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| LAST CAR TO ELYSIAN FIELDS
- Reviews |
(Robicheaux) Simon & Schuster Fall, 2003
The New York Times
James Lee Burke is at the top of his game in Last Car to Elysian Fields. — Marilyn Stasio
The Washington Post
Up to his neck in Louisiana's sociopolitical swamps once again is police detective Dave Robicheaux, the twice violently widowed, no longer hard-drinking, war-ravaged soul who can make cop rule-breaking and even vigilantism look morally right and necessary -- even when any informed reader knows that nearly all rogue cops are no-good thugs. — Richard Lipez
Publisher's Weekly
Homicide detective Dave Robicheaux is pitted against a handsome, urbane war hero of a bad guy instead of the typical obscenely grotesque villain in this latest installment of Burke's stellar series, set in New Iberia, La. It's a shift in adversaries that forces Robicheaux to take a different tack than his usual uncontrolled tilting at the windmills of elusive justice. As in many of Burke's novels (A Stained White Radiance; In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead), current felonies are tied to a crime from the past. Here, Dave's friend Father Jimmie Dolan is being stalked by Irish hit man Max Coll; linked to this intrigue is the story of blues singer Junior Crudup, who entered the hell of Angola Penitentiary in the 1950s and was never heard from again. In present-day New Orleans, three teens die in a fiery crash after buying drinks at a drive-by daiquiri stand. Porn star Gunner Ardoin takes a beating from Dave's sidekick, Clete Purcel, who wreaks his usual havoc. Mysterious lady cop Clotile Arceneaux keeps popping in with advice, and a minor thug, Jumpin' Merchie Flannigan, is married to Robicheaux's old girlfriend Theodosha. These are just a scant few of the characters and subplots that thicken the deep and complex gumbo of Burke's story. The writing is beautiful, as always, laced with the author's signature descriptions: "the sepia-tinted light in the trees and on the bayou seemed to emanate from the earth rather than the sky." This is an outstanding entry in an excellent series. (Sept. 23) Forecast: A multi-city book tour should get the word out and help nudge Burke up a notch on bestseller lists. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Violence, death, and terrific prose are abundant in the 13th entry of Burke's Dave Robicheaux series. Robicheaux's friend Father Jimmie Dolan has been working to stamp out immoral behavior in the New Iberia area, including among the large businesses there. Unfortunately, he's made enemies of powerful people, and now he's the target of an unbalanced assassin. For protection he moves in with Robicheaux, and all hell breaks loose. Besides guarding Jimmie, Dave also has a murder to solve, an accident to investigate, a crazy best friend to deal with, and a married ex-lover with whom he seems to be contemplating involvement. And at the root of this mess is the apparent disappearance of a black convict 50 years ago, a mystery that Dave must solve for current events to make sense. While the crowded story isn't on par with the best involving Robicheaux, Burke again writes with the touch of a master. Recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/03.]-Craig Shufelt, Lane P.L., Oxford, OH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
New Iberia homicide detective Dave Robicheaux (Jolie Blon's Bounce, 2002, etc.) battles-what else?-strutting criminals, willing women, long-buried crimes, and his own most violent impulses. Wasting no time on preliminaries, Dave and his old buddy, p.i. Clete Purcel, end the opening scene pummeling one-time porn actor Gunner Ardoin for beating New Orleans priest Jimmie Dolan and are soon facing Gunner's civil suit and his likely innocence. But there are more than enough sleazeballs to go around, from Gunner's mobbed-up boss Fat Sammy Figorelli to waste-management contractor Merchie Flannigan to Merchie's wife, crime-writer Theodosha LeJeune, to Theo's father, spuriously genteel Castille LeJeune, whose 1951 blues recording of imprisoned Junior Crudup is practically the last anybody heard from Junior before he vanished from Angola Prison. Things heat up further with the fatal car crash of Lori Parks, a teenaged veteran of Ecstasy and DWI charges, who bought the daiquiri that pushed her over the line from an obliging boy who worked for Castille LeJeune. Dave, of course, keeps straying outside his jurisdiction to threaten or batter lowlifes, but this time he's bookended by Lori's father, who's determined to avenge her, and by Father Jimmie, dogged by a visiting killer whose moral conflicts bear an uncomfortable resemblance to the priest's own. Give yourself a star if this all sounds awfully familiar, and another if you can remember who killed whom ten minutes after Burke's last glowing page |
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