The Tin Roof Blowdown

If this isn't the best iteration of the long-running Will Patton/James Lee Burke audio collaboration, it has set the bar very high. Patton's Detective Dave Robicheaux sounds gruff, philosophical, and human while Robicheaux's childhood friend, Clete, an ex-cop, alcoholic PI, and loose cannon, has a dark, gravel voice that seems to come from Patton's ankles. Clete is tracking some bail bond skips who turn out to have committed a string of other vicious crimes before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, including rape, murdering a priest, and burglarizing the house of the city's toughest mobster. (Mistake.) Burke's portrait of shattered New Orleans itself is heartbreaking--but for sheer evil, the bland, warm-custard voice Patton gives psychopath Ronald Bledsoe will scare your socks off. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, AudioFile Best Audiobook of 2007 (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 27, 2007
The pain, dismay and anger brought on by the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina explodes from the pages of this new Dave Robicheaux novel. For nearly a quarter of a century, Burke has used this series, despite their dark subject matter, to show his obvious love of the land, the people and the cultures of the South and specifically New Orleans. There is a mystery for Robicheaux to solve, but it's the destruction of Burke's beloved New Orleans that resonates like thunder throughout the book. Will Patton, who has come to embody the heart and soul of Burke's weary, Southern knight, matches the author's prose in all its intensity and pain. Adept as he is at portraying the eccentric, the evil and the endearing characters found in Burke's books, it is the actor's reading of Burke's descriptive passages, whether it be a storm forming off the Louisiana coast or the shock of blood escaping from a gunshot wound, that creates a fully realized world for the listener. Patton's insightful interpretation of Burke's darkly expressive imagery makes for a rich literary experience rarely achieved in crime fiction today. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover (Reviews, May 21).

TIN ROOF is a stunning elegy to New Orleans and the physical and cultural losses suffered by all of south Louisiana from the devastations of Katrina. Burke's novels read by Will Patton, as nearly a dozen have been, are perfect partnerships. Patton exquisitely captures the visceral and vivid prose style. He makes the crooks and psychopaths menacing and utterly frightening, and the descriptions of the bayou and the pecan trees lyrical and dazzling. It's part accent, part pace and inflection, but also a sure grasp of the razor-edged slang from characters like bail-skip locator Clete Purcell. This well-crafted abridgment focuses on Dave Robicheaux's assignment in New Orleans to investigate the murder of a looter, whose death is inevitably tangled with other remarkable characters. Listeners can wholly enjoy the short form or delight in seeking out the full version of this Burke-Patton success. R.F.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine