From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. 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.
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A serial killer's loose in Baton Rouge, someone's trying to kill Dave Robicheaux, and Dave is the prime suspect in a murder. James Lee Burke's characters blend light and shadow, good and evil, and Will Patton's shaded delivery makes them all believable. Patton's dreamy Louisiana drawl draws listeners into a complex story winding back into Robicheaux's past. When Dave, a recovering alcoholic, ruins years of sobriety, Patton's performance captures the guilt and remorse of a good, if flawed, man. The abridgment sacrifices the sultry bayou atmosphere that comes from Burke's graceful lyricism, but the story is intriguing, the characters are unique, and the no-frills narration offers an appealing performance by Patton. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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