Detective Dave Robicheaux re-turns to center stage in an incendiary new novel by James Lee Burke. A gripping tale of racial violence, class warfare, and the sometimes cruel legacy of Southern history, Sunset Limited is a stunning achievement, confirming Burke's place as one of America's premier stylists as well as master storytellers. "Not since Raymond Chandler has anyone so thoroughly reinvented the crime and mystery genre," said novelist Jim Harrison, and in Sunset Limited Burke continues to carve out new territory. As always in the fiction of James Lee Burke, the past impinges on the present: The forty-year-old crucifixion of a prominent labor leader named Jack Flynn remains an unsolved atrocity that has never been forgotten in New Iberia, Louisiana. When Flynn's daughter, Megan, a photojournalist drawn to controversial subjects, returns to the site of her father's murder, it quickly becomes clear that her family's bloodstained past will not stay buried. Megan gives her old friend Dave Robicheaux a tip about a small-time criminal named Cool Breeze Broussard, scarcely suspecting that the seemingly innocuous case will lead Robicheaux and his partner, Helen Soileau, into the midst of a deadly conspiracy. As New Orleans mobsters and mysterious hit men converge on his parish, Robicheaux soon finds that all the clues point back in time to the tortured death of Jack Flynn. Combining brilliant prose, crackling suspense, and an exquisite sense of character and place, Sunset Limited is a wrenching tale of historic violence and soiled redemption that reveals one of America's finest novelists at his masterful best.
Imagine Philip Marlowe sans the cigarettes and in AA. Put him in Louisiana and jump forward 50 years or so and you've got David Robicheaux, a tough-talking detective with the same soft spot as his prototype for troublesome women and for delving into places into which he probably has no business. New Iberia, Louisiana, perfectly rivals Marlowe's L.A. for its grit and corruption and dames who'll turn a good guy bad.
James Lee Burke's 11th Robicheaux book, Sunset Limited, is a twisted mystery that at times becomes almost byzantine in its attempt to keep disparate characters and narratives wound in a cohesive story line. But Burke's writing is so stunning that all is forgiven as you become immersed in the tale, which meshes past and present to uncover the secret of a decades-old murder.
Forty years ago, a local labor leader was crucified in a crime that remains unsolved. Now, his daughter--Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Megan Flynn--returns to New Iberia. With a seemingly insignificant remark to Robicheaux, she begins a chain of events that lead right back to her father's death. New Iberia, in some sense, is frozen in time as the age-old problems of race and class weave their way into the mystery, complicating Robicheaux's discovery of not only the original crime, but the wealth of murders that spring up along the way. Add in the Chinese mob, corrupt policemen, and a Hollywood film shoot, and the stage is set.
Burke's forte is his ability to create characters so evil they're liable to get you up in the night to check in your closet and under your bed. The players--both good and bad--are characterized more by their flaws than their attributes, giving everyone a wicked sheen. The book isn't overly gory (although short descriptions can be rather graphic), but everyone has a dark side, emphasizing the noir-ish tones of the novel. His writing is powerful, mixing tender landscapes ("[W]e dropped through clouds that were pooled with fire in the sunrise and came in over biscuit-colored hills dotted with juniper and pine and pinyon trees...") with dead-on, cutting descriptions ("His face was tentacled with a huge purple-and-strawberry birthmark, so that his eyes looked squeezed inside a mask") and the camp dialogue of Chandler ("Evil doesn't have a zip code"). Oddly, these sundry elements blend seamlessly, allowing you to overlook tenuous connections and occasionally confusing turns.
Don't pick this up expecting a happy ending. But for those who long for a modern-day Chandler, you'll find Sunset Limited a gripping and satisfying read. --Jenny Brown
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Great Delivery:
I was anxious to listen to this story and it was delivered in no time at all. I love James Lee Burke and this is one of my favorites.
Couldn't hold my interest:
I read quite a bit and my tastes vary. You can confirm that by clicking the little link to see all my reviews. I must say, however, that I'm having a difficult time with Mr. Burke because he is actually *too* descriptive as an author. His use of the language is uncommonly good for someone writing in the crime/mystery genre. Trouble is, I'm finding that the richness of detail gets in the way of the story. I know the minutiae of the smells and sights and sounds in the Bayou, and the thread count in the... more info
Another Great Book:
James Lee Burke is a joy to read. He knows a great deal about a lot of things and builds them into his stories. The Robicheaux series is really based in large measure on mythology, although this is not readily obvious, and, when it becomes so, sends you scurrying to your mythology books! Burke is also very thoughtful about humanity and the world he lives in, and this becomes quite apparent as you read this series. You can read a general review in my review of Crusader's Cross. I do recommend that you read... more info
Has all the reasons that you read JLB for, without a 'pat' ending:
This is not a typical Dave Robicheaux book. It doesn't have standard char- acters doing standard things leading to a denouement at the end of the book. The story which is really multiple episodes surrounded by almost a dozen players (and all involving Dave in some way) who all have something to do with a movie being made in New Iberia about the plight of Blacks in 1940s Louisiana. Once again, many of the characters have been known to Dave for years, even though except for Clete, most he hasn't seen for... more info
