Let’s get this straight, right off the top; Dave Robicheaux is not a private investigator! He works for the Sheriff’s department in New Iberia, a sleepy backwater parish in Louisiana — and the town isn’t quite as sleepy as it seems. There are plenty of bad guys (and girls) to keep Dave and his associates busy. If Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of Robicheaux (from the film of Heaven’s Prisoners in 1996) is your only introduction to Dave’s career, then forget everything you know and start at the beginning and work your way through one book at a time. You will be immersed in a world as exotic and as violent as your imagination can create; you will meet characters as real and fully drawn as your next door neighbor; you will never forget the world created by James Lee Burke.
Burke has been writing since he was 19 years old and through the years has published 20 books, won literary prizes, appeared on the bestseller lists and seen his books optioned to Hollywood.
His lifelong problem with drink is reflected in the characters he writes about. He credits the 12-step program with rebuilding his life and career. Like Robicheaux, James Lee Burke is a recovering alcoholic, he lives in Iberia (part of the year) and has a daughter named Alafair. Robicheaux, the Sheriff’s investigator, is an ex-cop who parted ways with the New Orleans Police Department under suspicious circumstances. His old partner Clete Purcell, is working as a Private Investigator and is always on hand when Dave needs backup, or a strong arm. Dave is an essentially moral and ethical guy, who sees the world in terms of right and wrong. He tries to provide justice for the disenfranchised and to mete out justice to those who would deprive others. In each book his sense of this justice is challenged again and again. Burke introduced Dave Robicheaux in The Neon Rain, where Dave faced collection of drug-dealing mafiosos, some evil Nicaraguans, and a condemned man’s last confession. This novel provided the first look at the dark, steamy streets of New Orleans, and the sanctuary of Robicheaux’s Bait and Tackle Shop to which Dave returns when the day’s work is done.
Batist, the black man who works for Dave in the Bait Shop, is another finely drawn portrait that adds to the realism and pulls the reader into Dave’s world. Burke pulls no punches, and the reader can’t get too comfortable — in Dave’s world anything can happen. Heaven’s Prisoners followed and not only continued the story, but introduced Alafair, Dave’s adopted daughter, and her pet raccoon. This is the novel that Hollywood filmed. They missed all of Burke’s amazing description of the bayou, and as one critic complained, “the film could have been shot in New Jersey.”
Black Cherry Blues was next and saw Dave travel from the swamp to the mountains of Montana, confronting Indians, Mafia bosses and perhaps a new lady love. Dave’s on-again, off-again relationship with the Sheriff’s office begins in this novel.
In A Morning For Flamingos, Dave is back with the Sheriff, transporting two death-row prisoners to their execution. Dave is wounded in a carefully planned escape, and his partner is killed. It’s bad luck to hang around with Mr. Robicheaux. Dave is traumatized by the event and haunted by his experiences in Vietnam, so he goes undercover to avenge his partner. He is trapped in his role as aide to Mafia don, Tony Cardo; he becomes comfortable with and develops a growing affection for Cardo. How he escapes this desperate struggle for identity is masterfully told in one of Burke’s strongest novels. The Mafia dons, the Colombian drug lords, the sinister upper class of New Orleans, even Hollywood film-makers become the villains in Robicheaux’s milieu. He is drawn in, attracted by women or strong men with a sense of purpose, and then his conscience snaps him to attention. He sees the injustice in their actions. He is repulsed by their treatment of their wives, their servants, and their children, and is forced into action by his clear concept of justice.
Dave Robicheaux is the outsider. He just doesn’t fit in, but he is the friend to have if you get in trouble. Many writers of “crime fiction” are able to skillfully plot their stories and many create distinctive and likeable detectives who carry the action. Some are even able to paint pictures of believable worlds unlike our own. But often in this genre, the writing takes a back seat to plot. James Lee Burke is a powerful writer. His language is strong and evocative. His descriptions of people and places are clear, and the images he draws three-dimensional. All his characters are fully rounded and they exist in a real world. He is not afraid to take chances.
In the Electric Mist With the Confederate Dead has Robicheaux meeting a legendary Confederate cavalry officer in the misty bayou. Fantasy sequences appear, but are so honestly written, so true to the character of Dave Robicheaux, that the reader never questions them … he just accepts them as part of Dave’s reality.
As with all series, there are stronger books and weaker books. Dixie City Jam, while better than many non-Robicheaux novels, was a disappointment, but Burke rebounded well with Cadillac Jukebox and last year’s Purple Cane Road, which answered some old questions about Dave’s parents!
Sometimes you get the feeling that you’ve heard it before, after all … how much crime can there be in the little town of New Iberia? A recent news program made claims that police corruption was rampant in Louisiana. Maybe Burke is just telling it like it is. Whether it’s based in truth or all invention, there are not many writers working today whose output is as potent or convincing; whose novels are as involving; whose writing is as seamless as the work of James Lee Burke. Investigate for yourself the goings-on in New Iberia Parish. If you can’t get enough James Lee Burke, try his early novels or his other series featuring ex-Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland; you will not be disappointed!
