A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Reprint) (4/26/09) - By James Lee Burke

I just discovered Burke recently and have enjoyed catching up on his series. As a fresh reader, I enjoy escaping into his novels. Sometimes they seem too dark and depressing. However, Burke's plot has twist and turns that keep me ordering more in this series. So, there it that "it" that sells me.

I just discovered Burke recently and have enjoyed catching up on his series. As a fresh reader, I enjoy escaping into his novels. Sometimes they seem too dark and depressing. However, Burke's plot has twist and turns that keep me ordering more in this series. So, there it that "it" that sells me.

Not one of his best. I thought the story implausible. The location, rationale for being there and premise were not believable. His new wife seems like a space filler, certainly not as important as his previous wives.
There were moments when I thought the story was about to pick up but was disappointed again and again.
Too bad I purchased rather than borrowed from the library.

I recently purchased a Kindle and absolutely love reading on it. It lives up to its' reputation as a good reader. On the other hand one of the books I purchased recently Swan Peaks by James Lee Burke had many many typos. I find that disturbing since I paid for the book and expected good editing. A little disappointing for me. I expected nothing but the best from the the store Kindle Store. On the positive side I loved the story line and I do love James Lee Burke books. It is well worth reading if you can ignore the typos.

Book apparently not proofread, enough typos and errors to render the book as almost unreadable. The plot was boring, unimaginative and indicated almost no effort on the writers part. This will be my last book by thus author, I have read everything else he wrote up to the issue date of this book.

I just received a kindle as a birthday present and this James Lee Burke novel was my first purchase. I will probably only use the Kindle for light, fun reading as I would prefer to retain a hard copy of serious literature for my library.

The book is typical of the series, and this one is an average read at best, and I've read most of them. The story would get 2-3 stars.

HOWEVER, the misspellings, typographical errors, punctuation and formatting issues are freaking unbelievable! I'm not even half way through the book and there are dozens (yes, dozens) of mistakes. I'm having to re-read paragraphs to follow the narrative conversation in some parts. How can you spell a character's name correctly in a dozen places, and then misspell the same name in a dozen others part of the story? And then revert back to a correct spelling yet again?

I've never purchased a printed book that even comes close to the number of errors this e-book has in it. We're paying essentially full price for a paperback that doesn't have to be typeset, physically printed, packaged for shipment to a very large number of locations, and then merchandised in order to sell it. So the primary consideration of the publisher is insuring that the e-book is proof-read, spell checked, and properly formatted for use in the store's format (with the store being one of the publisher's largest customers, if not the largest!), and yet Simon and Schuster totally fails. Absolutely unbelievable!

I like the Kindle, but if this is indicative of the standard for e-books I'm totally disgusted.

In “Swan Peak,” the 17th installment of James Lee Burke’s sometimes sorrowful ode to his youth and a way of life that has vanished forever, Dave Robicheaux and his wife Molly along with Cletus Purcel hope to spend some peaceful days in Montana at the ranch of old friend Albert Hollister but someone is killing people and the “Bobbsey Twins from Homicide" get drawn into the fray. An escaped convict and the gunbull who abused him both seek redemption for their deeds. The ex-con is a singer with a platinum voice who hopes to recapture the affections of his girlfriend and their son but Jamie Sue Wellston is married to a horribly disfigured man who may be hiding behind his scars from an evil past – a past that doesn’t bode well for Dave’s old partner from NOPD. The double punch of hurricanes Katrina and Rita have destroyed the city of New Orleans and for the first time Dave and Clete seem resigned to the inevitability of death; their literary creator (Burke) also appears at times to be looking into that cold “oblong hole in the ground” himself. A transitional book in the Robicheaux series but one that leaves open the possibility of a brighter future.

In "Swan Peak" Dave Robicheaux and JLB escape from the formulaic and predictable rut that this series had fallen into. Leaving the confines of New Iberia for points farther north, Dave and Cleat find themselves in a new environment but with some very old troubles, including the re-emergence of an old nemesis believed to be dead for many years.

While JLB's writing is still tight and lyrical and pure pleasure, moving outside of his comfort zone caused the supporting cast of characters to not come across as strong or as well defined as is normally the case with JLB. There are also some loose parallels between groups of characters which risk the blurring of motivations and choices. These issues not withstanding, Swan Peak is a nice break from the New Iberia base while still taking a step forward in the over-arching story line.

A few spoilers below!

Blurb........Detective Dave Robicheaux returns in another adventure. Only this time, he travels from New Iberia Parish to the wilds of Montana. Swan Peak is the sequel to Black Cherry Blues, the third title in the Robicheaux series. In it, Clete Purcel has to confront ghosts from his past, namely the fact he poured sand in the fuel tanks of an airplane owned by Sally Dio, resulting supposedly in Dio's death. The story also deals with Jimmy Dale Greenwood, an escaped convict who was at one time a fairly famous country singer. His lover is Jamie Sue Wellstone, now the wife of one of the richest men in the West.

The larger story deals with country music, the use of fraudulent ministries to garner support for nefarious political enterprises, and two brothers who are the sons of the most famous wildcatter in Texas oil history. Perhaps the most striking character, however, is an ex-Miami roller derby queen by the name of Candace Sweeney. Her lover is a Texas gunbull who was a guard at Abu Ghraib Prison.

Few authors can tell a story quite like James Lee Burke. He deftly combines intricate, engaging plotlines and original, compelling characters with his uniquely graceful prose. Burke transcends genre yet again in his latest thrilling addition to the Robicheaux series.

I first discovered James Lee Burke in the early 90's when I came across The Neon Rain, Heaven's Prisoners and Black Cherry Blues. He absolutely blew me away with the quality of his writing, and his double act of recovering alcoholic Dave Robicheaux and colourful sidekick Clete Purcell.

His full bibliography is as follows;

Hackberry Holland
1. Lay Down My Sword and Shield (1971)
2. Rain Gods (2009)
3. Feast Day of Fools (2011)

Robicheaux
1. The Neon Rain (1987)
2. Heaven's Prisoners (1988)
3. Black Cherry Blues (1989)
4. A Morning for Flamingos (1990)
5. A Stained White Radiance (1992)
6. In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (1993)
7. Dixie City Jam (1994)
8. Burning Angel (1995)
9. Cadillac Jukebox (1995)
10. Sunset Limited (1998)
11. Purple Cane Road (2000)
12. Jolie Blon's Bounce (2002)
13. Last Car to Elysian Fields (2003)
14. Crusader's Cross (2005)
15. Pegasus Descending (2006)
16. The Tin Roof Blowdown (2007)
17. Swan Peak (2008)
18. The Glass Rainbow (2010)
19. Creole Belle (2012)

Billy Bob Holland
1. Cimarron Rose (1997)
2. Heartwood (1999)
3. Bitterroot (2001)
4. In The Moon of Red Ponies (2004)

Novels
Half of Paradise (1965)
To The Bright and Shining Sun (1970)
Two for Texas (1982)
aka Sabine Spring
The Lost Get Back Boogie (1986)
White Doves at Morning (2002)

Collections
The Convict: And Other Stories (1985)
Jesus Out to Sea (2007)

Since then I've fallen in and out of love with the three of them several times in the last 20 years. Does the quality of the man's prose outweigh the sheer improbability that after 20 years the self-proclaimed Bobbsey Twins would still be busting heads and taking down the bad guys?

Dave and his constant quest for justice, whilst battling his demons and attempting to keep a reign on Clete has just got tiresome for this reader. JLB's books seem to have an underlying narrative that rich people and big business are invariably bad, evil and corrupt, which may be true occasionally, but which after the best part of 30-odd books becomes stale and repetiticious.

In Swan Peak the quality of the writing is as good as ever, with convincingly written flashpoints and lyrical depictions of the Montana countryside.

The downside for me was, after the predictability of the outcome which is fairly inevitable, that the plot was implausible. With over 147,000 square miles of Montana countryside to vacation and fish in, the dynamic duo happen to pitch up in the same neck of the woods as Sally Dio? Unlikely! Vindictive, sociopath Dio gives Purcell a free pass for years until such time as they cross paths? Unbelievable.

Most of the time, I read crime fiction for entertainment, and in truth I was entertained. Most times when following a series with a strong lead character there appears to be a formula to the writing which is often tolerable, but I think I'm done with JLB now though. I think this series has gone on for a few too many books now and though the author is no guiltier of milking this particular cash-cow than many others in the genre, I'm off to pastures new.

This copy was acquired second-hand from Oxfam books in Leighton Buzzard.

3 from 5

James Lee Burke is one of my favorite writers. His prose is eloquent, quotable, and graphic. He views the world from the perspective of the marginalized and maimed and forgotten, some of whom struggle to escape an ugly karma and live lives that are happy and relatively tranquil. Some of them make it, some of them don't, and some of them are left with questions that are never really answered.

In this book, and in many others he has written, the protagonists are two friends, New Iberia, Louisiana cop Dave Robicheaux and his best friend and compatriot Clete (Cletus) Purcel, ex-New Orleans cop, private investigator, decorated Vietnam veteran and alcoholic. I like both of these men ... and they are not easy men to like because of the ghosts that haunt them both, ghosts of their upbringing and Vietnam and alcohol.

Over the past several novels, Dave has been working on getting his act together -- he has quit drinking, joined AA, and married Molly, a wonderful ex-nun who loves him and refuses to get enmeshed in his torments. Clete is like watching a runaway eighteen wheeler careening down a mountain highway with bad brakes and a lunatic at the wheel. You know there's an awful crash waiting somewhere, but you don't know just where. The guy has an amazing ability to right himself, but you know he's ultimately going off a cliff if he doesn't stop drinking.

Most of the Dave Robicheaux novels take place in Louisiana. This one takes place in Montana, where Dave and Molly have gone on a fishing vacation, taking Clete along to give him a break,.

"Clete Purcel had heard of people who sleep without dreaming, but either because of the era and neighborhood in which he had grown up, or the later experiences that had come to define his life, he could not think of sleep as anything other than an uncontrolled descent into a basement where the gargoyles turned somersaults like circus midgets .. His dreams clung to his skin like cobweb and followed him into the day... But on this particular morning Clete was determined to leave his past in the past and live in the sunlight from dawn until nightfall and then sleep the sleep of the dead."

But for Clete, there are no breaks, and trouble finds him on the banks of a pristine river, fishing when two men in a bright red diesel extended cab truck pull up and spoil the idyllic scene. It isn't surprising. From there events descend into the dark regions of the soul where hobgoblins dwell and hurting people struggle to live fulfilling lives and try to stay out of the way of greedy, wealthy elites who use evil as a tool to possess more. "When people talk about class war," Dave muses, "they're dead wrong. The war was never between the classes. It was between the have-nots and the have-nots. The people on the hill watched it from afar when they watched it at all." Which, I'd say, is pretty close to the truth.

I found Swan Peak a hypnotic read. It's plot is many-layered, its mood dark and heavy, with glimmers of hope for some of the hopeless characters that one least expects will make it out of the maelstrom that, Burke muses, in which we all live, "an era that is so intense and fierce in its inception ans denouement that it can only be seen correctly inside the mind of a deity."

Yet, in spite of all this, the story ends on a not of hope. Looking at fingerling salmon in a cold stream, Dave knows that when spring comes, the adult salmon will work their way into the main stream and on down to the sea. "All of these things will happen of their own accord, without my doing anything about them, and for some strange reason, I take great comfort in that fact."

A fine novel, like life, not always a pleasant one.

In typical dark, James Lee Burke fashion, Swan Peak follows detectives Robicheaux and Purcel on their vacation to Montana with the hopes of fishing and relaxing. Unfortunately the cloud that seems to envelope their lives, falls in great force as two college students are killed close to their location. The ensuing events are filled with explosive violence, duplicitous actions, disgusting people, and a pervading hint of optimism that wends its from beneath the murky waters of evil. The story progress quickly with twists and turns in a literary rollercoaster through the swamps of human depravity, ultimately lifting the reader out of the depths and into a shining light of hope. While on one level it is a good guy vs. bad guy thriller with an expected conclusion, on another level, it reads as a mysterious examination of human psyche.

The sentences are spun with gold and the imagery portrayed is as precise as it is beautiful, "The countryside was grand, the cliffs sheer, the tops of the buttes covered with ponderosa pine, the slopes already blooming with wildflowers." Other sentences describe the people in terms of their inner motivations and purpose, "The aggressiveness of his overture to the audience was as naked as it was meretricious." Each word is carefully delivered and each thought expressed is packed with emotion, allowing the reader to see the sights, smell the smells, feel the power, experience the setting, and fear the moment. The writing is masterful by an author at the top of his game.

Unfortunately, the overriding plot was a little predictable and the events seemed ordained from the beginning. This made the book less engaging at times due to its expectations and central thesis. All authors, like composers, even great ones, latch onto a workable system that can become contrived. Swan Peak has elements of this problem in its overall plot and in its darkness of the portrayal of human reactions which seem similar to previous books by James Lee Burke. Yet this aside, it remains an outstanding contribution to the genre and worth reading by fiction lovers. What makes Swan Peak optimistic is watching the transformation and personal growth of one of the antagonists. The character with help from a girlfriend addresses his own past, flings it aside, and reaches his human potential. It is a joyous journey and one worth taking. I remain a fan of James Lee Burke and eagerly anticipate the next one.

"Swan Peak" is the latest in the Dave Robicheaux series and one of the least satisfying. Don't get me wrong...one of James Lee Burke's worst efforts is better than all but a handful of mystery writers out there. Burke has a way of drawing readers into the story and dropping them into the action surrounding Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel.

In "Swan Peak" the Louisiana natives are transplanted to Montana for some rest and relaxation. Then some college kids are murdered in the woods near Dave's cabin. Clete manages to cuckold and attract the attention of a hideously disfigured man, Leslie Wellstone, who wields great power in this part of Montana. And Clete believes he is now on the radar of the FBI for the killing of gangster, Sally Dio, many years (and books) ago in Montana.

That's not even touching the most interesting part of the story which concerns a guard from a contract prison in Texas, his girlfriend that is changing his life, and his pursuit of a prison escapee who has fled to Montana so the escapee can contact his former lover who happens to be Leslie Wellstone's wife.

There is a lot going on in "Swan Peak." I would say there is too much going on to cover adequately in 400 pages. There are plots and subplots galore. Some sections seem rushed. Some sections seem totally unconnected to other parts of the book and yet, in the end, Burke ties them together.

In "Swan Peak" Burke also seems to spend even more time than usual explaining the morality and amorality of his characters. It really bogs down the narrative in places. "Swan Peak" is a good read, but not among Burke's best

"Swan Peak" is the seventeenth book in James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series and, by now, longtime fans of the series probably know Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell better than they know their own real life first cousins (and might even enjoy their company more). What makes "Swan Peak" different from other Robicheaux novels, though, is that it is the first book in the series to be set entirely someplace other than in south Louisiana, home base for Robicheaux and his sidekick. But even in Montana, Robicheaux and Purcell, being who they are, manage to attract the attention of the same kind of people who have caused them so much grief in New Orleans and New Iberia for several decades.

Being one of the good guys (and these two, despite their numerous flaws, are definitely two of the good guys), even while on summer vacation, is not always easy. It is especially not easy for Clete Purcell who cannot control his mouth when he is hassled by two thuggish security guards for inadvertently camping overnight on private property. And it is not easy for Dave Robicheaux for one simple reason: he is Purcell's best friend, and nothing about being Purcell's friend is easy. Dave, his wife, Molly, and Clete may have come to Montana for a little R&R and lots of fishing, but very little fishing, and even less R&R, is what they get.

When a pair of college students is brutally murdered on a hill that overlooks the property they are staying on, Dave and Clete find themselves slowly sucked into the crime's investigation, an investigation that soon threatens to blow up in their faces when every rock they overturn unmasks yet another lowlife pervert willing to do whatever it takes to remain under the radar of local cops and the FBI.

A James Lee Burke novel is one to be savored and, unlike most novels of its type, Burke's books do not make for quick reading. "Swan Peak," containing several subplots and numerous characters that sometimes cross from one plotline to another, is no exception, demanding to be read with a certain degree of attention if its full impact is to be felt.

Along the way, we meet both a Texas prison guard searching for the escaped prisoner who almost stabbed him to death and that prisoner, a talented country singer and picker who has come to Montana to find the woman he still loves, herself at one time a successful hillbilly singer. But before he can find the man he so badly wants to hurt, the guard finds Candace, a waitress who sees good in him that he does not even see in himself. There are the Wellstone brothers, unscrupulous oil operators from Houston, one of them terribly disfigured by burns but married to the very woman for whom the escaped prisoner is searching. And then there are characters like the sexual predator and tent preacher, Sonny Click, and the insane serial killer who delights in killing in the most painful ways imaginable - lots of characters, lots of subplots, all masterfully tied together by the end of the book into yet another powerful chapter in the lives of Dave Robicheaux and Cletus Purcell.

Don't miss Chapter 17.

Consider Swan Peak a taut Dave Robicheaux thriller about bringing down the bad guys transferred from Katrina-depleted Louisiana to sparking Montana. Since Louisiana is usually the major character in this series' books, that shift cuts down the local color by one star.

Are there sleazy people in Montana? They seem to be everywhere that Dave and Clete Purcell look.

Dave and Molly have left Louisiana to recover from Katrina, and Clete has joined them. Naturally, it doesn't take much for Clete to begin stirring things up. In this case, a choice of campground begins an escalating conflict that no one seems to be able to or wants to avoid.

Pretty soon bodies are piling up around Dave and Clete, but it's not clear what the motives are. Both with and without encouragement, Dave begins investigating. That search draws them both into the business of the local, reclusive rich who want to drill for oil and gas and make lots of money through evangelism. It's an odd group of people, and the closer you look . . . the odder it gets.

In a related story line, a convict looks to do his time and get out . . . but a gun bull has other ideas.

The book's main weakness is that James Lee Burke often tells rather than shows what's going on. At times, you'll feel like you are in a lecture hall rather than reading an engrossing book.

As usual, the story has more slime in it than ten usual murder mysteries. But overcoming the slime is part of the appeal of this series so I'm sure you know what to expect.

I prefer to listen to Burke's Robicheax books because Mark Hammer is an excellent reader. He has that Cajun Louisiana accent down pat. Also, he is an expert reading that snappy wise guy dialogue the Burke writes so well. It breaks my heart that this will be the last team effort for Burke and Hammer as Mark Hammer died earlier this year.

And now to Burke. Like many other reviewers I have read everything he's written that I can get my hands on. Luckily there are a few I haven't read and I'm saving them like the last pieces in a box of chocolates.

Unlike most reviewers, I think this is the best Robicheaux book yet. I love his discriptions, especially of the characters. Aspiring writers should read him to educate themselves. His dialogue is strong and colorful. One little gem which cracked me up was the character saying he had RDD (rationality deficit disorder).

Many people have faulted Burke for the dark and greusome passages. Well, this is a detective/crime/mystery series. Hello! It's not really my favorite genre, but I read this series because Burke is such a good writer. And there is an underlying theme of redemption, especially in this book. That's why I rate it so highly. When a writer can make the reader thoroughly detest a character at the beginning of the book and love him at the end (don't want to give too much away), then that's darned good writing. I, too, wanted to follow him and his lady to the Cascades. It would be wonderful if we could meet them again in an upcoming book.

The past comes back to haunt participants in this 17th novel in James Lee Burke's Detective Dave Robicheaux series.

In this latest, which is actually a sequel to the excellent Black Cherry Blues, Robicheaux, his wife, Molly, and friend, Clete Purcell, are far from their familiar Louisiana roots. But trouble seems to find them wherever they go.

While vacationing on a friend's ranch in rural Montana (where the author now spends part of the year), Clete has a run in with a mobster from his past. This leads their paths to cross that of a pair of wealthy oil tycoons with suspicious ties to a sexually deviant evangelist. The gruesome murders of two college students and a porn film maker and his wife add fuel to the mix.

There's a sub-plot involving a country singer/rodeo bum who was formerly involved with the wife of one of the oilmen. He is an escaped con and is being pursued by a Texas gunbull haunted by demons of his own.

How these two plots intersect adds to the compelling thrust of the novel.

I have yet to read a Burke novel I didn't enjoy and this is no exception. Few American mystery writers write such lyrical prose, create such complex characters or offer more engaging plots.

I eagerly await the 18th Dave Robicheaux adventure.

There are enough plot summaries here, so my attention turns to the meaning of Burke's offerings.

'Then one of those strange and unexpected moments occurred, the kind that makes you feel every human being carries a secret well of sorrow whose existence he or she daily denies in order to remain functional.' (p. 156)

At its heart, Burke's writing shows us that the meaning of life is how each of us deals with pain; and how for so many our pain is concealed by all manner and degrees of destructive behavior against self and others. The juxtaposition of how his achingly beautiful prose embroiders this wrenchingly ugly truth takes my breath away.

His violence is not gratuitous, but always connected to a story of the agony which spawns it. Most of us probably don't manage our pain in such extreme ways. But if his journey into the darkness of the human soul helps us see how our own layers of the personality onion protect our tender core, it will be for the better of all.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dave Robicheaux, his wife, Molly, and sidekick, Clete Purcell, leave ravaged New Orleans for some R&R, peace and quiet and some fishing in Montana. But where Dave and Clete are, tranquility is rarely, if ever, present. No sooner do they get there then trouble finds them--in spades.

While fishing, Clete is accosted by two men telling him he is trespassing on the land of a wealthy Texas oil family, the Wellstones. Soon, Dave and Clete are in the middle of not one, but two, double murders. Clete's past association with a mafia don comes home to haunt him. Then Clete finds himself amorously involved with the wife of one of the Wellstone brothers, among other entanglements. Meanwhile there are subplots involving other characters, and it all becomes very complicated.

Written with the accustomed smoothness of a Robicheaux novel---this is the 17th in the series---the setting enables the author to pay tribute to one of his two homes--Montana--where he lives in addition to the one in New Iberia, LA, Dave's normal domicile. It all comes down to an astounding finish. Don't miss this one!

In this newest book the Louisiana crime fighters have moved to s new state.Clete Purcel and Dave Robicheaux now
call Montana home. They have plans to fish and relax in their new homw state. The state of Montana is shattered when two college students are found murdered. Clete and Dave become the target of a cunning and vicious oil tycoon. Ridley Wellstone and his goons keep coming into the picture and providing problems. They are always one step ahead of the law. Clete has always been a suspect in the plane crash that killed Sally Dio a hoodlum from Galveston. Mix into this story line Jimmy Dale Greenwood a former singer who has escaped from prison by cutting up Troyce Nix a part owner of the prison. Jimmy Dale's former singing partner is also in play. She was Jimmy Dale's love interest, Her name is Jamie Sue Wellstone who has married into the Welstone family. One question that sticks out is whether or not Sally Dio is dead or alive. All of this comes to a smashing conclusion. Be sure to read this book.

James Lee Burke dwells in that rarified stratosphere with writers whose fans so anticipate the arrival of a new novel that they snap it up, sight unseen, the moment it hits the market. His writing is like a straight shot of single malt Scotch, or dark chocolate laced with Grand Marnier --- an acquired taste, fueling the imagination with a jolt to the system. Each new event in the life of Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux is a journey with a hero who has battled more dragons than St. George. Dave's legendary triumphs over the mafia, the degenerates and the saints of the mean streets of New Orleans, and the cops who are made up from both sides, are laid against his internal battles with alcoholism and personal loss. His lifelong best friend and former NOPD partner, Clete Purcell, battles his own inner demons with a heart that is even bigger than his hulking form.

Dave and Clete have survived the hell that was Katrina, so richly portrayed in Burke's last stunning novel, THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN. Along with Dave's ex-nun wife, Molly, they seek escape from the ravaged Louisiana coast to a friend's mountain ranch retreat in Montana. As they look forward to casting their lines in the trout streams on a relaxing getaway, their idyllic escape is shattered when two college kids are found brutally murdered on their host's ranch.

Dave reluctantly accepts a deputy's badge to aid local police in interviewing witnesses. When two tourists are savagely killed in a manner bearing similarities to the college students' deaths, the two veteran detectives see a pattern that the rural sheriff's department overlooks.

Dave and Clete, both veterans of Vietnam, harbor ghosts that are never laid to rest. Their reputation for violent and sometimes lurid events as New Orleans cops follows them no matter how far they roam, but they don't expect to find their vacation haunted by the ghost of an incident that occurred over 20 years earlier. As Clete drinks and brawls his way ever further on his self-destructive journey to hell and beyond, he manages to lumber into the midst of an FBI investigation. Sally Dio, a vicious New Orleans mob boss who was believed killed in a 1989 plane crash in Montana, remains the subject of a reopened FBI investigation. Clete was an early suspect in that long-ago plane crash, and his arrival on the scene two decades later is viewed with suspicion by the Feds.

SWAN LAKE, with its wild and woolly cast of country western singers, holy-roller evangelists and con men, grabs you aboard a whirlwind ride to a surprising plot twist at the end that will keep you turning pages into the wee hours.

Only James Lee Burke can weave a complex plot with so many disparate time frames and characters into a cohesive and brilliantly written novel. Our two heroes, both pushing their luck conducting police work at an age when most cops are either retired or dead, can still hold their own against bad guys of such monumental evil. Burke portrays raw human nature against the backdrop of a world gone slightly mad. To know Dave Robicheaux and the vivid characters who live in his world is to admire his strengths and weaknesses in equal measure. His fans are happy that the old boy still has the chops to keep up the good fight.

--- Reviewed by Roz Shea

Author Burke is back with more two-fisted adventures of Dave Robicheaux and Cletus Purcel, the "Bobsey Twins of Homicide" in a nerve jangler set in Montana, where they've gone for flyfishing and a little R&R, very little, it so happens. There are homicides, kidnappings, jailbreaks, seedy honky-tonks aplenty, as well as unwieldy and unwanted FBI assistance(well, mostly unwanted, right?)quests for vengeance, really loathsome badguys and a cleverly applied clue as to how to pronounce the name of the prime protagonist. No, not "Dave", his surname, mystery solved and debates over! James Lee Burke is the master of the lyrically written murder mystery, so much more literate than the rest, his prose is eloquent and moving, it comes as no surprise that he should be a fan of Jimmie Dale Gilmore! Also, Bob Wills (Ah Haaaa!)... Burke can really torque-up the tension, unbearably even, thankfuly he can rein-in the situations that get so perilous but without "saves" that feel cheap. This book was a barnburner and another welcome addition to his wonderful body of work!

For those of us who write stories and are occasionally published, we are constantly told to never open a fiction piece with either a dream or the weather. The reasoning being, according to agents and writing experts, that such an opening is either clichéd or weak and makes the submission worthy of the instant rejection. That and the stigma of having ignored the current expectations of the publishing coasts and by doing so, showing that the writer is oblivious to doing things correctly. Ironic then, that James Lee Burke opens the latest novel in the Dave Robicheaux series doing both and it works well.

Two years after Katrina ripped apart New Orleans, Clete and Dave and his family are spending the summer in Montana. The "Bobbsey Twins from Homicide" are far older these days physically and mentally and both are in deep mourning. Not only in regards to their lives and the choices they have made or had forced on them from time to time, but they also still deeply mourn the city that exists no more. Unlike heroic and flawed gunfighters of old, they haven't literally run off a cliff, but emotionally they have and are still in free fall with no landing in sight. The current plan is to heal body and spirit as they stay on a friend's ranch and to ignore the rest of the world around them. If only it was that simple and with Clete Purrel nothing is simple.

Clete literally lost his way the night before and end up camping on what he thought was vacant land but wasn't. Instead, he has spent the night on the Wellstone ranch and has drawn the interest of two of his security goons. Goons that used to work for a very bad mob guy who died a few years back in a plane crash. The goons are bad news and should have been splattered all over the hillside years ago where the mob guy died.

Instead, they are working for a shady and very rich man, Mr. Wellstone, who happens to own the property virtually next door to their friend, Albert Hollister. That may or may not have something to do with the fact that within hours of Clete being asked to leave his campsite, two brutally murdered college kids are found nearby. Knowing they are in the area and have knowledge and experience that could help, the local sheriff asks Dave to advise him.

Something that probably would have happened anyway because neither Clete nor Dave can leave things alone when there are degenerates in the neighborhood. And there are a lot of them in this 402 page long winding navel gazing novel. While much better than the slit your throat depressing ode to New Orleans also known as "the Tin Roof Blowdown" this novel is another book that spends an inordinate amount of time going nowhere.

Along with the contemplation of the wrath of Katrina made worse by political incompetence and the concept of aging as what you knew ceases to be now, the old theme of evil that has been a constant spine of James Lee Burke's work is considered again. It is considered constantly because Burke, through his characters, attempts to determine if people are born into dark evil or instead through fate, exposure to others such as family, war, friendship, etc descend into evil. Is one made evil at birth or born into evil and corrupted? While not a religious novel in that sense, there is a certain religious pondering that runs through the novel as the topic is considered. It is no mistake that at least one character is saved by the love of a flawed woman and in essence, reborn and able to change his ways and find peace.

That consideration of evil and the beginnings of evil can go on for pages at a time and further slows down a slow work. A work made slow by far too many characters who are described in detail and used in story lines to stand as testimony to salvation and rebirth through the love of a flawed woman.

It would be easy to deeply analyze this book on religious grounds and write a college level paper for some English or psychology class regarding all the deeper level of meaning in the book. On that level, the book succeeds as it slowly works through several different themes and concepts. Read as a mystery tale, it doesn't hit the mark as too many characters have little relevance to the primary story line in a read that hardly goes anywhere for more than 300 of its 400 pages.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2008

"Swan Song," is a novel that displays James Lee Burke's rich character portrayals, detailed descriptions of the natural surroundings in western Montana and tells a suspenseful story that packs a punch.

Dave Robicheaux, his wife, Molly, and best friend, Clete Purcel are on vacation in western Montana, after experiencing the devastation of hurricanes Rita and Katrina, in New Orleans.

When a pair of double murders occurs and the local sheriff seems overwhelmed, they offer their services.

Ridley Wellstone, a wealthy Texan who owns land around Swan River, wants to drill test wells for oil and natural gas on his land. He accuses Dave and Clete for working for a man who has filed an injunction against him. Ridley's brother, Lyle and Lyle's wife, country and western singer, Jamie Sue Wellstone, also live at the ranch.

A parallel story involves Jamie Sue's former boyfriend Jimmy Dale Greenwood who is also the father of their child. Jimmy Dale is in jail for a minor offense but is involved in an intolerable situation with prison guard Troyce Nix. The situation becomes so bad that Jimmy Dale escapes from jail and heads to Jamie Sue in Montana.

As we find out more about the people who have been murdered and what is going on at the Wellstone ranch, we see why Dave Robicheaux is such a popular character. He's humble and not perfect, being an alcoholic who attends regular meetings. However, he's also a protector of the poor and less fortunate who are being taken advantage of by wealthy opportunists who don't think they have to answer to the law.

Dave's side kick, Clete, is a big hearted, decorated VietNam vet who has a tendency to let his emotions get out of control but Dave calls him the bravest man he knows.

With characters who are so real that you could easily imagine them, excellent dialogue and a contemporary plot with some plot twists, "Swan Peak," shows James Lee Burke at the top of his writing skill.

James Lee Burke is probably my favorite writer, when it comes to descriptive prose. He seems to be able to spin a descriptive sentence out to the point where you can see the colors, hear the sounds, and especially feel the emotions of the characters involved. As far as I'm concerned, he's the best writer going at this, mystery or otherwise.

Too bad he isn't quite as good with plots. Dave Robicheaux, his main character, has been around for a good long while. One other reviewer commented that mathematically he must be closing in on 70 pretty quickly, and I had the same thought while reading this book. Not only that, he and Clete have lived pretty harsh, rough lives, the sort that puts extra mileage on your body and your nerves. It is getting to be a bit of a stretch for him to beat up anyone, even child molesters.

So in this story Clete, Dave, and Dave's wife Molly vacation in Montana, where they know someone with whom they can stay. Only, of course, there are bad guys around, and they choose to pick on Clete without really knowing what they're doing. Unfortunately, Burke telegraphs much of the plot, including who the villains are (for the most part anyway) relatively early on, and then things drag on for several hundred pages. Having mentioned how old Dave must be, it seems by the end of this book he'd be a good deal older. Detective novels usually aren't 550+ pages in length, and there's a reason for that: it's hard to sustain the suspense for that long. Burke does alright, but really this book should have been edited down by a hundred pages.

I liked the characters this time around, and some of the moral dilemmas that Burke puts his characters in this outing were fascinating. I enjoyed the setting and the story did take a few twists and turns that surprised me. Just think it should have been a bit shorter.

Dave Robicheaux and his long time partner and best friend, Clete Purcell are in need of a long, deserved rest. Upon invitation of a friend, they decide to emotionally recuperate in the beautiful, rugged mountains of western Montana. Soon after their arrival, Clete bumps into a couple of punks, one whom he recognizes as a scum ball that used to work for an underworld crime figure in Vegas. The two undesirables are security for the Wellstone family, another bunch with secret, lowlife agendas.

Soon victims of what appears to be a possible serial killer begin turning up and Dave and Clete find themselves in the midst of a new mystery. Is it the Wellstones, their henchmen, a diabolical emotionally disturbed bull (a prison guard) or any number of other characters that James Lee Burke so convincingly brings to life on the pages of this novel.

This is a another great read by the poetic Mr. Burke. I cannot give the book 5 stars however due to what I believe is an overly drawn out finale. Otherwise I do not believe you will be disappointed.

Clete Purcel is most noticeable in his porkpie hat, driving a restored maroon Caddy convertible. In Montana fishing with Dave Robicheaux and his wife Molly, Hurricane Katrina and New Iberia parish far behind but hardly forgotten, Purcel is only in search of good fishing when beset by two men in a pickup who inform him he is trespassing on private property. Returning to Robicheaux's cabin on Albert Hollister's place, Clete reports the incident to Dave, the same men arriving soon after to further intimidate Purcel. It seems in the northern Rockies of Montana, "the last good place", trouble has followed the New Orleans' buddies: "The war was never between the classes, it was between the have-nots and the have-nots." It is this wise premise that suggests the theme of the novel, a morality tale where rich landowner Ridley Wellstone observes the struggles of his minions and the visitors from Louisiana from an invincible distance. A hardscrabble man of the people, Robicheaux well knows this playing field, doing his best to protect Purcel from his own self-destruction and doing half the job well.

The novel is brimming with unpredictable characters, from ex-cons to an irresistible country-singer wife of a damaged man, the mysterious death of a hated gangster, an eccentric, idealistic old man, false preachers, sadistic prison employees, innocent college students slaughtered in a murder spree, a good-intentioned, hard-worn woman and an obscenely rich man with a hidden agenda. Mixing and matching all with acuity, Burke runs a number of plot lines tangled in a Gordian knot that Robicheaux and Purcel hope to untangle before irrevocable harm occurs, Purcel rushing headlong into his own demons with each violent engagement. Burke writes with a vengeance, his characters crusty and jaded, a wild breed that refuses to surrender to a new century, including Dave and Clete. Truisms flow like an unleashed dam, the author intimate with his venue, from war-scarred Vietnam vets to burned-out loners, religion and music the only panacea to an indifferent world. Robicheaux keeps his perspective simple, if profound, this fishing vacation as morally complicated as the rest of his life and as directly encountered.

Sometimes the bad guys win, but Robicheaux and Purcel do the time, two broken down heroes with an eye on redemption for past sins. Exploring every degradation known to man, Burke never shirks from harsh realities, his stories peopled by flawed protagonists, malcontents, criminals and the odd individual who refuses to bend before the boot of a bully. It is this talent for vivid description and the haunting events that fill the novel with acts both good and heinous, men exposed in their depravity and their glory, often raised from the ashes of their own hubris. Monsters are Burke's stock in trade and Robicheaux has known his share, Clete equally tormented by memories that revisit in nightmares. There is always another story, another clash where evil masquerades as good, foul deeds done in the dark of night. Sometimes resolution is finite: "The faces of the actors may change, but the story is ongoing and neither religion nor government has ever rid the world of sin or snake oil." Luan Gaines/ 2008.

James Lee Burke continues to be one of the treasures in current fiction. No one is better at evoking a sense of "being there" as JLB. Whether describing a bucolic scene in the Bitterroot Mountains or a depraved honky tonk in New Orleans, Burke has the reader feeling like he/she is really there. Burke paints word pictures that are so effective they can almost become "visually" stunning to the imaginative reader. Add that to his terrific ability to develop and flesh out characters and his intricately detailed plot lines and you have the makings of a literary lion.

Burke writes most often of the battle between good and evil...and often finds many of his characters are somewhere between the two extremes. Redemption is a common factor in his work as some characters do find redemption while others, notably Dave and Clete, are in constant search of it. Most of his "bad" characters have some goodness lurking in thier souls and many of his "good" characters fight internal battles against their own darkness. Certinly a common theme is the constant battle Dave and Clete fight against their own personal demons...Clete most often with self medication and booze and Dave with his often unsuccessful repression of his violent urges and continuing battle as a reformed alcoholic.

In "Swan Peak", Dave and Clete have gone to rural Montana for some well deserved R&R in hopes of rekindling their inner spirits after the devastation wrought by Katrina and Rita and the events in "The Big Tin Blowdown". But evil knows no geographical boundaries and our protagonists are soon deep in a number of seemingly muddling plot threads including a wealthy and arrogant family who are up to no good, a former country singer who has married one of the weatlhy Wellstone brothers but pines for her lost love and father of her child, a passle of mountain country thugs, a former prison guard hunting an escaped prisoner who almost killed him, a charlatan preacher, murdered college coeds, an inquisitive FBI operative, and perhaps a ghost out of Clete's past who may or may not have been killed in a plane crash Clete orchestrated. Whew!! Believe it or not, all these threads do ultimately intersect and unwind satisfactorily and all, in one way or another, serve as testimony to the goodness and evil in most of us.

While I missed the New Orleans and southern Lousiana settings for the Robicheaux novels, "Swan Peak" proves that the characters can fight their battles for good vs. evil in any local while battling their own inner demons that they can never escape. This novel gives more emphasis than normal to Clete and his personal battles yet, the constant, as always, is the way the "Bobbsey Twins Forever" are always there for each other physically as well as psychologically and emotionally. I know of no more complex friendship in crime fiction than that of Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel. This is a book and a series I continue to recommend unequivocally.

I've read all the Dave Robicheaux novels, all the short story collections, his Bitterroot novels - hell, if it's out there, I've read it. Yes, James Lee Burke uses the same themes over and over. He uses the same characters over and over. Most of his work takes place in either Louisiana or Montana. But it's like watching old videos of the great musicians like Toscanini or Solti. You know they're played this tune before, probably dozens of times. But they do it so well, and they care so much about the music that you can only admire the job they do. James Lee Burke may have limited himself to only a few locations and only a few characters, but the story he tells with them is primal and true. Novels like "Swan Peak" are the closest thing to modern day Hemingway.

Grit and grace...It's these two elements that keep drawing me back to the writing of James Lee Burke. For years, the vibe of New Orleans and New Iberia set the stage for Burke's memorable sets of characters, but in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina he has painted stirring portraits of those bygone days.

This time, Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel are in Montana, with plans to fish and relax. Dave has turned more introspective with age, contemplating his eventual demise, while Clete seems more determined than ever to walk down a path of self-destruction. Enter the brutal demise of two college-aged kids not far from where Dave and Clete are staying, and things quickly turn sour. Clete is into his usual trouble. Dave is playing damage control for his best friend and for his own set of inner demons.

All of this sounds familiar to Burke fans, and it is. But he adds nuances to our old friends, while also bringing in a colorful cast of villains and down-and-outers. Troyce Nix and his unveiling throughout the story is a masterpiece of characterization, fortified by the steady touch of Candace. We run into disingenuous preachers, double-minded law officers, and many who just want to find peace with their past so that they can move on.

It's these elements of tragedy and violence, with hints of grace and peace, that make this one of Burke's best--and that's saying a lot.