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Purple Cane Road [Large Print] (Hardcover)

by James Lee Burke (Author) "YEARS AGO, IN STATE documents, Vachel Carmouche was always referred to as the electrician, never as the executioner ..." (more)

4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (84 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: Random House Large Print; Lrg edition (Aug 1 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375430555
ISBN-13: 978-0375430558
Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16.4 x 3.4 cm
Shipping Weight: 853 g

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (84 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #669,322 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#61 in Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Burke, James Lee

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This is item 11 in The Dave Robicheaux Series.

Product Description

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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 --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

HAfter the relatively lightweight Sunset Limited (1998), Cajun cop Dave Robicheaux returns in a powerhouse of a thriller that shows Burke writing near the peak of his form. Robicheaux faces his most personal case yet, when a pimp puts him on the trail of the truth behind his mother's long-ago disappearance. Meanwhile, he uncovers new evidence in the case of death-row inmate Letty Labiche, who took a mattock to the man who molested her as a child, state executioner Vachel Carmouche. Burke parades the usual cast of grotesques: feckless Louisiana governor Belmont Pugh; cold-blooded attorney general Connie Deshotel; sleazy police liaison officer Jim Gable, who "keeps the head of a Vietnamese soldier in a jar of chemicals"; and psychopathic hit man Johnny Remata, who acts as all-around avenging angel. Wife Bootsie's having had a fling with Gable drives Robicheaux into a jealous fury more than once, while daughter Alafair's flirtation with Johnny raises the temperature even higher. Old buddy Clete Purcell doesn't have a lot to do, other than to contribute to the general mayhem. Once Robicheaux learns that his mother fell afoul of a couple of New Orleans cops in the pay of the Giacano crime family, it's a simple matter of identifying the guilty pair and bringing them to justiceDor is it? Burke winds up an often convoluted and gratuitously violent plot with a dynamite ending that will leave readers feeling truly satisfied, if a bit shell-shocked. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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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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Customer Reviews

84 Reviews

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.5 out of 5 stars (84 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Better Entries in the Series, Jul 18 2004

By	Peter Kenney (Birmingham, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

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.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Not competitive with the best, Jan 10 2004

By	Stan Vernooy (Henderson, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Best crime novel since Raymond Chandler, Nov 18 2003

By	Roger Angle (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Getting annoying
Although Purple Cane Road is worth reading, the Robicheaux series is losing its appeal. I
enjoyed the early books in the series but lost track of Burke some time after Dixie... Read more

Published on Aug 12 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars Few too many plot holes/manipulations
I tend not to read many novels by any one mystery/thriller author before the sameness of plot/character/style begins to wear. Read more

Published on Jul 9 2003 by Russell Heath

1.0 out of 5 stars Overrated author produces boring novel
Certainly the wide acclaim Burke has received can not be based on the quality of the novels he has written. Read more

Published on Jun 7 2003 by inthefoam2

4.0 out of 5 stars Burke lives up to the hype.
Unlike the main characters of some series who seem to be without fault, Dave Robicheaux is anything but. Read more

Published on May 9 2003 by Brad Cooper