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Purple Cane Road (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries (Paperback)) Mass Market Paperback – May 8, 2001

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James Lee Burke (Author)
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James Lee Burke (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 250 customer reviews
Book 11 of 20 in the Robicheaux Series
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Product Details

  • Series: Dave Robicheaux Mysteries (Paperback)
  • Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Dell (May 8, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0440224047
  • ISBN-13: 978-0440224044
  • Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (250 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsas usual, James Lee Burke delivers
By LovetoreadinLA on August 2, 2000
Format: Hardcover
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.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsThe Best Robicheaux Book Yet!
By P. Connors on November 27, 2000
Format: Hardcover
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.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsTHE BEST YET!
By Nick G on August 4, 2000
Format: Hardcover
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
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent
By A Customer on August 4, 2000
Format: Hardcover
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
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsRiveting

I truly believe Burke is America's finest living writer. Everything he writes is outstanding. I have read a majority of his books and thoroughly enjoyed them all.

Published 29 days ago by Richard Weishaupt
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

Not a typical Burke novel.

Published 1 month ago by Bruce MacMaster
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent read. Never a dull moment

Excellent read. Never a dull moment.

Published 2 months ago by Jack Midkiff
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

excellent

Published 2 months ago by John
5.0 out of 5 starsGREAT VIEW OF LIFE

Great book.This is the first novel by this author that i have come across.I AM HOOKED!!!!!!! I p I will enjoy many more

Published 2 months ago by Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 starsGood read

Good ole boys

Published 2 months ago by milinda johnson
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

The plot is good but he over describes everye

Published 3 months ago by Ken Pecarsky
5.0 out of 5 starsJames Burke is one of my favorite writers. His words have a beauty...

James Burke is one of my favorite writers. His words have a beauty that belies the nastiness of life. A kind of balance that delights.

Published 3 months ago by gail b
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

No

Published 3 months ago by wolverine
5.0 out of 5 starsAnother Great Read

I love all of his books, no matter who the characters are but I especially love the Dave Robicheaux character. I lived in New Orleans for 5 yrs. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Teri L. Dysarz

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