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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Second Robicheaux for me and looking forward to more. Descriptive writing with lots of action by Burke. Robicheaux with all of his flaws is a very likable character to me….fully drawn out.
Solid Cajun noir—not quite as enjoyable as Black Cherry Blues, but it is hard to bear Burke for his vivid descriptions of settings
So many people love this series, but I'm having a difficult time getting into it. Just because you don't know much Spanish, can you really not ask a child her name instead of renaming her?! Maybe if I make it to a more recent book, I'll like it more.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I give up on Dave Robicheaux. He’s an annoying, pigheaded bore. That’s okay, though, because all the ladies love him. They think he’s a ‘fine man’ (wink wink). Even if he’s probably going to get them killed.
Another great book in the Robicheaux series. Dave get's in the middle of a gang war again and this time he pays the price. But he "Squares it"...sort of. This was an audio book also read by Will Patton. I don't want to listen to anyone else as narrator for this series...he is the voice of Dave to me.
(I don't know why goodreads insists that I've read this three times. I think I'd remember.)
Ok, I ate it up, and speaking of eating, if there's one thing I like about Dave Robicheaux and his posse, it's that they don't seem to ever miss a meal. I wish I knew exactly what they were eating, but it all sounds good.
Heaven's Prisoners is a much more developed novel than Neon Rain (#1 in the series,) and that's both a good and bad thing. The good is that James Lee Burke has given himself, and therefore Robicheaux, henceforth Dave because the other takes too much to type, time to reflect and philosophize. Those two qualities escape Dave on a pretty regular basis as he's a man driven by compulsions, whether for justice or Jax. But, when he does slow down, usually after having been beaten down, he's usually got something interesting on his mind. The good is also in character development, and depth of plotting. The bad is in overwritten descriptions of nature's fecundity, that includes Dave's quest for mind-blowing orgasms, that come at a frequent, and ultimately tedious rate. I'm glad he gets laid, I just don't need the tightening of the loins details.
The bad guys in this one are really, really bad, the low life's really really low, the banter very entertaining, and the violence - hideous. What more could a poor reader ask for?
I'm sure you can find a plot summary elsewhere.
On to #3.
Ok, I ate it up, and speaking of eating, if there's one thing I like about Dave Robicheaux and his posse, it's that they don't seem to ever miss a meal. I wish I knew exactly what they were eating, but it all sounds good.
Heaven's Prisoners is a much more developed novel than Neon Rain (#1 in the series,) and that's both a good and bad thing. The good is that James Lee Burke has given himself, and therefore Robicheaux, henceforth Dave because the other takes too much to type, time to reflect and philosophize. Those two qualities escape Dave on a pretty regular basis as he's a man driven by compulsions, whether for justice or Jax. But, when he does slow down, usually after having been beaten down, he's usually got something interesting on his mind. The good is also in character development, and depth of plotting. The bad is in overwritten descriptions of nature's fecundity, that includes Dave's quest for mind-blowing orgasms, that come at a frequent, and ultimately tedious rate. I'm glad he gets laid, I just don't need the tightening of the loins details.
The bad guys in this one are really, really bad, the low life's really really low, the banter very entertaining, and the violence - hideous. What more could a poor reader ask for?
I'm sure you can find a plot summary elsewhere.
On to #3.
My 2nd James Lee Burke book. Looking forward to reading more.
When I was a kid, I used to go with my dad to visit his parents, who retired to a bayou in north Louisiana. And while north Louisiana is almost a drastically different state than south Louisiana, the flourishes of French culture combined with the marshlands, cypress trees, and petrostate aesthetic are still prevalent in that neck of the woods.
So whenever I need to do some bayou reading, I look up the next David Robicheaux book from James Lee Burke.
I plan on pouring through the series now after picking around for a few years because I’m curious to see Burke’s development as a writer. In the first Robicheaux book, the action takes place mostly in New Orleans. After that, it’s mostly the Iberian bayou with side trips to the Crescent City. So while there are urban escapades, these books very much capture the heart of what urban life is like in rural Louisiana.
The story is a familiar one, at least from other Burke books I’ve read: mobsters, feds, an international angle (Louisiana is the crossroads of the Gulf of Mexico, after all). They also feature female characters who are frequently underwritten. Yet what I appreciate about Burke’s style is that while Robicheaux may be too far gone to be “saved” of his bad habits, the books aren’t afraid to interrogate what it actually means to be a police officer. Several times, Robicheaux laments at how the justice system will put away lower class folks and let the bean counting white collar types escape again and again.
This sets Robicheaux up as less of a hero type and more of a man trapped by his past who, while desperately needing to break free of the mold*, is just another working class hump trying to make things right in his troubled corner of the world.
Aside from that cliche and the obnoxiously nefarious LGBTQIA+ character, I enjoyed this one a lot.
*Boy, am I tired of broken men in a broken world books. Time will tell if these will progress the way the Scudder novels did.
So whenever I need to do some bayou reading, I look up the next David Robicheaux book from James Lee Burke.
I plan on pouring through the series now after picking around for a few years because I’m curious to see Burke’s development as a writer. In the first Robicheaux book, the action takes place mostly in New Orleans. After that, it’s mostly the Iberian bayou with side trips to the Crescent City. So while there are urban escapades, these books very much capture the heart of what urban life is like in rural Louisiana.
The story is a familiar one, at least from other Burke books I’ve read: mobsters, feds, an international angle (Louisiana is the crossroads of the Gulf of Mexico, after all). They also feature female characters who are frequently underwritten. Yet what I appreciate about Burke’s style is that while Robicheaux may be too far gone to be “saved” of his bad habits, the books aren’t afraid to interrogate what it actually means to be a police officer. Several times, Robicheaux laments at how the justice system will put away lower class folks and let the bean counting white collar types escape again and again.
This sets Robicheaux up as less of a hero type and more of a man trapped by his past who, while desperately needing to break free of the mold*, is just another working class hump trying to make things right in his troubled corner of the world.
Aside from that cliche and the obnoxiously nefarious LGBTQIA+ character, I enjoyed this one a lot.
*Boy, am I tired of broken men in a broken world books. Time will tell if these will progress the way the Scudder novels did.
It could be just me. While James Lee Burke is exceptional at crafting the perfect sentence, or drafting a scene that you can fall right into, his characters have all the nuance of a sledgehammer. It gets tiring riding along in their depressing world with no reprieve in sight. For fans of depression and restitution these are fine, but it doesn’t work for me.