- Hardcover
- Publisher: Doubleday; later printing edition (2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385488440
- ISBN-13: 978-0385488440
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 726 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #921,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
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First Sentence
YEARS AGO, IN STATE documents, Vachel Carmouche was always referred to as the electrician, never as the executioner. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
YEARS AGO, IN STATE documents, Vachel Carmouche was always referred to as the electrician, never as the executioner. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Better Entries in the Series,
By
This review is from: Purple Cane Road (Mass Market Paperback)
In PURPLE CANE ROAD Dave Robicheaux is essentially working on two separate cases simultaneously. He is trying to get enough evidence to stop Letty Labiche's scheduled execution in Angola Penitentiary and at the same time Dave is also hunting for the killers many years ago of his mother, Mae Guillory. The story moves fast with plenty of action and enough colorful characters to keep it interesting. The latter include the usual Burke types such as prostitutes, pimps, a populist politician, corrupt police and just plain hardened criminals. Robicheaux's long-time friend and associate Clete Purcell defies description. We have to look long and hard to find any normal people in this book.The best part of the story focuses on Robicheaux's search for the killers of his mother. It is here that Burke gives us another glimpse of Robicheaux's complex nature and we learn still more about his troubled past.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not competitive with the best,
By
This review is from: Purple Cane Road (Mass Market Paperback)
I don't know where all the laudatory reviews are coming from. This book isn't particularly well written. Burke's writing is unmemorable, his similes and descriptions frequently lame.The book isn't particularly well plotted. The plot is fairly complex, but implausible. The protagonist, Dave Robicheaux, is a homicide cop in a Louisiana parish outside New Orleans. He does much of his work in the company of a thug private investigator named Clete. Clete is just a transparent device invented by Burke to allow Robicheaux to engage in flagrantly illegal activities and violations of the rights of private citizens. It is obvious that this situation wouldn't be tolerated by any law enforcement agency, regardless how corrupt or how good-ol-boy Southern. Louisiana may have more than its share of a history of political corruption, but the percentage of outright crooks in both the police departments and the elected officials in this book defies credulity. It is similarly implausible that an ordinary cop from outside New Orleans would be such good buddies with the governor and that his wife would be an old friend of the Attorney General. The book isn't particularly well characterized. Robicheaux is a recovering alcoholic (a remarkably imaginative and original touch, isn't it?). Very few of the characters come to life. One who does is Robicheaux's buddy Clete - but it's not hard to create a character who's nothing but a bully and a thug. The other is Johnny Remeta, a hired hit man with an unusual combination of psychoses. Considering how many other writers of hard-boiled detective novels there are out there, I see no reason to read Burke. Read this, and then read anything by Dennis Lehane (for example), and the difference is dramatic.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best crime novel since Raymond Chandler,
By
This review is from: Purple Cane Road (Mass Market Paperback)
I've been reading crime novels all my life, and this is the best one I've read since Raymond Chandler. "Purple Cane Road" has everything a good crime novel should have, and more. Good guys and bad guys and many shades of gray. Corrupt cops. Cold-blooded killers. Femme fatales. And at the center a great swirl of emotion and moral principles and deep caring known as Dave Robicheaux. We always know where this hero stands and how he feels and what makes him feel that way. Burke breaks several conventional rules here. There is more than one through-line, indeed a rich and complex whirlwind of story involving half a dozen characters and as many killings. This is an amazing piece of work. My hat is off.
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