Robicheaux and Nesbo
Just started reading James Lee Burke's The Glass Rainbow, one of his Dave Robicheaux novels, about a police detective in a Louisiana parish. I think I've read nine so far, of which my absolute favorite is easily In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead. Burke is to Louisiana what Jo Nesbo is to Norway. Or something like that.
What I like most about Burke's books is the powerful, almost tactile, sense of southern Louisiana that he manages to impart on just about every page. After reading a few chapters I always feel like zipping off to the nearest Cajun restaurant and having a plate of crawfish and an ice-cold beer.
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Speaking of Jo Nesbo: Yesterday, in the midst of a really annoying long-lasting downpour, I popped into Moonraker Books in Langley, Wa., on Whidbey Island (where I bought Burke's Glass Rainbow) and noticed that Nesbo's The Leopard is now--at last--available in the U.S. I read it a couple of months ago as an advance galley and loved it. Very dark. Very good. After reading it, I wanted to run out to my local Norwegian restaurant and have some herring.
Alas, while there is indeed a Cajun place a few blocks from my home here in Seattle, there is no Norwegian restaurant. There is, however, the Ballard neighborhood, fifteen minutes north of my home, which is full of Swedes and Norwegians, and which every year has a parade, featuring trolls, Norwegian dress, and such. Not quite the stuff of a Nesbo novel, I guess. But, I suppose it'll do.
Onward, into the summer reading season!
What I like most about Burke's books is the powerful, almost tactile, sense of southern Louisiana that he manages to impart on just about every page. After reading a few chapters I always feel like zipping off to the nearest Cajun restaurant and having a plate of crawfish and an ice-cold beer.
-------------------------
Speaking of Jo Nesbo: Yesterday, in the midst of a really annoying long-lasting downpour, I popped into Moonraker Books in Langley, Wa., on Whidbey Island (where I bought Burke's Glass Rainbow) and noticed that Nesbo's The Leopard is now--at last--available in the U.S. I read it a couple of months ago as an advance galley and loved it. Very dark. Very good. After reading it, I wanted to run out to my local Norwegian restaurant and have some herring.
Alas, while there is indeed a Cajun place a few blocks from my home here in Seattle, there is no Norwegian restaurant. There is, however, the Ballard neighborhood, fifteen minutes north of my home, which is full of Swedes and Norwegians, and which every year has a parade, featuring trolls, Norwegian dress, and such. Not quite the stuff of a Nesbo novel, I guess. But, I suppose it'll do.
Onward, into the summer reading season!
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Erik,I really like how you associate good food with the books you're reading. Reading leads to action! i.e., going out to eat. I'll be spending 2 weeks in Seattle in August -- looking forward to having some delicious meals.
Rebecca McBride
Thanks for the book recommendations, which I've popped into my "to read " list, and for the tie-ins to local color in and around Seattle. Did a highlights minivan tour when last in Seattle that included Ballard. Hope the new and exciting high tech Seattle is able to hold onto the vestiges of its ethnic, blue collar past.
I LOVE James Lee Burke's books. My favorite is Jolie Blon's Bounce but In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead is amazing, too.I also loved Devil in The White City and am looking forward to In the Garden of Beasts.
I was told by a friend not to read this if my husband wasn't home. She was right -- I was so scared I skipped to the end before I read the last 30ish pages. Is Hughes the same type author?
Just started reading James Lee Burke's Nice
Onward to summer reading season indeed!