Reading the Neon Rain by James Lee Burke was only ok but diverting nonetheless. Reading Doug Greenberg's most excellent review here at Amazon hit the nail on the head. Jame Lee Burke's writing style was quite good but the plot became rather anticlimatic and too one dimensional. True, one has to read this definitive first book in the Robicheaux series to fully appreciate the later books. Robicheaux reminds me of John D. MacDonald's famous detective, Travis McGee (who is the definitive hardboild protagonist and is way hard to beat). Robicheaux lives on a houseboat in New Orleans instead of Florida and is fighting his own personal demons with alcohol, injustice and getting even. The VietNam veteran angle has been done to death, but in this outing is somewhat tolerable by the excellent narrative descriptions. Personally I had a bit of a problem with our hero waxing poetic about the Confederacy and the South that looses me, a Northern city boy. To me there was nothing romantic about the civil war, and a character that seems to honor that (Confederate) memory, and want to fight for the little guy is a bit of a contradiction in terms that needs more exploring. The reviews for the Purple Cane Road looks more promising and is next on my list and should be a better read. Kindly look for my review in the coming weeks.