A review by bunnieslikediamonds
Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke

4.0

The lush, lyrical prose is the best thing about this third Robicheaux novel. I only started reading Burke recently and was pleasantly surprised, as I used to think he was too macho for me. After a few books, it turns out it's quite the opposite. Burke the writer and Dave the character are little too sentimental for my taste. Dave keeps having these sappy dreams about his angelic dead wife whose only fault was that she was simply too good for this world. I wouldn't dare say this to Dave, but I always thought she seemed a bit slow on the uptake. And while I'm at it, the sex scenes are a little nauseating. It's all about easing the pain for Dave, while the ladies gaze lovingly into his eyes, apparently without expecting any sweet release in return. As for the bad guys, they are not just bad but evil, which strikes me as odd considering that Dave, Cletus and the other moderately good guys are pretty three-dimensional. Still, there's enough pistol whipping and beautiful imagery for me to keep reading.