BURNING ANGEL (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)
by James Lee Burke
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Book Summary Information
Author: James Lee BurkeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-07-08
ISBN: 0786889047
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: Hyperion
Book Reviews of BURNING ANGEL (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)
Book Review: No Peace in New Iberia
Summary: 5 Stars
BURNING ANGEL by James Lee Burke is another Dave Robicheaux adventure among the mobsters and assassins of New Iberia, Louisiana. In the midst of turmoil caused by racial and class prejudice, Sonny Boy Marsallus, a smalltime hood, asks for Dave's help because several local mobsters are after him. Sonny Boy--a sometime soft-hearted good-guy--convinced many prostitutes under the mob's tutelage that leaving town would be in their best interests. Also, fear of eminent reprisals prompt Sonny Boy to give Dave a mysterious little black journal to hold for him. In addition, Dave attempts to help Bertie Fontenot, a poor black sharecropper, whose lands bequeathed to her by the wealthy owner, Moleen Berrand's grandfather, are being invaded by an enigmatic disposal company. Moleen's situation is less than favorable, too, because of money problems, a failing marriage and a renewed interracial relationship with Bertie's niece, Ruthie Jean. The plot is so complicated the reader can get lost as easily as moving blindly through a Louisiana, crocodile-infested bayou. However, the lush prose makes the trip a real treat.James Lee Burke has been called "the Faulkner of crime fiction." The phrasing, descriptions, and word usage are so beautiful that the reader wants the cadences to go on and on. Burke was successful early in his writing career. But after his third book was published in the l960s, it was fifteen years before another book made it into print. One book, THE LOST-GET BACK BOOGIE, was rejected one hundred times. It was finally nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Burke's prose is breathtaking. His poetic descriptions put the reader right in the scene where all five senses are pulsating and alive. When Dave has a continuous nightmare about his alcoholism, he thinks "the rush is just like the whiskey that cauterizes memory and transforms electrified tigers into figures trapped harmlessly inside oil and canvas."
The plot, however, is all over the place like the lush growth along the banks of Louisiana's bayous. Some subplot ends are left untied. We never find out, for instance, why the Blue Sky Electric Company wants Berti's land and is willing to destroy a hundred-year old cemetery to get it. However, the story is rich with villains like Johnny Carp and Sweet Pea Chaisson and gutsy characters Helen Soileau, Dave's side-kick, Clete and Alafair, Dave's daughter. Appearances of the burning angel add a fantasy element that is believable and scary.
BURNING ANGEL will appeal to readers who want an intelligent story exquisitely told. Some of Burke's other novels are BLACK CHERRY BLUES, DIXIE CITY JAM, and CIMARRON ROSE.
Summary of BURNING ANGEL (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)
Helping the Fontenot family of sharecroppers from being forced away from their longtime home, detective Dave Robicheaux discovers a link between the eviction and the murder of a New Orleans fixer's girlfriend. Reprint. Tour. PW.Literature & Fiction Books
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