Jolie Blon's Bounce: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

With each successive novel, James Lee Burke delves deeper into the human psyche, and more deeply into his main protaganist, Dave Robicheaux.
Jolie Blon's Bounce centers around Robicheaux trying to connect two seemingly unconnected murders, one a teenager from a farming family, the other a strung-out prostitute. Around this plot swirl a typical rogues gallery of characters that enter Robicheaux's sphere: Tee Bobby Hulin, a blues guitarist and singer who pens the song that becomes the book's title. Jimmy Dean Styles, an ex-boxer and current bar owner and music producer, Marvin Oates, a seemingly innocent bible salesman, Sal Angelo, a Viet Nam vet who may have been with Dave's unit, and one of the nastiest characters Burke has brought to life, the former plantation overseer known simply as "Legion." There is also a duo of lawyers, Perry LaSalle, whose grandfather owned a pepper plantation, and Barbara Shanahan, a beautiful but angry woman who gets involved with Dave's pal Clete Purcel. Throw in some drug dealers, crooked cops, New Orleans mafia and a woman with secrets and you have a dark tale that will have you turning page after page.
Burke's strengths continue in this book: Beautiful prose depicting the Louisiana landscape or gritty descriptions of those who inhabit this otherworldly place. The dialogue smacks you in the face. The characters show multiple dimensions and always have a surprise in store for Dave or the reader. The story works on multiple levels, with the murder mystery nearly secondary to the inner story as Dave uncovers the connection between Legion, LaSalle and Tee Bobby Hulin, and other connections.
My knocks would be that old Streak is getting very close to the edge of not being likable. He's a very flawed character, self-righteous to a fault, fighting off the constant urge to drink, but what bothers me is that he can't seem to have a conversation with a single person without insulting them, no matter how polite they are to him. What is it with this guy? Still, I root for him and there are some things that happen in this story that no one should have to endure.
Bring on Last Car to Elysian Fields!

Like many of the Dave Robicheaux books, this one is filled with violent people, many of whom the best can be said is that some day they will kill and be killed by one of their own kind. It's the in-between time that the rest of us have to be fearful. This one starts out with the murder of two woman in a similar way, both have been beaten brutally and raped prior to being murdered.

But the real story is the one that follows Dave around during the whole of the investigation into the murders, and that is how do you deal with real evil without becoming part of the pattern. Dave almost goes off the wagon by taking pills after he is brutally beaten by a man who is proud to go by the name "Legion". Legion is one of the devil's disciples/minions who is mentioned in the "Book of Revelations". So there is a lot, a lot of allegory going on in this book about people and the sources of evil and what people do to aide and abet evil.

In the end, the story plays out pretty much the way you expect it to if you've read any of the previous books by JLB, but this one ends with a quirky bit about a criminal that Dave calls the "Easter Bunny". EB is an albino who doesn't just break into peoples houses he does so for many reasons. In one segment Dave tells how EB broke into a Pet Store, and stole two large South American parrots. He then breaks into the house of a well-known ex-KKK leader (who is overseas), steals his computer records (which he sends to the FBI and IRS) and lets the birds loose in the guys house (they of course leave 'deposits' all over the place). I hope he brings this character back sometime in the near future.

All in all, though it is a little heavy handed at times, and has more violence than I think is necessary (IMHO), it's an enjoyable story.

As deptuty sheriff of New Iberia, Louisiana, Dave Robicheaux lives in the dark heart of the American swamplands. After years of being a drunk, a Vietnam vet with horrible memories of the war, and time spent as a homicide detective in New Orleans, which was once the murder capital of the United States, Robicheaux is innured to the inhumanity people can show toward each other. However, when two young women in the community are murdered and Robicheaux is victimized by a man that is truly the nastiest villain to come along in mystery fiction in years, the Louisiana lawman takes up the hunt with a grim vengeance burning in his heart. The distance that Robicheaux keeps himself at during most investigations is stolen from him by Legion Guidry, who seems to have climbed up from the deepest pits of Hell. One of the young women is innocent, a child of god-fearing parents who have never done anything wrong in their lives. The other young woman is a prostitute whose father is a Mafia hitman. While Robicheaux is motivated by guilt for not seeing Tee Bobby Hulin as the culprit in the first girl's murder and a need to see justice done for her parents, Joe Zeroski the Mafia hitman starts out on a campaign of retributions and scorched earth that promises violence that will draw in many more people. Legion Guidry hovers in the shadows around both murders, and Robicheaux becomes the greatest threat to the man.
James Lee Burke is a master of the Southern Gothic crime novel. His descriptions of places, people and events roll from the tongue. His books are actually a pleasure to read aloud, if one is so inclined; and the audiobooks read by Will Payton are absolutely the best because Payton has a natural honeyed pecan Southern drawl. Burke maintains two series characters at present. Dave Robicheaux sheriffs New Iberia (PURPLE CANE ROAD, DIXIE CITY JAM, BLACK CHERRY BLUES), and Billy Bob Holland divides his lawyerly duties between Texas and Montana (BITTERROOT, HEARTWOOD, CIMARRON ROSE). Burke has also written several stand-alone novels (LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD, HALF OF PARADISE, THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE, THE CONVICT, TO THE BRIGHT AND SHINING SEA, and TWO FOR TEXAS). His second Robicheaux books, HEAVEN'S PRISONERS, was made into a movie of the same name that starred Alec Baldwin.
Every James Lee Burke novel is an exercise in emotion and description that sandwiches layers of internal moral investigation. Robicheaux exists as a man with a keen world view and a need to help clean up whatever injustice he can. In this novel, Robicheaux is shown as being capable of being the grandest hero around, while had the same time staving off impulses to be as bad in ways as the villains he pursues. The pacing of the novel is impeccable, keeping the reader hooked while developing other characters and suspects, and proving once more that no crime is created wholly in a vacuum. The dialogue bristles, funny and sad and hurtful all at the same time. Clete Purcell's own substory runs as a sharp counterpoint to everything that Robicheaux encounters and already has. The glimpses Burke provides into Louisiana of forty and fifty years ago is awesome, and provides the anchor for so many of the things that still go on in that part of the world. Louisiana has deep roots as far as the history of the United States goes, and not all of those roots are clean and untarnished. Still, they are part of what made those lives, that state, and this country what it is. Making mistakes, realizing those were mistakes, and building toward a better tomorrow remains a constant message in all of Burke's books. The friendships Burke distills into his characters on the pages are real, but so is the darkest evil he unveils, and that is probably the most unsettling aspect of his work. Sitting down with a new Burke novel is a lot like sitting down with an old friend with a new but not too dissimilar story to tell. Burke has definitely got another winner in JOLIE BLON'S BOUNCE.
Only one aspect of the story got perhaps a shorter shrift than some readers may have wished for. Bootsie, Robicheaux's wife, and Alafair, his adopted daughter, have conversations and involvement with Robicheaux that help him tip the scales in his fight against the alcoholism that wars within him. The scenes were shorter than some readers will want, because both Robicheaux and Burke are deep family men with definite views. Many will wish for more of the family interaction.
JOLIE BLON'S BOUNCE is a crackling good crime novel. Readers of Robert B. Parker, Robert Crais, Elmore Leonard will find the same deeply resonant male figure/protector here that the first two writers offer, plus a tour of the fractured and sometimes dark psyche of men who take on the violent burdens of others. In addition to the suspense and pacing, the view of the characters and their places in their world, Burke also offers up some of the best reading anywhere. The sentences flow and the descriptions sing.

"That night I lay in the dark, sleepless, the trees outside swelling with the wind, the canopy in the swamp trembling with a ghostly white light from the lightening in the south. I had never felt more alone in my life. Once again, I burned, in almost a sexual fashion, to wrap my fingers around the grips and inside the steel guard of a heavy, high caliber pistol, to smell the acrid order of cordite, to tear loose from all the restraints that bound my life and squeezed the breath from my lungs.
And I knew what I had to do."
While I like James Lee Burke and admire his writing ability tremendously, his books usually bother me. His writings will never be confused with happy ever after endings and are full of characters that for the most part, are full of various stages of moral decay. He has an ability to gaze at the world and write about things that haunt us all. In his world, evil is a spectral presence and truly does lurk in the heart of most people. His latest book is even more in that vein with a strongly implied supernatural component to it.
Dave Robicheaux, a Police Detective in New Iberia, Louisiana has seen quite a lot of evil in the world. From the jungles of Vietnam, to the back alleys of New Orleans and now home in New Iberia, he has seen man and woman brutalize and kill total strangers as well as those they profess to love. One late spring day, he is called out to the scene of a brutal rape and murder. The initial suspect is Tee Bobby Hulin, a heavy drug user as well as an accomplished blues singer. While the evidence, what little there is, does point to him, Robicheaux does not believe he did it.
Robicheaux begins to investigate and begins to unravel a horrifying mess of interwoven racial ancestry by rape, murder, and greed. As he digs, he discovers a man known only as "Legion" to both the black and white population of New Iberia and who has haunted his nightmares since the age of twelve is deeply involved. Legion soon begins to haunt his waking hours as well and Deal begins to wonder is he is reachable and stoppable in a human way.
This is another complex and multi themed novel by James Lee Burke and features all the usual cast of characters familiar to readers of the series. Despite the fact that this is a long running series, the author manages to unveil new wrinkles not only in the Robicheaux character but as well in several of the other major characters. His long running characters are not the static unchanging cutouts seen in some nay other works, but instead constantly evolve and change based on experience just like real human beings.
At the same time, he is weaving various themes such as the nature of good and evil, are humans born evil, etc into the work. That ability along with his colorful prose and intense action make for interesting reading. This is another powerful book with a tremendous amount of sorrow and lament while at the same time a tremendous amount of inspiration concerning the ability of good people to endure the evil visited upon them through no fault of their own.

This novel will probably get mixed reviews, but I think it is a must read for anyone who appreciates the humane vision which has developed in Burke's remarkable string of novels. It is a bit difficult to determine where this book fits into the extensive Robicheaux world which the author has created. It does not demonstrate the dash of earlier novels, nor the deep personal introspection of very recent works. The novel opens with a rape-murder, and characters begin the inevitable hunt for a "why." The plot suggests that the irrational force of a generational working out of evil is as strong a motive for crime as many sociological reasons. In his recent novel, Purple Cane Road, Burke presented a view back into Dave Robicheaux' formative youth; this novel at hand is not so concerned with biographical psychology. Yet it continues Burke's exploration of how one lives in a world created not just by one's own past but by the entangling strands of historical circumstance. It seems the author has expanded his purpose past this complex character to a more extensive world.
This is a well made work. The mystical musings of Electric Mist are here also, along with historical trappings( a Confederate Battle Flag in its glass case) associated with important characters. The cast is an ecclectic lot: a character whose life has been incarnated evil, a bible salesman who drags his case of wares on a skate, and a homeless vet; all of whom mingle with familiar New Orleans underworld and New Iberia "courthouse square" types in a dark novel posing deeper questions about violence than the "bon temps" attitude of earlier novels. Ironic situations and pairings of characters abound as individuals' purposes lead to momentary alliances constucting a textured plot. This is a philosophical piece, but bayou descriptions, and other telling moments ( for example, the sheriff tapping the heels of his hands on his desk chair as he confronts Dave)are admirable craftsman's work.
It is clear that Burke does not intend his hero to live changeless, spending endless days bream fishing, to be called out from his party for a caper or two. Far from being a formula hero, Dave Robicheaux, in his growing understanding of his moral response to life's changes is a touchstone for readers' emotions and actions. After all, Alafair is off to college.

Burke's mix of local color and great plotting, served up with a style that is crisp and vivid, have made him a favorite of readers and fellow mystery novelists. And he keeps getting better, a dozen novels into a series. The new book presents us with two violent crimes against women. Serial killer? The prime suspect is a brilliant young musician, the man you want to be the killer is a rich white kid. Hovering in the background is Burke's sleaziest, nastiest villain in years.
Burke never deals in cliches, though his characters might. The second victim is the daughter of a Mafia hit man, and one of the most startling and engaging elements of the story is the humanization of the grieving father. When the crimes resolve into solutions, we lose some people we care about. And one villian gets justice in a form we can only shake our heads over.
Robicheaux suffers a disgusting humiliation in this book, and his family is rocked by the result. I listened to another mystery writer recently ascribe the appeal of his books to the fact that his hero is a nice normal guy with a nice normal family. Well, maybe so, but Burke has gotten tremendous mileage out of something a bit more challenging. Watching Alafair grow, seeing the strength of Bootsie's love for her scarred man, feeling their pain as they cope with the literal scars of her incurable illness, have made this series the best around for a decade. Let's hope for a few more.

When teenager Amanda Boudreau is murdered in New Iberia, Louisiana, the evidence points to Tee Bobby Hulin, a gifted musician but a crackhead and general ne'er-do-well. Detective Dave Robicheaux is not convinced, though. Then there is another murder, this time of the drug-addicted daughter of a local Mafia figure, and Tee Bobby is again implicated. Robicheaux still doubts the evidence and continues to investigate when he crosses paths with the mysterious and malevolent Legion Guidry, an elderly former plantation overseer. Robicheaux questions his own sanity when his instincts tell him that Legion is pure evil in human form.
Meanwhile, Robicheaux's sidekick, Clete Purcell, is having woman troubles, and competition in the person of cracker ex-con Bible salesman Marvin Oates. Even Robicheaux's own attorney, Perry LaSalle, is behaving strangely in the wake of the two murders. They all have secrets and present different faces to different people, and it's up to Robicheaux to navigate the labyrinthe, pick out the necessary pieces, and put it all together.
And who better than James Lee Burke to throw it all out there, knead it and meld it with his dark and menacing poetry, and then pull it all together with brilliant finesse. This may be Dave Robicheaux's darkest voyage yet but, boy, what a ride. The atmosphere, rife with human suffering and the nature of evil, is very intense and roiling with preternatural undercurrents, with an ending that is both shocking and just.

To categorize this book as a mystery is like clumping Haagen-Daz in the same category as cheap sherbet. Sorry. Not the same thing. These characters are alive and fresh and memorable. The settings resonate with sights and sounds and smells. The beauty of Louisiana juxtapositioned with the evil of the criminal world is a heady mix. As always, I'm impressed by Burke's ability. I feel like I'm repeating myself: James Lee Burke is a master of imagery, be it violent and dark, or moving and poetic. I can't help myself. To read his work is to fall in love with the language. With this in mind, it's true that I tend to overlook his meandering plots and psychological side-trips. For me, they make his books much more real and down to earth than the general formulaic mysteries.
In this particular story, we see Dave Robicheaux dealing with his inner demons, as always--this time in the form of pills. But it's the same white worm eating at him and driving anger to the surface. As usual, his emotions boil over into his job and cause trouble. The difference this time is that Robicheaux is dealing with other demons than his own. He's dealing with Legion, an old man, hard as nails and full of darkness. The supernatural aspects that come into play, particularly at the conclusion were, for me, very satisfying and remarkably well handled. Other reviewers have derided these elements; I found them to be the original touch this series needed. Others complained of sexual situations that were unnecessary; I was moved to tears by Bootsie's tenderness to her man in need of assurance. Robicheaux, behind his tough exterior, is a man of flesh and blood and emotion. Thankfully, James Lee Burke is too. It's the reason I keep reading his stuff. After "Purple Cane Road," I'd rate this near the top of the series.

Aside from Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan", Burke's Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux is my favorite character in current popular fiction. Robicheaux and his familiar cast of characters are in top form, as is Burke's writing, in JOLIE BLON'S BOUNCE.

The synopsis for the story is already available here, but to me the most intriguing part of the book is the cast of characters. Legion Guidry is one of the most interesting, formidable, and flat out frightening characters that Burke has created throughout the series. Is he just a bad man, is he possessed...what IS wrong with him? He's possibly the only adversary that Dave Robicheaux has had that truly scared him. Of course the constant sidekick for Dave throughout all of the novels has been his former partner and friend Clete Purcel. Clete has always been interesting and at times hilarious, but this book shows perhaps better than any other the connection that these two have. Clete has been the only constant for Dave throughout everything, and their friendship really adds a lot to the series.

Burke's writing and prose is at its best. The beautiful descriptive prose, believable characters, plausible plot, and exciting action combine for what may be his best overall effort since 1990's award-winning BLACK CHERRY BLUES.

Not a long read, at 349 pages, but a fast and exciting one. Fully recommended. Enjoy!

I used to look forward to the next Dave Robicheaux book like I looked forward to Christmas when I was a child. I used to feel the same anticipation, the same thrill I would feel upon waking too early to go into the living room to see what Santa had brought. I would buy the new James Lee Burke novel and rush to get it home, sneaking looks at the dust jacket, reading the first few pages while waiting in line to get on the bus and finally arriving home to immerse myself. They were wonderful, yes, well-written and poetic, with a dark, malevolent beauty hiding beneath the rot and detritus of the swamps and rural backwaters, but they were more than that. They were like mini-trips to Louisiana for me, a place I love and visit whenever I can. And they were a new treat from a favorite author, something that was new to me, as many of the writers I discovered in my youth were long dead and would be producing no more books.
These days, a new Dave Robicheaux novel is like a phone call from a distant aunt. It's nice to hear from her, but she keeps telling the same old stories over and over again and you wind up preferring that maybe the calls were less frequent, or of shorter duration. "Jolie Blon's Bounce" is like that. It's still Burke and it's still welcome, but you've heard all the stories, read all the lovely descriptions, wondered about the vaguely supernatural elements, thrilled at Dave's headstrong determination to do exactly the most self-destructive thing at any given moment, despite what his family, friends and colleagues tell him. There's nothing new.
The story is about a poor black person accused of a crime and the rich white people who have a dark secret and may actually be the criminals. No, wait. That's ALL of them. Let's try it again...
"Jolie Blon's Bounce" finds Dave investigating the murders of a young, white, teenaged girl and of a prostitute, the daughter of a New Orleans gangster. Everyone figures local hophead and musician Tee Bobby Hulin as the murderer; everyone except Dave, who wants so much to believe in the boy's innocence that he follows a few unorthodox leads.
Along the way he encounters Legion Guidry, a former plantation manager who may or may not be the demon Legion from the Bible, a man who violates and twists his way through New Iberia like a thread of mold. He threatens, bullies, beats and kills any number of people before turning his charms on Dave himself, who nearly does not come away from the encounter intact.
Throw in Clete Purcell, Dave's old partner, the Private Investigator daughter of another mobster, a malevolent Bible salesman, the prostitute's grieving father, the local police, and Dave's curiously bitchy family and you have a nice, murky roux, full of red herrings, macguffins and dead ends.
As usual, Dave sews it all up in his unique, ethically challenged way. But what has begun to strike me about these books is how surly and dislikeable is the lead character. Dave barely communicates his thoughts to anyone, is rude and disrespectful to people he doesn't like and is merely grumpy and hostile to people he loves. He pontificates to those close to him, all the while dipping his toe in the same toxic water from which he warns them. With each new book I wonder why his wife Bootsie hasn't filed for divorce - they only seem to have sex when she's mad at Dave and they don't talk or show affection any other time. Dave's daughter, Alafair, once a cool character, has grown into a charmless teenager who finds every reason to pick a fight and no reason to show us, the reader, what a great guy Dave is under the surface. If you liked the other books in the series, you are bound to like this one, but be warned: the books are getting darker and I'm not sure even Dave can see the light anymore.

I have read most everything that James Lee Burke has written. I have said in an earlier review that there can not be a finer descriptive author currently writing. When Burke writes about the swamp you can feel the humidity and smell the water and hear the crickets. When he writes about a summer thunder storm you can smell the wet on the pavement and feel the vapor rising into the air.
I must add to this Burke's ability to creat believeable characters filled with all the human faults and gifts we see in people around us. Gritty is descriptive but falls short of what I want to convey.
Jolie Blon's Bounce involves two murders. One of a innocent teenage girl and the other of a prostitute who is related to the mob. The main suspect is Tee Bobby Hulin, a gifted musician who, despite hit gift, seems to be on the road to self imposed ruin. But Dave is not convinced of Hulin's guilt and Burke provides us with an array of possible bad guys. One, perhaps the most evil character yet devised by Burke, is Legion, a former overseer of a large farm and molester of black women, who bests Dave in a physical confrontation and then demeans him in a way that will surprise you. You won't believe this guy.
Speaking of surprises, the outcome surprised me.
If you've liked other Burke books then you'll like this one.

When I used to live in Illinois, my favorite vacation places were New Orleans and Las Vegas. I ended up vacationing in Las Vegas about a dozen times, and eventually moved there. New Orleans, on the other hand, was visited a half dozen times, and each time the verdict was "Visit, yes, live there, definitely not". This book gives some great illustrations to back up that thinking.
Yes, the food is unsurpassed in New Orleans. In fact, it's my favorite form of cooking. The incredible influence of music on just about everybody just about turns the corner to make one one to be there more often. And nobody throws a party quite like this town. So what's the problem?
Well, the book will tell you, there is a staggering amount of dirt and garbage thrown about the town. I did not know that politicians will take money to have hazardous waste buried in the state, often in rural black areas. But I did experience the whopping 8+ percent sales tax, which includes food, which puts a big burden on the poor, while the wealthier get incredible tax breaks. They take a back seat to nobody when it comes to political corruption.
It's also a dangerous town. I know my new town has it's own problem, but New Orleans, while being transient, is also a port town, which adds to the potential undesirables it draws. When night falls on the city, many, many people are already camping out for the night, sleeping on the filthy sidewalks, often surrounded by trash. The murder rate is sky high. This really puts a strain on even the toughest tourist.
This is the New Orleans described in this book, which, by the way, is a pretty good, if gory murder mystery. Well, not exactly a mystery, because the bad guys are pretty much known, but the baddest of them all, a character named Legion, also shows another dark aspect of the city. This is the subjugation of blacks, who had it the roughest here during slave days, and still have some of the worst cards dealt to them out of any state in the country. The evil part that Legion plays in the story makes for fascinating reading while making a commentary about the area.
Please notice the four stars. While all the above may sound negative, it's not. The book is great because the author has laid out this type of world. The one that doesn't exist in the travel brochures, but is readily visible to any visitor.

This was my introduction to James Lee Burke, and refers to the audio version. Actually, I enjoyed the reader of this audiobook about 98% of the time, but occasionally the Southern drawl was overdone to the point where it became difficult or impossible to decipher the words being spoken. Though the characters were new to me, Burke does a good job writing enough bits of background to gain some understanding of their character. Burke really does write in a style that draws you in to enjoying his descriptions of the Bayou, the trees and swamps, without feeling the story is dragging. When Burke's narrative digresses, there's always a link back to a character's background, motivation, or to building a sense of background atmosphere and history.
This certainly wouldn't be categorized as a forensic thriller, as there's a surprising shortage of "detecting" going on, but ultimately there are enough clues put together for a definitive solution to one murder. The second murder has a somewhat less satisfying resolution -- we "know" who the culprit is, but the proof just isn't there.
Legion, the evil character with vertical lines giving his face a distinctive appearance, meets an end that is a little bit quick, easy, and borders on mystical contrivance. I also found the medic, Sal, to play a role that provides a curious twist. Granted, Sal has been on the scene through much of the book, but then seems to come out of left field when his character is needed, then recedes back into mystery.
Despite these minor issues, I greatly enjoyed Jolie Blon's Bounce, and want to read more of Burke's titles featuring Dave Robicheaux and get to know these characters more. If I try another audiobook, I wouldn't mind a reader who's a little easier to understand and perhaps give more differentiation between voices of different characters.

"Jolie Blon's Bounce," (2002), was apparently the twelfth novel published by American author James Lee Burke in his mighty New York Times bestselling Detective Dave Robicheaux series. Like the earlier books of the series, and most of the series' works to follow, the book, a Southern noir, police procedural/mystery, is set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, more or less home country for Burke, who was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast.

A beautiful teenage girl is killed, the victim of a particularly savage rape. Robicheaux believes from the start of his investigation that the most likely suspect, a talented but troubled, drug-addicted, down on his luck, mixed-race musician, Tee Bobby Hulin, is not the killer. Tee Bobby just doesn't seem quite capable of these brutal crimes. Then another murder victim is found -- this victim a drugged-out prostitute who happens to be the daughter of one of the local mafia bigwigs - and the clues once again point to Tee Bobby Hulin. Finally, the cries for the musician's arrest become too loud to ignore. The dead prostitute's father, however, prefers to take matters in his own hands and sets out to find -- and punish -- the killer himself.

Robicheaux is still employed by the Sheriff's Office of New Iberia, Louisiana, a smaller quieter town near New Orleans. His partner there is still the thought-to-be lesbian Helen Soileau. He still lives in the house his father built. He is living with his third wife Bootsie, then still alive, but fighting lupus; and his adopted daughter Alafair, who is applying to colleges and hoping to be accepted by, and get a scholarship from, Reed College, Oregon. Robichaux is still also working his nearby boat and bait shop, assisted by Batist, the black man who works there with him, whom we have met many times before and will again. Alafair's pet Tripod, the three-legged raccoon, is very much around. And, to be sure, Clete Purcell, Robicheaux's former partner on the New Orleans Police Department, an overweight, heavily-drinking, brawling, heavily-scarred survivor of the city's tough Irish Channel neighborhood, (as are the inevitable New Orleans gangsters in any work of Burke's), is always around to help the detective. Robicheaux is of Cajun ancestry, and is still reliving the nightmare of his service in Vietnam. He has a drinking problem, and a tendency to violence that is exaggerated by his friend and alter-ego Purcel.

This book around, the inevitable New Orleans wise guy, father to the murdered prostitute Linda, is Joe Zeroski, typical of Burke's mobsters in that he, too, comes out of the Irish Channel neighborhood, and has been known to the detective Robichaux since their childhoods. And we get Burke's frequently raised thought that the working class Irish Channel accent resembles more, in its heavy Irish influence, the well-known Brooklyn accent than a Southern one. Robichaux's half-brother Jimmie is mentioned for the first time in several books, as is "Streak," the nickname both have been known by in their own circles, referring to a white streak in their dark hair, the result of childhood malnutrition.

Perry La Salle is the wealthy and powerful local land-owning blue blood, handsome, well-educated, and of prominent, formerly slave-holding family. La Salle is ruthless and greedy, doesn't care whom he hurts - also a frequent attribute of Burke's similarly situated rich men. And as is also a frequent occurrence in Burke's work, the beautiful, historic La Salle house has been burned down, and Mrs. La Salle killed within it. Only this time around, rather than it's being the denouement of the book, as it often is, it happens early in the story, the Mrs. LaSalle killed is Perry's mother, rather than his wife; and the fire and her death drive the story. The psychotic, odd-looking bad guy this time is Legion Guidry, former overseer at the LaSalle plantation: furthermore, people keep hinting he has more than human powers. We run into a fellow calling himself Sal Anthony, who claims to be from Staten Island, New York City; and further claims to be the medic who saved Robichaux's life in Vietnam. And Burke continues to give us the odd grotesque character, a sure hallmark of Southern gothic literature. Here it is Marvin Oates, a frequent Burke type in his southern cornpone sexual confusion. Oates is a door to door bible salesman, and men who follow that calling are often major characters in southern literature, as anyone who has read Flannery O'Connor can tell you. Or The Bible Salesman: A Novel, by local author Clyde Edgerton.

Well, you can see, there's a lot of familiar material in this series' entry. And, as he was apparently doing around this time, Burke is dropping little hints of the supernatural here and there, most unwelcome to me. Still, Burke continues to write with energy, passion and power enough to hook most readers, and keep them turning the pages. Perhaps, more than anything else, in Burke's work, we'll enjoy some of the most beautiful, knowledgeable writing ever committed to paper about the flora, fauna, geography, and human occupants of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, now so much in the news. Burke attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute; later received B. A. and M. A. degrees from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, a pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U. S. Job Corps. His work has twice been awarded an Edgar for Best Crime Novel of the Year. At least eight of his novels, including this one, have been New York Times bestsellers.

As a native Cajun from Lafayette and Vermillion Parish now living in New York, reading this book (my first Burke novel) was in many ways like being home. Burke has the culture, the dialect and diction, everything about Acadiana down cold. Brilliant writing and I can't wait to start Elysian Fields. However, the ending of Jolie Blon's Bounce for me was anti-climactic. I was anxiously anticipating a showdown between Legion Guidry and Dave Robichaux and instead, Guidry is struck by lightning! I had to re-read this section of the book twice more to be sure I hadn't misinterpreted the outcome.

I did find the character of Sal Angelo intriguing and I believe he is symbolically Dave's guardian angel against the embodiment of Lucifer, Legion Guidry. Still, I would have preferred to see Dave put a cap in 'ol Legion once and for all as I imagine Dave would have preferred as well.

The book started off with an interesting premise but the deus ex machina ending was almost laughable. I don't know if Burke likes to screw with his readers or not, but I don't see how he could have written the last part of the book with a straight face. If you liked how 'Twin Peaks' introduced aliens into the mix, then you probably will like the plot, but for me that was the end. How can you take a plot seriously when the author has to resort to divine intervention?

I also wish he'd give up on the Vietnam vet PTSD angle; it's unrealistic for the character and Burke's moralizing is discordant with the book.

The Dave Robichaux books are starting to become a bit formulaic; Robichaux has a run-in with a bad guy which leads to him taking his lumps, doubting himself, then coming back to kick ass. It works well in some books, and not so well in others. It didn't work that well in this book. Burke's description of south Louisiana is pretty accurate but his excesses on the culture are also a little too formulaic and play too much to stereotypes.

If you can handle a plot where God has to intervene in order to wrap things up neatly, then this is your book. If you'd like more gritty realism, then Burke's just a little too far down the bayou. Cheaper than $9.99, and the first part will tide you over a transcontinental flight, but expect to feel somewhat disappointed by the end.

Once again James Lee Burke presents a story written with characters and dialogue that keeps the reader enthralled and engrossed in a suspenseful plot.
While Dave is investigating the murders of two women, he runs across one of the vilest, most detestible men I can recall in literature; a real bad boy by the name of Legion. He degrades Robicheaux with such indecency that Dave is able to identify with the humiliation all Black women feel after the've had their own encounters with this sexual predator. He impacts Dave so deeply that he has flashbacks of Viet Nam. It's those flashbacks that trigger Dave's addictive behavior and unleashes his violent tormented soul on a collision course with Legion.
There is more to the story of course. Dave also must solve the murders. He believes that the wrong man has been arrested and his hunt for the real killer uncovers secrets and past relationships that "stir up the rattlesnakes". The result is vintage Burke and another highly recommended masterpiece.

This was my first brush with the Dave Robicheaux series, but it certainly won't be the last!

After a slow start, I was awestruck by Burke's poetic/hypnotic prose and the originality of Robicheaux in a literary world filled with hard-boiled, moralistic detectives/P.I.s. Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series has been my long-time favorite, but I think I've found a new standard bearer for the genre.

I'm used to protagonists with a "history" but the fact that Robicheaux's demons are always so close to the surface (and sometimes break through) was highly entertaining. Sidekick Clete Purcel was also a revelation (and a real scene stealer whose periodic female dilemmas had me laughing out loud).

I look forward to starting book one in the series and getting to know Dave Robicheaux / James Lee Burke much better in the months ahead.

I got a remainder paperback copy for the holidays and am 3/4th through it, after almost tossing it several times and starting something else. Maybe I'm just more fond of tighter prose and more black & white characterization (such as Lee Child, Robert Crais or John Dunning), but I wouldn't want to meet any of these bad-asses with one exception: the female police officer (Helen) who saves the hero's derrier more often than he deserves. More importantly, I've been looking forward to my first visit to Louisiana in the near future (one of only 4 states I've never been to), and this novel moved that thought to the bottom of my agenda. Someday I'll try another Burke novel to see if I have a better impression, but my unread book pile is high enough to not have to rush.

James Lee has written another thoughtful and compelling novel surrounding the personal and professional challenges of detective Dave Robicheux. This novel not unlike past novels presents a group of complex characters trapped by their pasts, their psychotic tendencies, and their desire for redemption. However, unlike previous novels, Jolie Blon explores the question of whether the "new South" is really masking the "old South". The bigotry, the misogyny, the class fears, and the unfinished Cival War are themes that roll through the story with intensity. By the end Burke sees a South that has put on clean clothes over a very sad and still very dirty body. If not his best work certainly his most haunting. I hope I never meet Legion!

After reading every entry in the Robicheaux series, and at one time being convinced that James Lee Burke was America's greatest living author and a modern-day Hemingway, imagine my disapointment in reading "Jole Blon's Bounce", at once utterly predictable and recycled from previous novels. Granted, as always, the Burke heroes - uncannily similar to the "Hemingway Heroes" - like Robicheaux himself and his invariable alter-ego, Clete Purcel, are interesting because of their complications and inner plagues with which they battle. But I'm beginning to tire of the "Burke Bad Guy", which not only is uncomplicated but almost the same in every novel, which is to say absolutely evil -no shades of gray - just simply portrayed in black and white. For example, this novel's primary villain (and there are many), Legion Guidry, is described as "a demon" and "pure evil", without any understanding of how he became that way. But what's really insulting is the ending, which is reminiscent of the ridiculous abridged finale of the movie version of "The Bad Seed", not only in its preditability, but in its simplistic, holier-than-thou vision of Good's triumph over Evil. Mr. Burke, with all due respect, I know you can do better.

This is another fine episode in James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series. Here's a hint at the texture of this dark gumbo: "I came to learn early on that no venal or meretricious enterprise existed without a communty's consent. I thought I understood the nature of evil. I found out at age twelve, I did not." ... "'This is Louisiana , Dave. Guatemala North. Quit pretending it's the United States. Life will make a lot more sense,' he said."
One wonders, this time, has Burke has been keeping company with Anne Rice? One also wonders at the absence of "begats." We are never told of any children of Julian and his Mrs. La Salle (whose first name is never mentioned) so from where in the Bayou mist came Perry's father?

James Lee Burke's novels are darkly poetic, introspective, and ultra violent, often within the same paragraph.
Having read most of his books now... all of the ones in both of his series, and a few of the standalone ones, I look forward to a new one, but I also find, by and large, I'm seeing a mix of the same stuff. That's not bad; about once a year, I get in the mood for a James Lee Burke writing fix, and he obliges by publishing a new novel about once a year.
Still, his books are strong on characterization and description but often seem improbable in the way people act and events transpire; the way 3 different plotlines neatly dovetail at the end seems like some weird Southern Gothic version of a later season SEINFELD episode sometimes.
Having read many of his books, he's got some elements one could pastiche; the way an early morning grey dawn reflects the morass of Dave's soul, and the voices in his head are echoed by a nutria screaming in the swamp. You know somebody's about to get their eggs scrambled. That's what I tell you, me.
But he sweeps you along, and I find I'm forgiving of elements reused from previous books. This one does have a truly unique villain, unlike any of the heavies from previous books.
One thing that struck me is, just how old is Dave? He seems to have been born around 1938. He's 4 or so in 1942. The later events seem to be modern day, so Dave seems to be around 64 years old. And, presumably, Cletus Purcell as well. And yet, they "feel" more like they're in their 50's somewhere.

I have to recommend this book to Dave Robicheaux fans as one of the best; unlike the reader who felt Burke spent too much time on Dave's problems, I truly enjoyed living through Dave's latest troubles with him and found the story very moving. The language is exquisite, the atmosphere wonderful -- in my opinion, Burke doesn't get better than this. I do agree, though, that this shouldn't be the first book you read in the series -- start at the beginning and give yourself the full effect. I wait all year long for the next book to come out . . .

I would probably read anything written by James Lee Burke simply because I enjoy his style. The vivid details in his descriptions of the deep South, as well as his ability to capture the kind of racial dynamics that have somehow managed to make it into the 21st Century, are remarkable. The writing is often poetic and insightful, and Burke seems to recognize just what it is that separates the truly bad characters from the rest of us. That said, at some point the reader is forced to suspend reality within the pages of Jolie Blon's Bounce, which in my opinion, ultimately becomes more of an allegory about good versus evil than a murder mystery.

...were a plantation overseer, his writing skill can be likened to that gunbull using a lash to lift a whisker off of your face, but not leaving a mark. It gets your attention real fast.

...Jolie Blon is the exact right mixture of grit, elegance, humanism, and a hint of the supernatural that comes together as more than the sum of its parts.

...after reading a dozen of his novels, I am convinced that James Lee Burke is perhaps our greatest living American Novelist.

...and like Elmore Leonard, he makes it seem so easy when you know it is oh so hard.

This is a good entry in the Dave Robicheaux series - especially if you do the audiobook. You would get to hear Jolie Blon's Bounce and an interview with James Lee Burke. None of which takes away from the quality of this book! It's just a great read, although you do well to read this series in order - it's like a saga, and if you have the thread of the development of the characters and their lives, the whole series takes on more depth. Each book is a good stand-alone, however.

I've been reading the Dave Robicheaux series from the beginning. Some of the books I would rate 4*, mainly because too many characters, which made following the events very difficult, most of them 4.5*, but this one I decided to write a review and gave it 5* because I enjoyed it so much. Since English is not my mother tongue, I have to look for translation for many words, which are typical Burke, like "copacetic", many phrases I gather the meaning from the "surrounding" words, but all in all - it makes for a very enjoyable reading. I still "have" to read 6 books from these series and I'm looking forward to it.

If you have grown up in the South, especially Louisiana as I have, Burke's descriptive style and ability to paint a morning in a small Cajun town such as New Iberia rings so true it makes one homesick. The ability to describe but, at the same time, give such vitality and life to the characters is the real treasure of reading Burke.

Like enjoying the unapologetic brutality of the Sopranos or the curt language of Deadwood, this book also will not pass any P.C. conventions. The characters live and breathe with a life of their own. The dialogue is as lively and crisp as the thugs drifting up from the Mafia dens of Nu-Awlins.

As usual there will be setbacks and hardships galore for our life challenged hero but Dave will walk that fine line between alcoholism, honor and anger managemnet in the only way he knows how. The Burke way.

This is a typical Dave Robicheaux story, which is a good thing. Robicheaux's world is populated by characters who are haunted by their past. Some are good and some are truly evil. In order to enjoy these books, you have to suspend your disbelief and immerse yourself in the dialogue and plot which reeks of the author's portrait of New Orleans and rural Louisiana. The philosophizing is a bit heavy at times, but this is a good, entertaining read.

James Lee Burke hits another Home Run with Joilie Blon's Bounce, however the audiobook version falls far below par without the reading of Will Patton. Will Patton, in all the previous Dave Robicheaux audiobooks, has brought flesh and blood identities to all the characters with his unique ability to vocally create their individual voices. Mark Hammer reads in a droning monotone voice which fails to separate the principal characters, and quite frankly is effective only in either putting the listener to sleep or inspiring profound boredom. Between each Dave Robicheaux novel, I have always been anxious to read and hear what Cletus, Batist, the Sheriff, Bootsie, Alafair, and of course Dave are up to. I was so disappointed at not being able to hear all my old friends on the Jolie Blon's Bounce audiobook version.
Will Patton is sorely missed, please bring him back and reissue Jolie Blon's Bounce with all the old gang's voices that we know and have come to cherish.
The only redeeming feature of this current version is the preface read by James Lee Burke, and the recording of Jolie Blon. This feature should definitely become an addition to all future audiobooks.

One of the best of Burke's Dave Robichheaux series that I have read. New Characters are introduced and interwoven into the plot along with the inclusion of Burke's standard characters. This one was definitely a page turner...never could predict what the outcome would be.

Who dunnit? In addition to the complex examinations of Robicheaux's alcoholism and affiliated self-doubts, demons and just plain out of control behaviour, you have to keep reading to find out what happens next and who killed the victims. Excellent, couldn't put it down. I like this as much as the "In The Electric Mist with Confederate Dead". I shall now proceed to another Robicheaux novel.

I found this latest installment of the Dave Robicheaux/Clete Purcel saga to be the most enjoyable yet. It is certainly the easiest of the series to follow. I must admit a decidedly tepid reaction to former Burke novels. This one, however, hits the mark. Laced with tongue-in-cheek humor, Burke keeps the pace flowing nicely in this novel. The atmosphere he creates is palpable and his characterizations again come across with no flaws.

I haven't been there physically, but James Lee Burke does a masterful job in placing you in the story. You can feel the heat while watching lightening flash across the night's sky. Your skin crawls with desperation of a depressed area. Your heart races with disgust as you are faced with one literature's most vile villains.
Very good read and very smooth prose.

James A. Forrest - Eye of the Storm

... Not only available, but unabridged and read by Will Patton, whom I feel is the best reader now that Frank Muller is hurt. Burke's descriptions are unsurpassed and Patton's performances are unmatched, certainly in the Southern dialect.
Now, imagine my disappointment in receiving my audiocassette and finding someone named Frank Hammer as the READER. I use the emphasis to highlight that he is a reader aand not a performer. Patton's renditions are true art, Hammer just reads. I could not enjoy the true skill of Burke because of Hammer's uninspired, by the numbers reading.
I am disappointed that hammer was allowed(by whomever) to ruin this reading for me.
My rating would be 5+ for the book and 2+ for the audiocasssette.