Last Car to Elysian Fields

The rough edges of James Lee Burke's story and Mark Hammer's voice make a fine pair. The Louisiana bayoux breed more trouble for Detective Dave Robicheaux. He digs up long forgotten crimes involving a blues musician and follows a twisting path to contemporary injustices, corruption, and deceit as mobsters and an IRA hit man make forays to New Iberia. Poor sound quality mars Hammer's fine inflective reading. Despite the muzzy sound, which ALMOST lends atmosphere, Hammer's rendition of the Louisiana misfits and miscreants is right on. The sound is distracting but not ruinous. And through it all, Burke's magical, descriptive prose flows freely--"like stars in a black rain barrel." R.F.W. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 11, 2003
Homicide detective Dave Robicheaux is pitted against a handsome, urbane war hero of a bad guy instead of the typical obscenely grotesque villain in this latest installment of Burke's stellar series, set in New Iberia, La. It's a shift in adversaries that forces Robicheaux to take a different tack than his usual uncontrolled tilting at the windmills of elusive justice. As in many of Burke's novels (A Stained White Radiance; In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead), current felonies are tied to a crime from the past. Here, Dave's friend Father Jimmie Dolan is being stalked by Irish hit man Max Coll; linked to this intrigue is the story of blues singer Junior Crudup, who entered the hell of Angola Penitentiary in the 1950s and was never heard from again. In present-day New Orleans, three teens die in a fiery crash after buying drinks at a drive-by daiquiri stand. Porn star Gunner Ardoin takes a beating from Dave's sidekick, Clete Purcel, who wreaks his usual havoc. Mysterious lady cop Clotile Arceneaux keeps popping in with advice, and a minor thug, Jumpin' Merchie Flannigan, is married to Robicheaux's old girlfriend Theodosha. These are just a scant few of the characters and subplots that thicken the deep and complex gumbo of Burke's story. The writing is beautiful, as always, laced with the author's signature descriptions: "the sepia-tinted light in the trees and on the bayou seemed to emanate from the earth rather than the sky." This is an outstanding entry in an excellent series. (Sept. 23)Forecast:A multi-city book tour should get the word out and help nudge Burke up a notch on bestseller lists.

November 3, 2003
Since Burke's last outing (Jolie Blon's Bounce
), hapless Louisiana lawman Dave Robicheaux has lost his wife to lupus and his bayou home has burned to the ground. Grieving and rootless, he takes on the troubles of others—namely an outspoken New Orleans priest who has been marked for murder, a black blues singer who entered Angola Prison in 1950 and disappeared and the father of a teenager who blames a liquor salesman for the drunk-driving accident that killed his daughter. In Robicheaux's world, all crimes can be laid at the doorsteps of the rich and powerful—in this case Castille LeJeune, a revered war hero who, according to one character, "owns about half the goddamn state." The seemingly disparate story lines interweave beautifully and are enhanced by flowing, poetic descriptions of everything from nature's wonder to man's brutality. Unfortunately, Hammer's delivery, though properly accented, sounds a decade too long in the tooth for the 50-something Robicheaux and is nasal enough at times to suggest that, along with his scripted woes, the detective is also suffering from a sinus condition. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover (Forecasts, Aug. 11).