In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (Dave Robicheaux)

I enjoyed Burke's prior four books in this series, although they were formulaic as well. Rogue cop overreacts, goes off the rail, etc., but he's the good guy. Burke added dreams and visions of Confederate dead to this one, which were endless and boring. I did not have enough interest to finish the book.

Sometimes Burke is a little to descriptive but this time he got it . I really liked his discription of LA it was right on the money. I even read it to my wife and she was impressed. This is saying something as she does not read mysteries.

The woo-woo in here was Dave Robicheaux seeing apparitions of a War Between the States campaign. The general is supposed to be John Bell Hood with his men in gray and butternut. General Hood never led an army in or around New Orleans. But he was injured in the hand and leg as portrayed in the novel. Burke has Hood saying in effect, it's terrible that men go to war over a dishonorable issue as slavery. That's not what historians say about Hood. "Hood was sympathetic to the Southern cause and often stated that he would resign from the U.S. Army should his home state of Kentucky join the Confederacy. Although Kentucky did not secede, Hood submitted his resignation in April 1861 and was appointed a first lieutenant of cavalry in the Confederate army. We do know from reading his books, that Burke is as liberal as can be and his portrayal of black and brown people is admirable, if somewhat unrealistic. And really the novel's real time bad guy getting caught up in Hood's crutch! Hood retired and became a New Orleans cotton merchant and insurance man. He had eleven children. He married and his wife died of yellow fever as did he and one of his children. So some facts got jumbled. It's an interesting book if you like ghost stories with your murder and mayhem.

If you have ever lived in Southern Louisiana a couple of things, you know nobody writes Louisiana like Burke, and you know that part of the country is nothing if not unique. Burke spins a fine story in this book and punctuates it all with alligators, boudin, po boy sandwiches, heat, mosquitos, etc.
Makes one want to open Dixie and serve up some boudin under some live oaks and hanging moss. I found the book to be a page turner to the end. I never did quite get the whole confederate soldiers thing, but even that added a degree of mystique to the plot. A five star read ? Yeah, you right..

I love this author’s writing style, the phrases he uses, his rich and creative descriptions, and the way he develops characters. In my review of Black Cherry Blues I give examples of some of his phrases. He is a great writer, but his subject matter is too depressing for me. He writes about man’s cruelty to man, torture and killing of blacks, women, prisoners, and others, and getting away with it. I’ve read three of his books, but with great reluctance I do not plan to read anymore.

Dave is a flawed hero but a good cop. There were two instances of hero stupidity which bothered me. One example: Dave asks his friend Lou to be his backup when Dave went to a dangerous place to meet someone. They arrive, that person is not there, so Dave tells Lou to leave but Dave will wait a little longer. So Lou leaves and then something bad happens to Dave.

I was also troubled by the way the author had Hog Man delay telling things to Dave. Hog Man knew things. But the first time Dave talks to him, Hog Man just tells him part of something. The second time, Hog Man tells Dave to come to him for info, but then doesn’t tell Dave anything. The third time Hog Man calls Dave offering to tell him the rest. I didn’t see a reason or motive for Hog Man to keep doing this if he was going to tell it all eventually. I felt the author was playing me, disrespecting me. It was a contrivance, not supported with thought.

Technically there is a happy ending with some but not all of the bad guys dealt with.

There is some fantasy. Dave talks to the ghost of a civil war general several times. That was interesting, but it didn’t add to the main story and it wasn’t complete enough on it’s own. There was a neat occurrence linking the two stories toward the end. But something more should have been done with the secondary story.

The narrator Mark Hammer was good.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 1st person Dave Robicheaux. Unabridged audiobook length: 14 hrs and 5 mins. Swearing language: strong but rarely used. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: one referred to. Setting: around 1993 Louisiana. Book copyright: 1993. Genre: mystery suspense with a little fantasy.