BURNING ANGEL (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

James Lee Burke (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dave Robicheaux Mysteries | Publication Date: July 8, 1996

Helping the Fontenot family of sharecroppers from being forced away from their longtime home, detective Dave Robicheaux discovers a link between the eviction and the murder of a New Orleans fixer's girlfriend. Reprint. Tour. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Continuing the Dave Robichaux series, Burke's mystery concerns present-day tensions springing from age-old racial injustices.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Burke's outstanding mystery series featuring Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux (e.g., Dixie City Jam, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/95) has catapulted him from a well-reviewed if somewhat obscure author to a writer of best sellers. In this latest, Robicheaux becomes involved with locals in a dispute over land that may or may not be home to Jean Laffite's treasure. Contributing to Robicheaux's already tortured conscience is Sonny Marsallus, a hood with a heart who saves Robicheaux's life and is promptly arrested for his trouble. As in In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (Audio Reviews, LJ 5/1/93), Burke incorporates some quasisupernatural elements that add to the tale's brooding atmosphere. Although Burke is an author whose work is best left unabridged?his plots can be confusing enough on their own thanks to large casts of supporting characters?the publisher does a creditable job of keeping the story line intact. Reader Will Patton adds another star to his already superb resume with a fantastic reading. Recommended for most popular collections.?Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (July 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786889047
• ISBN-13: 978-0786889044
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Lee Burke, a rare winner of two Edgar Awards, is the author of twenty-three previous novels, including such New York Times bestsellers as Bitterroot, Purple Cane Road, Cimarron Rose, Jolie Blon's Bounce, and Dixie City Jam. He lives in Missoula, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Louisiana Gothic, August 20, 2002

By 

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Burning Angel: A Novel (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Dave Robicheaux, ex-New Orleans homicide detective and now a detective for the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office, responds to a call from Sonny Boy Marsallus and ends up putting his life on the line. Sonny Boy is an ex-tough from Iberville, Dave's old stomping grounds, a man who worked the streets with steely grim resolve but somehow kept a generous heart as well. When his business saving fallen angels from the Giacano Family grew too successful, Sonny Boy traded in the streets of Iberville for the jungles of South America and ended up working for years as a mercenary and for the DEA. During a brief meeting, Sonny Boy asks Dave to keep a journal safe for him. He doesn't explain what's in the journal, but does take time to say dangerous people are looking for it. Three days later, the woman Sonny Boy gave a copy of the book to ends up murdered, and Sonny Boy has disappeared. Before long, Dave unearths connections that link Sonny Boy to dangerous ex-CIA types and to the local Mafia figure, John Polycarp Giacano. At the same time, Bertie Fortenot, the black woman who helped raise Dave, asks him to look into a real estate matter for her. Moleen Bertrand, one of the old money families in Iberia Parish, has threatened legal action to get the black families off the land his family, according to Bertie, gave to the black families scores of years ago. Dave probes both cases, finding them inextricably linked and having to reach back into a case nearly twenty years old to tie everything together.

James Lee Burke is an amazing author with a growing body of terrific work. On some levels, his novels work as beach reads and on other levels they are morality plays and presentations of philosophical discussions. His work also includes healthy doses of social commentary, perception, and observation. Burke is, like his series hero, a man who has been banged around by life and has survived only by adhering to strong convictions and faith. He's written several Dave Robicheaux novels, and has another series about Texas attorney, Billy Bob Holland. In addition to his two bestseller series, Burke has written several award-winning standalone novels such as: THE CONVICT, HALF OF PARADISE, THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE, and TWO FOR TEXAS.

BURNING ANGEL is a good book of crime and suspense, but where the novel really shines is in the prose. James Lee Burke is a poet, a skilled craftsman who knows how to use words. He paints with emotion, and he textures his world in guilt and nobility, self-doubt and a resilience of morality. No one writes with a stronger lyrical resonance than James Lee Burke. And no one paints scenes or people with the same uncanny skill. When a reader follows Dave Robicheaux into a scene from the novel, that reader can feel wherever that place is. Burke also has the knowledge and love for those places, too, because he wraps up bits of history (both personal and geographical and political) behind those places and areas. The interpersonal relationships between Robicheaux and his family, friends, co-workers, and boss also round out the picture of a solid man rather than a mere cardboard character. By doing this, he also rounds out and lifts the characters around Robicheaux. The author is also skilled in the use of drama, tension, suspense, and mystery-especially when tying current mysteries to ones that come rattling out of the closets from the past. In one last tip of the hat to his Southern roots, Burke's title and thrust of the story alludes to one of the most Southern of tales, the Gothic-that bit of the supernatural world that is seen just from the corner of the eye that must be believed in or taken on faith rather than made tangible.

The only weakness BURNING ANGEL shows is in trying to tie everything together at the end. Events become blurred and a little disorganized, and a few big leaps of logic are made to give the villains proper motivations.

James Lee Burke is an amazing author who offers up scintillating prose, deep characters, and a rich tapestry of physical environment and history. Fans of Robert B. Parker, Robert Crais, Dennis Lehane, and Elmore Leonard will be happy with this book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Plot a little murky..., September 26, 2005

By 

Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: BURNING ANGEL (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I love almost everything about James Lee Burke including his prose, his characters and especially, the locations he writes about. But Burning Angel is the second book in a row where I had a problem with the plot.

As usual, Dave Robicheaux (deputy with the New Iberia Sheriff's Department) has way too much going on. First, Robicheaux runs into a "friend" who grew up in New Iberia and ended up being a Canal Street fixer in New Orleans. Sonny Boy Marsallus has dabbled in almost everything including being a Latin American mercenary and an independent working for the DEA. Marsallus thinks his life is in danger and asks Robicheaux to hold a notebook with damaging information. A plantation owner is trying to gain possession of land that his grandfather deeded to the families of former slaves. Why he wants the land is a big mystery, but the mob also seems to be involved. It is also rumored that Jean Lafitte buried treasure there. Lots of bad guys hover on the edges and there always seems to be a hit out on Robicheaux.

There were too many things going on in Burning Angel, and I had a hard time keeping them all straight. I'm ok with the the local crimes, the mob plots, and even the Viet Nam angle. But Burke gets very murky when delving into the world of clandestine operations in Latin America. Usually Burke wraps things up at the end, but there were an awful lot of loose ends hanging here. Even the epilogue wasn't much help.

Despite the plot, there is still enough in Burning Angel to keep me reading. Burke regales us not just with the beauty of Louisiana, but also her ugliness (her racism, exploitation of the environment, the mob influence, poverty, the crime, etc.). Robicheaux's new partner, Helen Soileau, is also a good fit. She's unlike any woman he has teamed up with in the past. She's not always very politically correct and sometimes shows less restraint than Robicheaux. Clete Purcell and Helen loathe each other, but a grudging respect develops when they pull together to assist Robicheaux. It's rather comical.

Even though the plot of Burning Angel was not as polished as previous books, Burke is still a better writer than most mystery writers today. I'm still determined to read them all and I have five more to go.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Peace in New Iberia, September 11, 2002

By 

Carolyn Faseler (Norman, Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: BURNING ANGEL (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

BURNING ANGEL by James Lee Burke is another Dave Robicheaux adventure among the mobsters and assassins of New Iberia, Louisiana. In the midst of turmoil caused by racial and class prejudice, Sonny Boy Marsallus, a smalltime hood, asks for Dave's help because several local mobsters are after him. Sonny Boy--a sometime soft-hearted good-guy--convinced many prostitutes under the mob's tutelage that leaving town would be in their best interests. Also, fear of eminent reprisals prompt Sonny Boy to give Dave a mysterious little black journal to hold for him. In addition, Dave attempts to help Bertie Fontenot, a poor black sharecropper, whose lands bequeathed to her by the wealthy owner, Moleen Berrand's grandfather, are being invaded by an enigmatic disposal company. Moleen's situation is less than favorable, too, because of money problems, a failing marriage and a renewed interracial relationship with Bertie's niece, Ruthie Jean. The plot is so complicated the reader can get lost as easily as moving blindly through a Louisiana, crocodile-infested bayou. However, the lush prose makes the trip a real treat.

James Lee Burke has been called "the Faulkner of crime fiction." The phrasing, descriptions, and word usage are so beautiful that the reader wants the cadences to go on and on. Burke was successful early in his writing career. But after his third book was published in the l960s, it was fifteen years before another book made it into print. One book, THE LOST-GET BACK BOOGIE, was rejected one hundred times. It was finally nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Burke's prose is breathtaking. His poetic descriptions put the reader right in the scene where all five senses are pulsating and alive. When Dave has a continuous nightmare about his alcoholism, he thinks "the rush is just like the whiskey that cauterizes memory and transforms electrified tigers into figures trapped harmlessly inside oil and canvas."

The plot, however, is all over the place like the lush growth along the banks of Louisiana's bayous. Some subplot ends are left untied. We never find out, for instance, why the Blue Sky Electric Company wants Berti's land and is willing to destroy a hundred-year old cemetery to get it. However, the story is rich with villains like Johnny Carp and Sweet Pea Chaisson and gutsy characters Helen Soileau, Dave's side-kick, Clete and Alafair, Dave's daughter. Appearances of the burning angel add a fantasy element that is believable and scary.

BURNING ANGEL will appeal to readers who want an intelligent story exquisitely told. Some of Burke's other novels are BLACK CHERRY BLUES, DIXIE CITY JAM, and CIMARRON ROSE.