Customer Reviews

Last Car to Elysian Fields.

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Last Car to Elysian Fields is my second James Lee Burke mystery in a row, and I'm afraid that I've been infected by the Dave Robicheaux bug. I won't be happy until I've read all fourteen books in this series.

In Elysian Fields, Robicheaux is a detective in the Iberia sheriff's department. He has a host of demons that he's battling (several ex-wives, a recent personal loss, and white knuckled abstinence from alcohol-just to name a few). But he is also juggling quite a few cases, and not all of them are "official." The case of a disappearing bluesman from Angola prison is over 50 years old. Also on his plate are the deaths of three underage teenagers who purchased alcohol at a daiquiri bar, pornography and meth ring, a priest friend who was brutally assaulted, an electrician doing shoddy work, a granddaughter who has been cheated out of her grandfather's land, and illegal dumping by chemical companies. Add to that a crazed hit man from Miami, and a bunch of dead bodies, and Robicheaux's life becomes even more complicated. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out who has a hit on who.

Burke excels when it comes to his characters. Helen Solileau, is Robicheaux's boss and a woman of great insight and patience. Robicheaux tests her in so many ways, but Solileau knows that Robicheaux is a good but unorthodox cop and she tries to give him a long leash. But my very favorite character is Robicheaux's best friend and former partner, Cletus Purcel. Cletus is now a PI and part-time bounty hunter who spreads mayhem and chaos in his wake. Each book has at least a few good scenes where Cletus is up to his old tricks including he "filled a New Orleans' gangster's vintage automobile with cement, destroyed a half-million-dollar home on Lake Pontchartrain with an earth grader," and "cuffed a dirty cop to the conveyor chain in a car-wash and hot-wax machine." Only a person living in Louisiana can do these things and not spend quality time in jail. Burke also does a good job with hitman, Max Coll. Coll is a bizarre, tortured and destructive character, yet seems to have a conscience of sorts.

I have definitely become a James Lee Burke convert, and I just printed out all the titles of his Robicheaux series in order. I can't wait to go to the beginning and start reading.

New Iberia, Louisiana homicide detective Dave Robicheaux and his friend private investigator Clete Purcel rough up former porn movie star Gunner Ardoin. Dave and Clete were retaliating for Gunner's beating up New Orleans priest Father Jimmie Dolan. Gunner gets back at the duo for their assault by suing them.

Meanwhile hitman Max Coll stalks Father Jimmie. Apparently there is a nebulous connection to 1951 Angola Penitentiary where blues singer Junior Crudup was sent before vanishing. Then there is the link to three teens dying in a DUI incident. Thus Dave has a lot on his plate, jurisdiction not withstanding. However, his typical two-fisted approach will not bring down Castille LeJeune, who is the alleged power behind the scenes of all these seemingly unrelated incidents.

LAST CAR TO ELYSIAN FIELDS is the usual brutal but exciting look at the underbelly of society from James Lee Burke. If the story line sounds a bit disjointed that is because it is. Dave remains an intriguing wild man who does not worry about losing his job as he metes out street justice as few characters do. Fans of Dave will appreciate this rowdy ride while those who prefer a more gentile or just a straightforward plot will want to pass rather than wait to see how the subplots finally tie together.

Harriet Klausner

James Lee Burke creates another dark mystery in the heat of the Louisiana swamps. In this latest Dave Robicheaux tale, the death of a teenage driver turns into a series of twists and switchbacks that lead to a series of murders and cover-ups from decades ago through to the present. The story involves a hit man for the IRA, pornographic film stars, a former lover, blues musicians, along with a military hero using his past as a facade for who he really has become. The layers of mystery are unwrapped slowly, each layer uncovered reveals new clues and new directions and new crimes to investigate for Dave and his podjo Clete.
I have two criticisms of this novel. The first is that Robicheaux is dealing with a major loss in his life and we see that only in the aftermath, which feels like either a slight to the reader or an inability to deal with it by the author in a believable manner. The second is that although I am aware of the authors political beliefs, they seem to predominate this novel like never before. Even with these two situations, Burke comes through with an amazing puzzle of a novel.

Describing New Orleans as "an outdoor mental asylum located on top of a giant sponge," Burke makes the city itself a character in this study of power and justice, murder and mayhem. Once again, Dave Robicheaux is the local homicide detective who tries to sort out crimes and bring evil-doers to justice, as he has done in previous Burke novels. This time, however, we see Robicheaux as a darker, more vengeful investigator, a man willing to do whatever is necessary to bring guilty parties to justice within this notoriously corrupt political and judicial system. Alone in the city, and without the family support system which previously "humanized" him, he is now a man with nothing to lose.

Accompanying Fr. Jimmie Dolan though Toxic Alley, a wetlands area where waste disposal contractors have poisoned the groundwater and sickened dozens of young black children with their illegal dumping, Robicheaux visits the granddaughter of Junior Crudup, a blues singer and guitarist from the 1950s, who disappeared in Angola Penitentiary. Determined to discover what happened to him, Robicheaux also wants to know who is responsible for the recent beating Fr. Dolan, the Catholic priest. While this plot is unfolding, three seventeen-year-old girls die in a car crash, shortly after stopping at an illegal "drive-by daiquiri store." The manager of the store soon shows up dead, and his connections to other, supposedly legitimate local businessmen come under scrutiny. The business of pornography and drugs bring Mafia hitmen into the city, and soon bedlam breaks out, as the local police, county police, state undercover agents, and the FBI all lay claim to investigation.

Successfully incorporating a great deal of historical background into the action, Burke shines a spotlight on the criminal activity, showing the reader its scope and giving some perspective on how and why the social problems we observe in the novel came into being. Marauding white street gangs of the 1950s, the systemic sadism of the penitentiary and its Red Hat Gang of the '50s, virulent racism, the rise to power and wealth of men engaged in dishonest businesses, the collusion of police and their reward of lucrative payoffs, the activities of organized crime syndicates, and the ability of those in power to manipulate both the political and legal systems are all shown to be contributing factors in the corruption we observe in these plot lines. Descriptive but sometimes brutal in its action, the novel gives us a darker, more cynical Robicheaux, a man taking dangerous chances in a dangerous city, with seemingly little to lose. Mary Whipple

Another truly great novel from James Lee Burke, on par with all of his others. What truly distinguishes Burke's novels is his gorgeous writing style--he truly evokes a sense of place and you can almost smell the bayou as he writes about it. His descriptions of people are equally good--I got a very clear picture of each character he described. If you have never read James Lee Burke, TRY HIM! You won't be disappointed. (Oh, and the story is great!)

All of James Lee Burke's novels are deeply atmospheric. His words create a powerful image of the Louisiana bayou - an image that is not merely visual, but also capturing the humidity of the swamps, the grit of the cities, the smells of Cajun cooking. With Burke, you can always count on richly developed characters, moving alternatively between acts of nobility and brutality. And in all of Burke's works, there is a strong sense of societal divide, of racial tension, of Cajun culture, sensibility, sometimes and depravity. It is with a dark pallet that Burke paints his stories, and the results are consistently mesmerizing, addictive. Often, however, the plot and storyline must take a back seat, overpowered by the strength of settings and the casts of James Lee Burke's remarkable writing.

Not so with "Last Car to Elysian Fields". This is a mighty novel in all respects: a captivating and complex plot, set in the sleazy back alleys of New Orleans, a barbarous Louisiana prison work gang, the familiar backwaters of New Iberia. Think "Mystic River" with a Cajun accent. Our hero Dave Robicheaux is back, but haunted by the recent death of his wife, Bootsie. Clete Purcel, Robicheaux's one-time NOPD partner is also back, and while Purcel has always been reckless, outrageous, and irreverent, he is truly at home as the master of mayhem in this latest yarn. In a nutshell, a seemingly unrelated series of events, starting with the decades-earlier suspected murder of a black convict, to the highway death of New Iberia teenagers, a drive-up Daiquiri bar, and mob hit man, are welded together in a gripping tale of bigotry, greed, and corruption in the Deep South.

Burke is certainly at the top of the pile of modern crime writers, and "Elysian Fields" is an example of Burke at the top of his game. Dark, crude, and ruthless, but at the same time additive and impossible to forget. Don't let this one pass unread.

One of the common traits with mystery series is that the lead character is typically an outsider. This goes back to the early days of the modern, hard-boiled mystery. Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer or Sam Spade were drawn into the soap operas of other people's lives. While James Lee Burke's stories about Dave Robicheaux definitely fit in this type of genre, Robicheaux is not an outsider. Instead, his stories always seem to involve people he knows and places he's been.

As Last Car to the Elysian Fields (around book 15 in the series) opens, Robicheaux is at another crossroads in his life. His wife Bootsie has died, having finally lost her long battle with Lupus. He has a new boss as his former partner Helen Soileau has been elevated to the post of sheriff. In addition, his house has burnt down due to some bad wiring and his adopted daughter Alafair is off at college. For Robicheaux, the stress is enough to make the former alcoholic want to re-hit the bottle, and things are about to get worse.

Local priest Jimmie Dolan has been aggravating the wrong people, first getting beaten up by a local thug and then getting targeted for assassination. The killer, Max Coll, is an ex-IRA guy who's a bit nuts; he also has just enough of a conscience to not kill Dolan, although this gets him targeted himself. He's still a hit man, however, and he will leave a few more dead by the end of the book, even as he forms a bond with both Dolan and Robicheaux.

Meanwhile, Robicheaux suspects Castille LeJune of the long-ago murder of a jazz musician named Junior Crudup. There are additional entanglements: LeJune owns a liquor store that served alcohol to a teenage girl who later died in an accident; LeJune's son-in-law owns what was once Crudup's land and is now dumping waste there; and LeJune's daughter Theodosia is struggling with her demons and is trying to draw her one-time brief lover Robicheaux into her private hell.

Robicheaux is a man with rage that is barely under control most of the time, and at times he lets loose, causing additional problems. His hatred for certain types of people, especially the wealthy establishment sorts like LeJune, taints his judgment. Only his friend Clete Purcel, who has no inhibitions at all about causing trouble, is somehow able to make Robicheaux sane, at least by comparison.

The plotting and characters are all well-written, but, as always, the thing that makes James Lee Burke really stand out is his descriptive abilities. The images he evokes of Louisiana (in particular, New Iberia and New Orleans) make the place come alive. In certain ways, there may be better authors, but no mystery writer is as good with his imagery as Burke. Last Car to the Elysian Fields is another great novel by one of the best mystery writers - actually one of the best writers, period - around.

This series is a winner throughout. Read it sequentially - check the copyright dates or get a dated list from your local bookstore or library. It is equally, if not more so sometimes, to listen to this series on audiobook, because the readers, Mike Hammer or Will Patton, capture not only Burke's words and thoughts but also the "accent." In a series like this, the accent is as important as everything else, and if you read it in your own voice, and you don't happen to be from Louisiana, you do miss something. If you do audiobook, always do UNabridged.

James Lee Burke is simply the best writer of the genre in the sense of pure writing. Turn to virtually any page in the book and the most amazing descriptions and metaphors jump out at the reader. It is impossible not to be swept away by the sheer majesty of his language. Nobody evokes the Louisiana bayou like he can. The stories of the hapless hero, Dave Robicheaux, are complex and peopled by the most well mannered evil thugs in the universe.
Robicheaux's friend, Father Jimmy Doyle undergoes a severe beating in New Orleans. Robicheaux, a New Iberia detective investigates with the help of the violent but lovable Clete Purcel. Of course this simple act leads to an increasingly complex web of violence consuming the lives of both the good and the very bad.
Burke's stories never really change. That is the one problem with the books. Each particular work is outstanding but taken as a whole they appear quite repetitive. Names are unbelievably unique- Junior Crudup, Merchie Flannagan, Castille LeJeune, Sugar Bee Quibodeaux, among many others. After living for eight years in New Orleans, I have never come upon a set of names of the characters that populate a Burke novel. Nonetheless, they are so very realistic that the reader will truly feel they know each and every one before the end. Superb- just not unique to the author.

This is one of James Lee Burke's finest novels. Beautifully written as usual, with rich characterizations and descriptions of time and place. His depictions of tortured souls and the ambiguous conflict between good and evil leave the reader spiritually enriched and more thoughtful regarding the ills of society and the individual. There is no black and white. Nothing is clearcut and easily solved. And in the creation of Dave Robicheaux, the troubled and conflicted "hero" of these novels, Burke has given literature, not just the mystery genre, one of its most interesting and tragic figures. If you have never read James Lee Burke, begin with the first novel in this series and discover one our great American authors. I envy those who have the pleasure of doing so for the first time.