Customer Reviews

Purple Cane Road (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A few years ago, i was lucky enough to stumble upon a book reading by some guy named James Lee Burke. He read the first chapter of a Cajun Detective thriller and i was hooked. we (the audience) begged him to read two more chapters.

the beauty of Burke's writing is the carefully crafted gorgeous run on sentences (amazing in their delicacy of word choices) contrasted with the violence that spurts from his finely developed characters.

Purple Cane Road is the 17th (?) of his novels and almost perfect. (More on "almost" in a second). He brings to bear familiar characters (Bootsie, Batist, Alafair, Cletus Purcell, the Sherriff), but ties it to a core value of Burke's: family. Robicheaux, in the course of a typically brutal "investigation" by Clete, his best friend, hears that his mother was murdered by detectives from the New Orleans Police Department and that she was a hooker. While Robicheaux realizes that his mother was not a queen, he is shaken. A whore? Murdered? Murdered by the NOPD?

Luckily Robicheaux is still on the wagon or we would see him swirl into drink, despair... His AA outlook saves him.

Okay, I was disappointed in the lack of exploration of some of the characters. They are introduced but not fully explored -- if I had not read previous Robicheaux novels, they would have seemed hurried in their introduction.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the styling of the book gets a 9.5 -- the prose, the evocation of the scenes, the way i could practically smell the sea air/salt...

On a scale of 1 to 10, the action is a 10. Brutal, but realistic.

One item surprised me: Dave rarely talks about the daily life of being a police officer. In this novel, we get a few paragraphs on how difficult (the things you see, the people you interact with, the smell of it...) it can be to be a cop.

Whenever I finish a James Lee Burke novel or watch NYPD Blue, I think, Man, I wish I could craft something as clear, true and compelling as this.

While travelling through Missoula, MT this summer, I almost looked up James Lee Burke in the phone book, to call and say, "Thanks for creating such a robust, honest, tough character." But then I thought, heck, if he's like Robicheaux, he doesn't need my interruption. He wrote the book because he had demons to exercise and wanted to help people -- his written civil duty.

Buy it tonight. Don't plan on sleeping much.

Well, what a ride! PURPLE CANE ROAD is probably James Lee Burke's best Dave Robicheaux novel yet. That statement comes without qualification because I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the books in this series.

All the characters you have come to look forward to reading about are back again. There's Dave, Clete Purcell, Bootsie, Helen Soileau, Alafair and Batist. Even Tripod, Alafair's three legged pet racoon is still in the cast.

What Burke does exceptionally well with this novel is introduce more interesting characters to the mix. The story also deals with obsession(s) as Dave tries to clear a woman on Death Row while finding out who killed his mother more than 30 years before.

The violence that punctuates all of the novels in this series is also present here as well. Most noticeably, Clete Purcell, Dave's loyal former partner and always best-friend, seems to find more than his fair share of it. His excessive drinking and intemperate remarks and lifestyle continue in PURPLE CANE ROAD and it is during the moments when we read of these events that JLB interjects much of his pathos and humor. Clete is an extremely violent man, but it is also good to know that he is primarily on the side of right. God help the people of Louisiana if he were ever to cross over to the criminal side of the spectrum.

Dave Robicheaux is obssessed by the need to find out who killed his mother Mae in 1967. Readers of this series will remember that Dave's mother abandoned him for a bouree dealer when she left while Dave was still a small boy. As a grown man and a police officer, Dave struggles to do right by her memory by re-opening the unsolved 30 year old case. Along the way, he runs into the string of sociopaths that Burke is so fond of populating this series with.

All is not right in New Iberia Parish or in New Orleans, either. Cops and politicians are dirty and corrupt and James Lee Burke fully fleshes out the parasites who feed off power, money and the misfortune of others. This is a well-crafted and believeable novel, right through to the very end. When Burke leads the reader to the end of his story, there is a certain type of closure that Dave and the reader both receive. When the reader stops to consider the final outcome of the plot line, he/she will also realize that there is a certain balance to the scales of justice after all.

This was a fast read and the story gripped me right from the beginning. Unlike some of Burke's other books in this series, which start out slowly and speed up, this one asks the reader to climb aboard while the train is traveling down the track at 100 mph. When I finish these books, I wonder when Burke will bring us his next installment. This one left me thirsty for more on the detective and his cohorts in New Iberia, LA.

After reading PURPLE CANE ROAD, you'll never have to ask why James Lee Burke is one of only two authors to win the EDGAR AWARD twice. This man is a master of his craft and this book just proves it.

Paul Connors

Homicide detective, Dave Robicheaux, and his side-kick, private investigator, Clete Purcel are looking for Zipper Clum, a pimp who may have information to spare the life of death-row inmate, Letty Labiche. Upon finding him, Zipper makes a shocking accusation, one that will chill Robicheaux to the core.

Dave's mother was a "whore", who was killed in the sixties, and according to Zipper, she was killed by police officers.

Dave begins his own investigation into his mother's death, while still trying to find evidence that can spare Letty's life, but with witnesses on BOTH cases being killed, he realizes these two cases may be impossible, and at the same time he must go head to head with a killer who will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

This is the best entry yet, in the masterful Dave Robicheaux series. "Purple Cane Road" is well-written, and suspenseful throughout, it is peopled with colorful, and exciting characters, and maintains a sense of realism until the end.

James Lee Burke writes the kind of novels readers can get lost in, every sentence flows, while the plot boils to it's stunning conclusion.

A MUST read!

Nick Gonnella

Iberia Parish homicide detective Dave Robicheaux, accompanied by private sleuth Clete Purcel, seeks a New Orleans pimp Zipper Chum on a capital case. When the duo catches up with Zipper in Baton Rouge, he tosses a verbal hand grenade at Dave involving the police officer's missing mother. Zipper accuses cops on the take from the Giacanos mob of killing Mae Guillory (her maiden name), a whore, in the sixties.

Obsessed about what Zipper claims happened to his mother, Dave begins making inquiries into learning the truth, even at the cost of ignoring his family. Along the way, Dave begins to uncover new evidence on his "other" case that might free death row murderer Letty Labiche. However, as he makes progress on both cases, someone systemically kills his witnesses, making his mother's investigation impossible and probably leaving Labiche for the electric chair. The psychopath jump starts Dave into action when he targets the cop's daughter as one of his victims.

PURPLE CANE ROAD is the best Robicheaux tale to date and that is saying a lot since author James Lee Burke has two Edgars to his credit. The story line is crisp and exciting as expected from the novels in this series. However, this time the plot turns personal which allows the audience to see much of the inner sanctum of Dave's soul. One of the great, perhaps the greatest mystery writer of the past decade, Mr. Burke scores on all cylinders with this taut thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Although Purple Cane Road is worth reading, the Robicheaux series is losing its appeal. I
enjoyed the early books in the series but lost track of Burke some time after Dixie City Jam.
In rejoining the series with this book, several facts became strikingly clear. First, Burke
remains a skilled atmospheric writer. The bloodred skies, the gum trees and schooling fish,
the blowing rain and leaves, the physical appearance of the characters -- Burke can certainly
paint a scene. Second, Dave remains as humorless and grim and earnest and possessed by
""demons'' as ever, and frankly I'm tired of it. In 341 pages, I had one involuntary laugh.
(And that was when the sheriff made light of Dave's weirdness.) Didn't Marlowe and Lew Archer
have a similarly admirable (if unconventional) moral code, without having to beat everyone
over the head with it? No one is asking Dave to be a comic, but a lead character must be
appealing, and Dave isn't. Third, Burke still writes excellent, snappy, idiomatic dialogue.
It's great fun to read characters talking about about ""flushing'' someone's ""grits'' and
other colorful euphemisms for killing. Beyond these general observations, some specifics.
Other reviewers have pointed out that the Alafair infatuation is wholly unrealistic; I agree.
(I am also tired of Dave calling her ""Alf'' despite her wish going back several books that he
use her full name.) Cletus is on tilt, and that's fine; he's one of the main attractions of
the series. And as with others in the series, it doesn't pay to try to diagram all the plot
twists, or holes, in Purple Cane Road. Just read and enjoy. Burke has created Robicheaux and
he has to live with him; I don't. So although this was a fairly satisfying read, the
annoyances detailed here will keep me from running out to buy the next in the series.

I couldn't wait until the release of Purple Can Road. Detective Dave Robecheaux has gotten older over the years. I knew after the first 20 pages I was in for what might be his best. This is a wrenching story, but it's Burke's writing that is the star. Having read everything he's written, his style is almost like having someone read to you if you were blind. The words flow, no herky-jerky jolts of prose. He makes you feel the people and events long after you stop reading for awhile. His brilliant descriptions of a deep Louisiana culture stay with you after you turn out the lights. The man can write. His characters are sad people, but they get out and do the best they can. The people are believable, especially his trying to relate to his adopted daughter's feisty independence. For first time James Lee Burke readers, go back to the beginning of the Dave Robecheaux books starting with The Neon Rain and Heaven's Prisoners and come forward. I finished the book two days ago and I've been walking around kinda sad that I've got to wait another 1 to 2 years for his next one. James Lee Burke is a real friend, and I've never met the man.

I've read every Dave Robicheaux book written by James Lee Burke, and find that when I read one, I get out the road atlas and take a look at his Lousiana -- Burke's sense of place is so perfect, I need to put a finger on the map to deliver me closer to his bayous and cities.

A deeper and more introspective Robicheaux works his way through the secrets of his past, as they explode into the present, intermingling in the lives of those near and dear to him, both dead and alive.

Time is of vital importance in this book; the calender counts down the remaining days of a woman who may or may not deserve to be put to death for murder. Time past provides access to truths about Robicheaux's parents, a notorious local murder, even Vietnam and its effects on Robicheaux and others today.

Burke always juggles an assortment of colorful characters and seemingly unrelated plots. Regular readers know that there will be much murder and bloodshed before the conclusion that draws it all together.

One small beef, and why I will buck the crowds and give this book 4 stars instead of 5: Robicheaux and his buddy Clete Purcel are macho beyond compare, and that's fine - Burke writes great big manly books, full of action and energy; I always enjoy them.

But I think that his female characters, especially in this book, are getting sketchier and less fully drawn. Boots appears as almost an afterthought here, more as a sexual aside or a possession than a fully formed wife and partner (as she has been in books past).

Alf's behavior, in particular, seems vapid and not true to her knowledge of Dave's job, his character, and the violence in both their pasts.

Most of the Burke's male characters have history and are fully fleshed. Women play vital roles in this book, and we know very little about what makes some of the most important ones tick. That bothered me; I found myself, at the end of the book, feeling like I didn't know enough about some of these ladies to understand their actions, and thinking that maybe it could have been a better book with just a little more attention paid to the gals this time.

After a couple of lackluster novels that proved disappointing to his fans James Lee Burke has re-emerged as the most exciting and serious writer of popular fiction in America. Purple Cane Road, the new entry in his Dave Robicheaux series, proves to be one of his best ever. No one handles descriptive writing like Burke and while in some of his books the lush descriptive passages tend to overpower the plot, in Purple Cane Road all the elements are in balance. With a tight and complex plot, as well as a really fascinating cast of characters, this novel never loses focus and keeps the reader's attention to the very last page.

For long term fans of the series there are some special pleasures. The confrontations between Dave and his now adolescent adopted daughter, Alafair, have an absolute ring of truth that anyone who has had to live with a teenager will recognize. And another regular character of the series, Clete Purcel, finally gets his chance to shine. Purcel, who does for Robicheaux what Robert Parker's Hawk does for Spenser - provide the occassional dose of serious violence to the bad guys and serve generally as back-up man and old friend, expands his regular role to include a fateful love affair with another of the characters. It is a side of Clete not shown before and makes him all the more interesting and human. And at the heart of the story is the mystery of the disappearance of Dave's mother when he was a child - an old theme that has emerged in Burke's books before but was never central to the plot until this one. Dave, who is always preoccupied with his past, has a chance to solve this mystery and put some of his personal ghosts to flight.

All in all this was a wonderful reading experience and I would highly recommend this book both to those who know Burke's writing and especially to those who have never experienced him.

Sometimes I feel like I simply cannot wait for Burke's latest Robicheaux. Never, but never have I been disappointed! "Purple Cane Road" has it all -- an old murder, and a newer one wherein the female killer is on death row, never mind that the victim needed killing. The old murder was that of Robicheaux's mother and new information on her death falls into his lap as he searches for anything exculpatory to get Letty Labiche off death row. Every lead he follows in search of his mother's killer seems to lead back to organized crime and dirty cops back in the Big Sleazy. The situation isn't helped any by Clete Purcell's falling for Passion Labiche, sister of Letty. Passion Labiche. Do you love it?! In this book, Clete's behavior is spiraling increasingly out of control, while Dave Robicheaux has his own demons to wrestle, not the least of which is his inherent propensity for violence. There is a lot of bloodshed as the pieces fall into place and the perpetrators are brought to one sort of justice or another.

The writing is as always crisp, strong, and poetic, so descriptive that one can almost smell the blood and sweat and brackish water and the steamy rain as it falls on a tin roof by a Louisiana bayou. This is a seamy tale, but another great one, and I absolutely adored it.

If you are new to James Lee Burke, "Purple Cane Road" would be a good place to start. The moody, broody Dave Robicheaux collects a clue concerning the long ago murder of his mother while trying to get a friend off death row. The steamy Louisiana bayous are an ever-present background to Dave's search. The story is quickly paced in spite of the subplots and diversions.

The characterizations are unforgettable: Clintonesque Governor Belmont Pugh, sidekick Clete Purcel who has no sense of proportion (if a little disturbance is good, a full-scale riot is better!), more than slightly mad Mrs. Cora Gable, and John Reneta, a hit man like no other. The low life scum of New Orleans and New Iberia are delightful cameos. Sometimes they are far more attractive than the citizens who are the pillars of the community.

Though there are a few places where the solutions are a mite slick, the overall strength and great story weaving overcome any minor flaws. Best of all, Dave Robicheaux makes a good companion and friend. You get to do all the talking, as Dave is a man of very few words. A great read.