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| Jolie Blon's Bounce
- Excerpt - Reviews |
(Robicheaux) Simon & Schuster; June 2002
From Publishers Weekly
To read a Burke novel is to enter a timeless, parallel universe of violent emotions and lush, brooding landscapes, where class and racial distinctions and family histories mold society. This is the stunningly talented Burke's 21st book and his best until the next one. Dave Robicheaux, the psychologically scarred detective for the New Iberia, La., sheriff's department, investigates two brutal murders, one of a naive teenage girl, the other of a feckless drug-addled prostitute. The author provides a dense, richly imagined background for his characters, especially the sinister ones: malevolent Legion Guidry, a nightmarish figure from Robicheaux's boyhood; a power-hungry tavern owner; an arrogant lawyer; a combative female PI; the prostitute's Mafioso father; and Marvin Oates, an enigmatic Bible salesman who floats ominously through the narrative. Robicheaux doesn't believe the obvious suspect Tee Bobby Hulin, a drug-addicted musical genius is the murderer. Aided and disrupted by his obstreperous pal, Clete Purcel, Robicheaux runs into the usual trouble. Legion gives Robicheaux such a ferocious beating that he reverts to drinking and addictive painkillers. Though the search for the murderer moves the story, the novel is really an examination of the savage relationships of the characters and the palpable presence of the past. Burke offers a vivid social history of an inbred, corrupt place. As Clete so aptly tells his friend, "This is Louisiana, Dave. Guatemala North. Quit pretending it's the United States."
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc
From Library Journal
After a detour to Montana in Bitterroot, Burke returns to New Iberia, LA, and his popular police detective Dave Robicheaux. While investigating the brutal rape and murder of a local teenager, Robicheaux uncovers several links between his main suspect, a talented musician named Tee Bobby Hulin, and the LaSalle family, New Iberia's plantation aristocracy. Perry LaSalle is Hulin's lawyer (and maybe his cousin), and he also employs a 74-year-old former plantation overseer named Legion Guidry, who believes that he still lives in the Old South and can treat his black neighbors any way he chooses. Meanwhile, Robicheaux's ex-partner from his days with the New Orleans Police Department, Clete Purcell, is trying to track down a man who may be a serial killer. The cases converge as the investigators try to sort out the guilty from the innocent and those with bad intentions from those who are truly evil. As Robicheaux tries to set right the world around him, the book explores some of the most troubling aspects of Louisiana's (and America's) racist past. This is Burke at his best. Recommended for all public libraries. Patrick Wall, University City P.L., MO
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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