrong end of a .25 automatic soon after his electrifying announcement, but his conversation with his killer is recorded--and Mae Guillory's name comes up again.
The winding trail of evidence connected to both Letty Labiche and Mae Guillory leads Robicheaux almost immediately to Jim Gable, the New Orleans Police Department's liaison with city hall, whose position has afforded him a number of less-than-legal advantages. Gable also happens to be an ex-lover of Robicheaux's wife, Bootsie--formerly the widow of Ralph Giacano. From there the web of connections grows ever wider, and (not surprisingly) incriminates those in high places. These include the state attorney general, a woman who, if photographic evidence is to be trusted, was once friendly with the Labiches' parents, who were known procurers.
But if Purple Cane Road has its share of corrupt powermongers, it's also filled with beautifully rounded characters, like piano-playing governor Belmont Pugh and hit man Johnny Remeta, whose personality slowly begins to unravel as he gets closer to Robicheaux's daughter. The plot converges seamlessly to its climax--the true story of what happened to Mae Robicheaux--as James Lee Burke's trademark of uncompromising justice is brought to fruition. Like Burke's other Robicheaux novels, Purple Cane Road offers a solidly satisfying piece in the picture of a complex hero. --Barrie Trinkle
Book Description
Dave Robicheaux has spent his life confronting the age-old adage that the sins of the father pass onto the son. But what has his mother's legacy left him? Dead to him since youth, Mae Guillory has been shuttered away in the deep recesses of Dave's mind. He's lived with the fact that he would never really know what happened to the woman who left him to the devices of his whiskey-driven father. But deep down, he still feels the loss of his mother and knows the infinite series of disappointments in her life could not have come to a good end.
While helping out an old friend, Dave is stunned when a pimp looks at him sideways and asks him if he is Mae Guillory's boy, the whore a bunch of cops murdered 30 years ago. The pimp goes on to insinuate that the cops who dumped her body in the bayou were on the take and continue to thrive in the New Orleans area.
Dave's search for his mother's killers leads him to the darker places in his past and solving this case teaches him what it means to be his mother's son. PURPLE CANE ROAD has the dimensions of a classic-passion, murder, and nearly heartbreaking poignancy-wrapped in a wonderfully executed plot that surpises from start to finish.
Customer Reviews:
deadly memory.......2007-07-10
I thoroughly enjoy the characters created by James lee Burke in the novel 'Purple Cane Road." These are people I'd like to know or avoid. I like stories of revenge and retribution, and this one is a winner.
I especially like the main character 'Dave Robicheaux." Without a doubt he's the most compelling character today in this genre of novels. I would recommend this novel to anyone who wants a good quick read. I don't think anyone will be disappointed.
One of his best? Maybe........2007-07-03
Many reviewers, both professional and non-professional, say this one is his best. I don't know about that. I've read three of Burke's books, and this one is easily my favorite. But I'll be reading many more of his, and my expectations are high.
I would not recommend this book to every reader. If a reader doesn't relish in violent fiction, please don't read this. You've been warned. But if readers enjoy taking a trip on the dark side once in a while, and they want to see how an author can beautifully describe it without glorifying it, this book is the one to read..
The characters are deep and very unique. Burke has flipped every stereotype around. Victims of molestations become murderers to be executed; criminals have pasts that force the reader to sympathize for them. Cops are evil; prostitutes are gentle and kind. The women in the story are complex and mysterious. Even the heroes in the book are people that one would have to think twice about before inviting them to dinner. This is not the typical "guy in white hat saves damsel in distress" sort of crime fiction.
James Lee Burke wrote a book that is beautiful, disgusting, eloquent, and full of vulgarity...all at the same time. His descriptions of landscapes, storms, and color are so good that he seems to have figured out a way to create watercolor paintings with the written word.
Never Let Anyone "Dis" You' Momma.......2007-04-26
Once again, James Lee Burke, has put together a superb story and carried well from beginning to an end that could only be made plausible by JBL himself. He write like the wind in the trees, he. For me one of the most satisfying parts of his novels is the documentation of a culture that is slowly being subsumes by all that is encroaching around it. Up to now (this book was written in 2000/2001) he hasn't addressed the destruction of New Orleans and the effect on the Bayou Country, but I know it's coming and look forward to what he has to say.
The story itself allows him to dig further into his relationship with Bootsie and his daughter Alafair (don't call me by that stupid name ALF). Bootsie has had hard luck with the two men she was married to before Dave and it comes back to bite both of them in this story. Alafair, who has become a 'very' attractive young woman, is starting to exert her own pull on Dave's world.
The regulars are all here: Batist is only here ceremonially and is used as a device; Clete once again represents the beast inside of Dave, and is at his most uncontrolled and violent drunken rages; Helen is becoming the crusader as she tries to keep both herself and Dave from coming apart at the seams; and the Sheriff who tells Dave he wants him to replace him when he retires, shows a lot more gumpshin' and understanding than he has at anytime before.
The book characters are interesting, especially the an- pro- tagonist Jimmy who is an intellectual style psychotic (he reminds me of a earlier killer in one of JLBs books) who tries to have a good heart. The twins, Letty and Passion, allow us to explore the deeper side of the effects of poverty on blacks in Southern Louisiana. The crooked cops from New Orleans PD, are stock characters right out of a bad police procedural but seem to attest to what everyone says about the NOPD. The governor's character seems to be someone who forgot that Huey died years ago and that no one cares or finds his type especially poignant anymore.
All in all a good read.
Read, Read, Read.......2007-04-10
The Dave Robicheaux series is outstanding. Remember to read them in sequential order, or, if you do audiobook, get UNabridged. See my review of Crusader's Cross for my general view. It really doesn't much matter which individual book you read - it will be good - but sequential is really important. Although each book stands alone well, it will add a lot to have a thread of a saga.
A crush on Dave Robicheaux.......2006-08-30
God help me, it has become an addiction, these David Robicheaux stories. I've long had a weakness for the crime genre, including film noir, Sopranos, Law & Order. This includes some crime fiction, but only a few series have grabbed me: Inspector Morse, Adam Dalgleish, etc. James Lee Burke gets uncomfortably graphic in his rendering of violence, but then there is a music in his writing, a poet's eye to rich detail that grabs me and won't let go. The writerly craft is strong here, and I am only grateful that the list of titles in this series is long!
Book Description
In 1485 the Portuguese Crown and Catholic Church began to kidnap Jewish children, forcibly convert the young conscripts, and ship them to São Tomé Island off the African equator to work the government sugar plantations. The collision of slavery, sugar agriculture, and discovery of The Americas transformed this island colony into the nidus of the wholesale black slave trade that infected Africa and Western commerce for the next 350 years. This is a unique and little-known chapter of the Diaspora which also reveals the Medieval Church's complicity in the business of slavery.
São Tomé tells the story of young Marcel Saulo and his sister Leah who were abducted with other children from their synagogue in Lisbon and shipped 4,000 miles to the West-African island.
Customer Reviews:
The road to hell began here.......2007-10-07
Sometime around the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese Inquisition began kidnapping Jewish children from their families and expatriating them to the remote island of Sao Tome off the African coast, where they were forcibly converted to Catholicism and sent to work as slaves on the sugar plantations. When the Western Hemisphere was split between Spain and Portugal with Spain receiving the lion's share of the spoils, the Portuguese realized that while Spain got most of the territory, Portugal could get rich from importing slaves to work the land. Sao Tome became one of the first jump-off points for the voyage through the middle passage, through which 25 million Africans were transported to the Americas on the slave ships.
Paul Cohn tells the story of Sao Tome through a young Portuguese Jew, Marcel Saulo, who is kidnapped and sent to the island at the age of 14, enduring the trials of semi-slavery, ultimately freeing himself and working his own sugar plantation with African servants of his own. How he runs afoul of the island regimes that insist that all blacks be subjugated to slavery while he treats his own servants as free men and women, and his problems with maintaining his Jewish identity and heritage while passing as a Catholic in order to survive the Inquisition, whose long arm reached even as far as Sao Tome, make up the backbone of the story.
Cohn is a gifted storyteller and he has written a page-turner that keeps you interested in the plot from beginning to end. The plot, and the historical background, are fascinating enough to overcome the book's one-dimensional characters and pedestrian writing. Cohn did manage to hold my interest enough to make me want to learn more about this period in history, which makes the book ultimately succeed as a historical novel.
Judy Lind
Memorable Historical Novel.......2007-10-02
Incredible and riveting, this story was a page turner from the beginning to the end. It contains characters you care about and is beautifully written. I loved it. Definitely memorable!!
Little Known History: The Beginning of Slavery.......2007-03-22
São Tomé is an inordinately readable novel based on fact, one of those discoveries that not only introduces a fine author but also reveals information known by all too few of us. In his Foreword author Paul D. Cohn reveals the source of his novel: the Saulo Chronicle was written between 1497 and 1500, the journal history of a young Jewish lad from Portugal who was kidnapped by the Catholic Church as part of the Inquisition and shipped to the West African Island of São Tomé where he endured hardships not only of separation from his family but also the filthy unhealthful living conditions as a slave on the sugar cane plantations and yet survived to witness (and fight against) the inception of the commerce of slavery spurred on by the discovery by his fellow countryman Christopher Columbus of the New World.
Cohn's writing technique is very straightforward and narratively complex while remaining riveting as story telling. His descriptions Marcel Saulo's two month ship journey from Portugal to Africa, the treatment of the Jewish children who were expected to convert to Catholicism once on the island (or be killed), and the gradual adaptation to live in a strange place whose indigenous problems included virulent malaria and typhoid fever in addition to the local wars occurring between separate parts of the island as well as rebellion as the African slaves were brought together to sell to slave traders - all elements that defy belief yet are convincingly recounted. How Saulo met and married a Jewish girl only to lose her to tragedy and subsequently bonded with other girls both Jewish and African and how he managed to maintain his Jewish soul while converting to the Catholic ways in order to survive, challenging in his own way the concept of slavery by treating his 'workers' as free men and women, and how he fought the changes in the island regimes and in Portugal's government of the island all make for a story that is a journey of courage and bravery and faith.
If the novel has a flaw it is in the need to edit the number of side stories that flood the pages. Characters arise and disappear so quickly that the reader needs to back reference to keep the flow of the novel in line. But that is a small dent in a novel that commands respect and enlightens the reader. This is an extraordinary accomplishment and pleads for a wide readership. Grady Harp, March 07
A Wonderful Historical Novel.......2006-04-13
Paul Cohn's Sao Tome is a beautifully written, thoroughly researched historical novel. The characters are engaging, the story is compelling, and the descriptions of life on Sao Tome are richly detailed. This book inspired me and moved me to tears. I loved it.
An excitingTale.......2006-02-10
Sao Tome is an exciting read. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Paul Cohn describes the harrowing experiences of a young
Portugese, Jewish boy who was kidnapped and sent to Sao Tome
Island during the Inquisition. The tale, based on historical records, recounts the fate of the children sent from Portugal and also tells the tale of the slaves imported from Africa
to work on the sugar plantations. It is written with sympathy
and shows the reader the unbelievable difficulty of life for those who were victims of the Inquisition and of slavery.
Books:
- Physik (Septimus Heap, Book 3)
- Prague: A Novel
- Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd: The inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes prepared in July 1600, edited from Stowe MS 557 in the British Library, MS LR 2/121 in the Public Record Office, London, and MS V.b.72 in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC
- Raintree: Inferno (Silhouette Nocturne)
- Real Estate Finance: Theory and Practice (with CD-ROM)
- Relax Your Way to Thin! Hypnosis Weight Loss Motivation
- Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
- Send Me
- Shadow Baby (Today Show Book Club #14)
- Sleeper Vol. 1: Out in the Cold
Books Index
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