A Stained White Radiance

March 30, 1992
Sadistic villains and interior demons plague Cajun police detective Dave Robicheaux as the murder of a local cop draws him into the painful conflicts of the Sonnier family, with whom he grew up near the bayous. Weldon Sonnier, an oil speculator perhaps involved with organized crime in New Orleans, is married to the sister of racist Louisiana politician Bobby Earl; Lyle Sonnier is a televangelist with a widely publicized gift of healing that antagonizes the detective, whose wife has lupus; Weldon and Lyle's sister, Drew, whom Robicheaux loved as a teenager, is New Iberia's liberal eccentric. Harshly abused as children, the Sonniers exert a strong pull on Robicheaux, whose desire to help pits him and his former New Orleans police department partner Cletus Purcel against southern Louisiana's fierce Mafia leader and his hired thugs, one of whom, Robicheaux observes, has a face with the ``moral depth and complexity of freshly poured cement.'' While attending AA meetings, trying to cope with both his response to his wife's illness and his moral rage at Earl's politicking, Robicheaux pursues killers through biker bars and unearths long-buried secrets in the Sonnier past. Burke ( A Morning for Flamingos ) resolves the complex case in a satisfying climax as Robicheaux comes to terms with social ills, the evil of individuals and his own helplessness to overcome them. $100,000 ad/promo.

A shooting brings back long-forgotten problems and bad memories for Iberia Parish sheriff Dave Robicheaux. An ex-CIA pilot, a television evangelist and a woman who has shared her bed with too many men offer the variety of a well-seasoned gumbo while the Louisiana swamp adds steaminess and mystique. Mark Hammer's well-paced reading is slow and Southern. But he doesn't always change tone or pitch to distinguish among characters, so listeners must pay close attention to the narration or lose track of who is speaking. J.L. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine