L'Arc-en-ciel de verre

Dave Robicheaux #18

by James Lee Burke, Christophe Mercier (Translator)

De retour à New Iberia, Dave Robicheaux est entraîné dans une enquête déchirante sur le meurtre de sept jeunes femmes. Alors que tout semble indiquer la piste d'un serial killer, la mort d'une étudiante, bien différente des marginales habituellement prises pour cible par les tueurs de femmes, l'intrigue. Robicheaux et son ami Clete s'en prennent aussitôt à Herman Stanga, maquereau et dealer notoire. La confrontation tourne à la bagarre devant témoins, ce qui place Clete dans une situation d'autant plus délicate que Stanga est à son tour assassiné. Dans le même temps, Alafair, la fille adoptive de Dave Robicheaux, est séduite par un écrivain issu d'un clan bien connu de Louisiane, des gens corrompus et manipulateurs qui font craindre le pire à Dave. Mais Alafair ne veut rien savoir et commence à s'éloigner de son père...

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Detective, Audiobook

547 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 13, 2010

About the author

James Lee Burke is an American author best known for his mysteries, particularly the Dave Robicheaux series. He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for Black Cherry Blues in 1990 and Cimarron Rose in 1998.

Burke was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Missouri, receiving a BA and MA from the latter. He has worked at a wide variety of jobs over the years, including working in the oil industry, as a reporter, and as a social worker. He was Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, succeeding his good friend and posthumous Pulitzer Prize winner John Kennedy Toole, and preceding Ernest Gaines in the position. Shortly before his move to Montana, he taught for several years in the Creative Writing program at Wichita State University in the 1980s.

Burke and his wife, Pearl, split their time between Lolo, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. Their daughter, Alafair Burke, is also a mystery novelist.

The book that has influenced his life the most is the 1929 family tragedy "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The evening sky was streaked with purple, the color of torn plums, and a light rain had started to fall when I came to the end of the blacktop road that cut through twenty miles of thick, almost impenetrable scrub oak and pine and stopped at the front gate of Angola penitentiary.”



This is the opening line to what became a long relationship between myself and Dave Robicheaux. It all begins with The Neon Rain and though not his best book, (he peaks in the middle of the series somewhere around Black Cherry Blues ) it is still where a reader must begin. I love his prose. He shares his vision of Louisiana with the reader with descriptive terminology that brings Louisiana right to the arm of your reading chair. Now as pretty as he makes Louisiana sound he also describes the dark underbelly of the Big Easy. One moment you want to spend time gazing around the state with poetry in your mind and the next minute you want to put the car in gear and smoke your tires getting away from there as fast as possible.


Alec Baldwin playing Dave Robicheaux in Heaven's Prisoners

Now Dave is a drunk that has worked his way back to sobriety. I learned more about addictive behavior and the daily battle that must be waged to stay sober in the first few books of this series than I have in any other novels that touch on the subject. It is an on going theme through out the series and Dave in all his imperfections does occasionally stumble. I had a friend who is in the program describe it to me one time. The guy in his brain who wants to drink is in a cage and all he is doing while he is in that cage is doing push ups and pull ups and getting stronger and as long as you know that he is stronger than when you last met him you hope the fear of seeing him unleashed will keep you walking the line.


Tommy Lee Jones playing Dave Robicheaux In the Electric Mist

Clete Purcel is Dave's friend and partner, though by the time of *The Glass Rainbow*, Clete has long since been mustered out of the police force, but when the chips are down he is still the guy that Dave wants watching his back. For Dave the line dividing legal and illegal police behavior does blur, but for Clete the laws of the land are always secondary to his own ideas of justice. Dave spends a good bit of time trying to keep Clete out of trouble. Both have their heart in the right place, but the same demon drives both of them and seeing people hurt or disadvantaged people under the thumb of those with all the advantages brings out the worst and best in them.

"In his own mind, Clete was still a cop. His mistakes at NOPD, his history of addiction and vigilantism and involvement with biker girls and junkie strippers and street skells of every stripe all seemed to disappear from his memory, as though the justice of his cause were absolution enough and his misdeeds were simply burnt offerings that should not be held against him."

In The Glass Rainbow Dave and Clete find themselves investigating the murder of several young girls. An ex-con Robert Weingart, who was freed from prison by the intervention of the Abelard family, is the focus of the investigation. He was released after writing a book that was compared to Soul on Ice and the state decided that he was reformed...enough. Kermit Abelard is dating Alafair, the daughter of Dave Robicheaux. He is wealthy, attractive, a published writer, and emotionally available to an impressionable young lady. Kermit just happens to prefer going to the bed sheet rodeo with Robert Weingart. Needless to say Alafair may be a modern woman, but she ain't that modern. As the investigation continues it becomes evident that the real reason these girls are turning up dead has to do with a land deal that would allow an ethanol plant to be built. Scumbags, professional cleaners, an ex-college tennis player, a rich ex-cop, a crooked prison guard, old money and new money all figure in the plot of the novel. As they weave their way through the investigation Dave and Clete find themselves on both sides of the law. As the lies unravel for all those involved the desperation of the liars and our heroes comes to one last stand where even I was wondering if this was going to be the last Dave Robicheaux novel.


James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke does weave some philosophy into all his novels. Those moments of self-reflection which Dave has as he tries to determine if he is doing more good than harm.

“In that moment, when watches and clocks misbehave and you feel a cold vapor wrap itself around your heart, you unconsciously draw a line at the bottom of a long column of numbers and come up with a sum. Perhaps it's one that fills you with contentment and endows you with a level of courage and an acceptance that you didn't know you possessed.
Or maybe not.”

"If you're lucky, at a certain age you finally learn not to contend with the world or try to explain that the application of reason has little or nothing to do with the realities that exist just on the other side of one's fingertips."

“It has been my experience that most human stories are circular rather than linear. Regardless of the path we choose, we somehow end up where we commenced - in part, I suspect, because the child who lives in us goes along for the ride.”

Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel are crusaders, broken, flawed, wonderful men who have their own idea of justice and frequently pay the price for doing their best to keep people safe. In the immortal words of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men "You want me on that wall." I do with utmost certainty want Dave and Clete on that wall.

[Aditya · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is really surprising that the series does not end with The Glass Rainbow, because Burke almost leaves no stone unturned to suggest this is Robicheaux's swan song. There is a lot more focus on mortality than usual and the book has strained itself and reverted back to the series' core ideas. So the mystery gets a throwaway, blink and you will miss it explanation because the crime has always been anecdotal with Burke. It is a morality play where Robicheaux's end game is being a better man than anyone possibly could be in his place. Similarly Robicheaux's wife hardly figures in the narrative. He has had four wives throughout the series, so when the series shrinks to its basic tenets, his relationship with Clete Purcell and his daughter take up all the space. It reminded me of Chandler's The Long Goodbye as in how it was the weakest mystery yet the best entry in the series. Both are concerned with more important things than whodunnit.

The main suspect in a serial killer case is acquainted with Alafair's (Robicheaux's daughter) latest boyfriend - Kermit Abelard. The Abelards are rich Southern landlords, the kind that has played antagonists to Robicheaux since the series started. It is nice to see Alafair making errors in judgment, she has been too perfect in previous entries. Highlights include a great gunfight and an ending that would have been a fitting finale to the series.

Burke's breathtaking descriptions of Louisiana is stuff of legends. Like the great whore of Babylon, Louisiana was always desirable for her beauty and not her virtue. If Louisiana was a woman, this will be called a romance. His excellent prose is not only vivid but he subtly reinforces his themes. Like how in most scenes with Clete, he is eating. A symbol of gluttony for a character known for his insatiable urges or lack of restraint. Or the Abelard house is the oldest one in the parish surrounded by a dirty moat and accessible only via a bridge. It symbolizes how they live in the midst of moral vacuity and they are the last link to a forgotten past. No other crime writer will reward you for engaging with the writing to this extent. And in case you are here for the basal pleasures, Burke also writes some of the best hard boiled dialogue.

Robicheaux is the most layered protagonist in crime fiction history. With age both Burke and his protagonist has gotten more judgmental but he is often wondering whether his decisions are tinged with inherent biases and condescending attitudes. This sort of internal rumination makes him so appealing to me. He is certain about his motivations but confused about the morality of his actions.

Yet he changes. In a telling scene, one of Abelard's associates slut shames his daughter. Just before the scene Burke reminds how the same man has already been beaten up on three separate occasions because he is the sort of asshole that keeps dentists in business. Robicheaux however does not resort to violence though he has beaten up a guy before for saying similar stuff. And that in essence is why Robicheaux works so well for me. His first instinct is always to do the right thing and more importantly he does not always succeed.

For the last 6-7 entries, the series has been consistently good but formulaic. The Glass Rainbow however sizzles with a sense of impending doom that gives it an urgency the series has not seen in a long time. Add the best prose the genre has ever seen. And the only reason for not reading Burke as a crime fiction fan is if one finds the books too dark. But isn't it a bit like staying away from a stimulating and intelligent discussion because it is too smart for you? Rating - 5/5

Quotes : Like most Irish, the pagan in him was alive and well, but he kept a pew in a medieval cathedral where the knight-errant genuflected in a cone of stained light, blood-soaked cloak or not.

One that believed there was virtue in allowing memory to soften and revise the image of the deceased, that appearance was more important than substance, because ultimately appearance was, in its way, a fulfillment of aspiration.

Louisiana is a poem, but as with the Homeric epic, it’s not good to examine its heroes too closely.

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the eighteenth entry in James Lee Burke's series featuring Dave Robicheaux, a detective in the sheriff's department in New Iberia, Louisiana, and it's distinguished principally by the fact that both Robicheaux and his long-time running buddy, Clete Purcel, are feeling their age and sensing that the end is near.

As always in these books, the atmosphere looms large and, as has been the case in several of them, Dave's own family is at grave personal risk. In this case, it's his adopted daughter, Alafair, who is home on a break from college and struggling to complete a novel. Alafair begins a relationship with Kermit Abelard, the son of a family that has long constituted something of the local aristocracy.

Dave has always had a chip on his shoulder when it comes to folks like the Abelards whom he feels have exploited the people and the land of his beloved native state for their own personal gain.
Needless to say, then, Dave is not at all happy about Alafair's relationship with Abelard, and he's even less excited about the fact that the Abelards are hosting Robert Weingart, an ex-con-turned-writer who's being celebrated as the next great prison writer. Dave refuses to believe that Weingart has reformed and he believes that the Abelards are dupes or worse for allowing Weingart into their home. But naturally, when Dave attempts to warn Alafair of his concerns, she revolts against him and Dave runs the risk of losing his daughter.

Meanwhile, Dave is investigating the savage killings of several young local women. No one else seems to care at all about these victims, all of whom came from disadvantaged circumstances, but Dave is determined to pursue the cases, even though most of them lay outside of his jurisdiction. As always, Clete Purcel, who serves as Dave's alter ego, plays his usual role and blasts through the book like the proverbial bull in a china shop. There's a real chance that Clete's antics are finally going to catch up with him here, and all of these complex threads come together in a shattering climax.

In many ways, this story will seem familiar to those who have been following this series since the beginning. But what sets this book apart are the clear intimations of the mortality of the two main characters. Dave and Clete have been battling their way through a vicious and wicked world for a very long time now, and it seems clear to them as well as to the reader, that they will not be able to continue doing so for very much longer.

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Robicheaux needs to find who is behind the death of women in Jefferson Davis Parish.

David our main protagonist, a veteran detective who’s seen the evil that men do and has had his own demons to battle with in the past, he has more scars thorough life than any one man would want to accumulate. He’s still living and walking the earth, he’s strong will, good character and fight for survival is testament to this.

In the search for the guilty very bad men emerge from the shadows.
Fingers start pointing onto the direction of Herman Stanga a creep of the highest order who’s responsible for wrecking thousands of lives and has enemy from all corners of society.
Another bad apple Vidor Perkins, a sociopath with a very stained life becomes a problem for David as he makes threats and scares his precious daughter Alafair.
David has concerns for his family and needs to wrap this matter up sooner than later.
The death toll of suspects rises. As the body count increases the scope of suspicion lies in even bigger circles.
There maybe some powerful hands who are the real controllers of the whole nasty web, a powerful family.

Clete Purcel his ex-partner in upholding the law steps onto the scene and becomes part of the web. He’s a great addition to this story!

I only wished I opened a chapter into the character David Robicheaux's life more sooner than this. I took to reading this novel now as I had creole belle to read before release, wanting the run down on this Bayou saga. This story is epic it covers more than just a crime. One thing for sure is have James Lee Burke up there as a writer in the league of his own.

He writes with characters who are very human, with flaws but in the end have heart. He draws your attention and has the spotlight on injustices in history, those that society left behind and the poor and the weak. The pages in this story are filled with atmosphere and deeply layered writing, he can write so well and the story telling never bores. You feel him really talking to you and immersing you in the story.

I had felt a sense of place that I did not want to leave, the wonderful descriptions of the Bayou will remain I hope for time. I am just planning now to one day visit the Bayou Teche describe within these pages.

David and Clete need to work together and uncover every hole and look in any cracks. David needs to safeguard his family with his life.

The Bobbsey Twins(David and Clete) from Homicide are forever!

Excerpts

Herman Stanga described…

“Herman was one of those singular individuals for whom there is no adequate categorical description. He deliberately created addiction among his own people by giving what he called “entrepreneurial start-up flake” to teenage dealers. He encouraged his rock queens to eat fried food so their extra weight would signal to their customers that they were AIDS-free. He pimped off his white girls to black johns and his black girls to white johns. “Harry Truman integrated the united states army. I’m taking multiculturalism and equal opportunity to a much higher level,” he liked to say.”



A few excerpts that describe Clete Purcel….

“Clete was the libidinous trickster of folklore, the elephantine buffoon, the bane of the Mob and all misogynists and child molessters, the brain-scror he’d jar head who talked with a dead mamasan on his fire escape, the nemesis of authority figures and anyone who sought power over others, a one-man demolition derby who had driven an earth-grader through the walls of a mobsters palatial home on Lake Pontchartrain and systematically ground the entire building into rubble. Or at least that was the persona he created for the world to see. But in reality Clete Purcel was a tragedy. His enemys were many: gangsters, vindictive cops, and insurance companies who wanted him off the board. Klansmen and neo-Nazis had tried to kill him. A stripper he had befriended dosed him with the clap. He had been shanked, shot, garrotted, and tortured. A United States congressmen tried to have him sent to Angola. But all of the aforementioned were amateurs when it came to hurting Clete Purcel. Clete’s most dangerous adversary lived in his own breast.”



“Clete dealt with problematic situations among his clientele in the way a field surgeon would treat a gangrenous wound, or perhaps in the way a nurse in a third-world typhus ward would treat her patients. He clicked off a switch in his head and did not think about what his eyes saw and what his thoughts told him and what his hands were required by necessity to do.”




This is a thought provoking little excerpt…..

“As I sat on the steps(David) with Snuggs and Tripod, I wondered if those soldiers of long ago were still out there, beckoning to us, daring us to witness their morality, daring us to acknowledge that it would soon be ours.

I have had visions of them that I do not try to explain to other. Sometimes I thought I heard cries and shouts and the sounds of musket fire in the mist, because the Union soldiers who marched through Acadiana were turned loose upon the civilian populace as a lesson in terror. The rape of Negro women became commonplace. Northerners have never understood the nature of the crimes that were committed in their names, no more than neocolonials can understand the enmity their government creates in theirs. Their pastoral solemnity of a civil war graveyard doesn’t come close to suggesting the reality of war or the crucible of pain in which a solider lives and dies.

But in spite of the bloody bound on which our town was built, and out of which oak trees and bamboo and banks of flowers along the bayou grew, it remained for me a magical place in the predawn hours, touched only cosmetically by the Industrial Age, the drawbridge clanking erect in the fog, it’s great cogged wheels bleeding rust, a two-story quarter boat that resembled a nineteenth-century paddle wheeler being pushed down to the Gulf, the fog billowing whitely around it, the air sprinkled with the smell of Confederate Jasmine.”



An example of visceral writing and sheer justice and vengeance…

“I could feel my fingers finding new purchase on the baton’s handle, the leather thong looped loosely on my wrist bones. I could feel a vein of black electricity crawling through my arm into my shoulder, down my right side, and through my back and chest. He made me think of medieval jester mocking his executioner as he knelt before the chopping block. I could feel my whole body becoming a torqued spring that would find release only when I whipped the baton across Perkins’s temple and watched his eyes go senseless and dead. The procedural explanation was already available. I wouldn’t even have to use a throw down. He had committed a crime upon a child. I had tried to search him before hooking him up. He had whirled and gotten his hands on his archer’s bow. The blows I’d delivered were in self-defence and not intended to be fatal. As I had these thoughts, I saw Vidor Perkin’s time on earth coming to an end.”



David describes Creole and mentions bygone times…


“In a more primitive time, some of them had been derogatorily called “redbones.” Most of them were probably part white, part Chitimacha Indian, part Cajun, and part black. As a rule, they referred to themselves as Creoles, a term that, in the early nineteenth century, connoted the descendants of the Spanish and French colonists who settled in New Orleans and created the plantation society that surrounded it. In general, they were handsome people; they often had green or blue eyes and reddish or jet-black hair and skin that looked as though it had been blown with brick dust.”



And finally a great excerpt..

“I saw my father, Big Al, in his tin hard hat and my mother, Alafair Mae Guillory, in the pillbox hat she was so proud of, both of them on the bow, smiling, coming toward me. I saw men from my platoon, their rent fatigues laundered, their wounds glowing with a white radiance, and I saw boys in sun-bleached butternut and tattered gray, and I saw Golden Gloves boxers from state finals of 1956 and black musicians from Sharkey Bonano’s Dream Room on Bourbon. I saw grifters and martyred Maryknollers and strippers and saints and street people of very kind, and until that moment, I never realised how loving and beautiful human beings could be.”

Check out these pages below many videos with the author enjoy!

Visit http://www.jamesleeburke.com/

Visit James Lee Burke talks audiobooks and narrator Will Patton

Visit 75 Years of an American Legend

Visit James Lee Burke is interviewed by Barbara Peters

Visit Grand Master James Lee Burke

Visit Bestselling authors James Lee Burke and Alafair Burke

Get yourself in the right mood with this Cajun waltz, with images from Louisiana/Cajun country.
Here

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 18th book in the David Robicheaux series. In this story the detective with the New Iberia, Louisiana sheriff's department is investigating the deaths of seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish. They appear to be the work of a serial killer but one of the victims, Bernadette Latiolais, was a high school honor student and does not fit the profile of the other victims. Despite the number of victims there seems to be little interest or belief that a serial killer is in their midst. But Dave has his best friend, Clete Purcel, to help him with the case.

Adding to his troubles Dave's adopted daughter, Alafair, is home on a break from Stanford Law to put the finishing touches on her novel and she is in love with Kermit Abelard, a novelist himself, and scion of a once prominent Louisiana family. Abelard's association with bestselling ex-convict author Robert Weingart has Dave fearing for Alafair's safety. You know that Dave is right and a father knows best. Abelard and Weingart are toxic. Alafair may be all grown up now but she is still his daughter and he will always be there to protect her. Whether she likes it or not.

I have seen some reviews that complain the stories have become formulaic and there is probably some truth in this. I have also seen David Robicheaux described as a knight-errant. Dave doesn't wander searching for adventures nor does he try to seek to prove anything. Troubles seem to find him without any wandering except to neighboring parishes. He is human and has his flaws ... several in fact. But basically he is a decent man who seeks justice for the victims, the poor, people who often can't or are afraid. Victims like Bernadette Latiolais who had a promising future only to have it cut short because someone with a depraved heart walks among us.

Another theme that I saw in this book that I don't recall reading in others is that of mortality. Dave, and Clete, are getting old. You are left with the sensation that the end is near. As in many of the books in this series there is a bit of the supernatural and mysticism that comes into play. The end will leave you wondering what the future holds for David Robicheaux.

[Ellen Herbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a member of the camp that finds the work of James Lee Burke necessary. I have read that he is the modern day Faulkner. All I know is that he brings alive the Louisiana that I know and his characters remain with me in between the releases of the books.

In The Glass Rainbow, there is all that I have found familiar and seductive in the past plus a new twist - mortality. Dave has an angel or a demon on his back, as always and as the reader walks with him, he/she will find themselves looking for shapes in the mist that foretell that this time, the stakes are a little higher, the cost is a little more.

Taken at face value, the book delivers on every count - corruption, the face of evil, flawed heroes, tragic and doomed characters of New Iberia - all of this we welcome. But going into it expecting just a rollicking ride with our friend Dave is naive. There is a caution and a measure in him we have not seen before, nor have his compatriots; Clete or Helen, Alafair, who opens the pandoras box or his beloved Molly.

If you know these books and this character you don't need my review. If you have yet to take a stroll through Bayou Teche, please do so.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

After 18 novels in the Dave Robicheaux series, I think I'm done with this. Burke has been running on fumes for the last couple of installments, and really seems to have run out of gas. Much as I hate to admit it, it's past time to retire this series.

Burke is one of the few really good stylists working in genre fiction, but genre fiction depends upon plot, and there is virtually none here. Burke barely makes any effort to explain what lies behind the deaths of the two young girls which seems to be the central crime of the book, or what any of the key characters have to do with it. There's action, but very little reason for it. And, for that matter, almost all of the action is initiated by Dave and his pal, Clete Purcell, working to get a rise out of different bad guys, with no real justification except that Dave and Clete believe them to be bad guys.

And I have finally gotten tired of the two principal characters--Dave and Clete. In book after book, they can identify the evil ones just by looking at them. This is fine once or twice, but it gets tiresome after so many books in which this happens, and it begins to affect the reader's ability to suspend disbelief.

Despite the lack of plot and cliche nature of the characters, the book fills out over 500 pages in paperback. It's bloated. It's worth noting that the early books in this series were generally in the 300 page range, showing an economy of style which Burke has lost.

Finally, let me just say that the horrible class hostility shown by Burke has become wearying. In the Robicheaux novels, the wealthy people are always bad guys, vicious and amoral (or immoral) exploiters of the good working class residents. At best the rich folks in these books are moral cowards. Their victims are more often than not young and innocent, poor girls. His characterizations have become cartoonish.

Much as it pains me to say it, I no longer look forward to my annual summer read of a Dave Robicheaux novel. I don't know what next year will bring, but I doubt that another installment will be the automatic buy that it has been for me in the past.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Lee Burke has always been a go-to writer for me. His Dave Robichaux series, in particular, has given me many hours of entertainment and an appreciation of writing place that I did not have before. Set in southern Louisiana, these books tell the story of Dave Robichaux and his friend and former partner in the New Orleans Police Department, Clete Purcel. Both men are deeply flawed, alcoholics in and out of recovery, and men who stand by their own code of honor as they become involved in the crimes they encounter.

Burke understands southern Louisiana - the look, the feel, the smells, the sounds, and its people. His books always present nuanced characters and plots that are deeply embedded within decades of Louisiana history. He does not romanticize, but he does not denigrate, either. Rather he celebrates the good of a life that was, the bad of that life, and the present as we all watch places like New Iberia and New Orleans swept off the map by hurricanes and government neglect.

Burke never ceases to make me want to read over and over again and he always makes me homesick for the South with all its flawed beauty. Glass Rainbow is one of the best in this series - if you're a fan, read it. If you're not a fan, I envy you. Start at the beginning of the series and work your way through - you won't be sorry.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sturdy entry in the Sheriff Dave Robicheaux series. Kept me interested even during the Super Bowl, so that's saying a lot. I'm going with 5 stars if just for the entertainment value TGR packed for me, and the vivid prose--sometimes I just shook my head in awe. Good stuff, plain and simple.

[John Hood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bound: A Stained Glass Radiance - SunPost Weekly July 29, 2010
http://bit.ly/c7L71w
John Hood

Last week I had the great good pleasure of slipping into The Big Easy for a couple days courtesy of Cointreau, who'd flown me up to that storied city in order to interview Dita Von Teese. While I was there I made a point of strolling the French Quarter at daybreak so that I might get a whiff of some of those ghosts James Lee Burke is forever mentioning in his works. And the man is right: the spirits are palpable, all over town. But particularly in the Quarter, which has seen some of the heaviest history in the last two centuries.

"The Quarter in the early hours is really nice, right at dawn," The 2009 Mystery Writers of America Grand Master told me by phone earlier this week. "There are two different cultures down there, really. You go down there in the morning, when the artists are setting up their easels on Jackson Square, and you can smell the coffee and beignets, and the fruit stands on the sidewalks. Then you come down there at 11 o'clock at night... (laughs)"

Burke's referring, of course, to New Orleans' nightly bacchanal, which consists of everything from Dixieland Jazz bands blowing their brass up and down Decatur Street to soda pop top capped kids tapping out shuffles over on Bourbon. There are the artists, and the tarot card readers, and the endless array of gin joints, most devoted to the constant swarm of tourists, but some, like the Chart Room, which cater to a more local clientele. Yes, wherever you are in the Quarter, the liquor is flowing non-stop. And the ghosts of parties past lurk on every corner.

It is just those ghosts that hover all over Burke's many novels, including his latest, The Glass Rainbow (Simon & Schuster $25.99). And while the 18th Dave Robicheaux chronicle pretty much stays over in New Iberia, on the other side of the southern Louisiana, the echo - and the ghosts - of New Orleans is ever present. After all, that was where Robicheaux and his road dog CletePurcel were homicide detectives way back when. And that was where the two formed the unbreakablebond that ties together every one of the Robicheaux stories. And it is that city's spirit - and spiritedness - which continues to hold sway.

"Well, I think it's just a matter of realizing what's there," Burke continues. "I think of it this way, the spiritual world is there or it isn't. It's like being dead or not dead, or pregnant or not pregnant. There's no gray area. And there are people who subscribe to the belief that beyond the physical world there are unseen entities. And that's my belief. Others have a different perspective."

Purcel, in fact, doesn't seem too keen on the spirits (unless they come in a bottle), and when Robicheaux sees a 19th century steamer paddling through his neck of the Bayou, he's hesitant to tell his pal. Not that Purcel would hold it against him, mind you; hell, if anything, the hard-charging gumshoe would probably go over and try and kick those spirits in the ass. But there's a decided difference in how the two brace the world, and Robicheaux seems content to keep his visions to himself.

Nevertheless, Purcel can tell something's up. Like I said, these men share a vast past, and they know each other perhaps even better then they know themselves. So when the two get hot on the trail of the network responsible for seven dead girls, no spirit in the world will stop them from achieving their objective.

Like each installment in the continuing adventures Burke's been steadily unleashing lo these twenty-three years now, The Glass Rainbow has all the hallmarks of a twisted whodunit. There are the bad men - ex-cons with faraway stares; then there are the really bad men 0 those who've cloaked their evil in genteel respectability. There are cops who become complicit, and cops who wouldn't comply if their life depended on it. Mostly though there's Robicheaux, who won't let go of a notion until he makes an example of it, and Purcel, who'll pile up a stack of wrongs just to get at an ultimate right.

As ever I shan't spoil the story by exposing the narrative. If you've read any of the previous Robicheaux novels you probably already have this by your bedside. If you haven't you can begin here and work your way back without losing your place. Because though all the books do contain a continuing thread; each also works as a standalone.

Or, as Burke says, echoing Nietzsche's Theory of Eternal Return: "I believe the story of the Dave Robicheaux novels is of course circular,but I believe the human story is circular as well. We always go back to our origins in one fashion or another."

In The Glass Rainbow the circular is at once dizzying and necessary, a mad dash 'round the bases in this game called life. Sure it's murder story. And yes, it's laden with mystery. But you could say that's just the backdrop for the thinking, feeling, bleeding, pumping pulse of it all. Another expert instance of story revealing the heart of how and why we come to be.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easily my least favorite of the Dave Robicheaux novels. The 2 dead girls seem mothing more that an excuse for Dave & Clete to knock some bad guys heads in. Of all the novels I had the least sympathy for Dave & Clete (& Alafair, for that matter); actively feeling disgust for their actions at times. When the "good guys" start to act as bad as the "bad guys" & use their good guy-ness as an excuse for it, when one "good guy" looks the other way as another "good guy" mistreats a "bad guy", and when the "good guys" revel in their self-described alcohol abuse that is so bad it is actually causing health problems, judgement problems, and black-outs - then it is a real strain to feel any sympathy for the "good guys". Parallels can be drawn to today's headlines of marines/soldiers abusing the enemy just because they can, because it is war.

If I did not have another of Burke's books on my bookshelf awaiting reading, I would probably make the call to cross him off my reading list. I like Burke's writing style, his dry, country colloquialisms, but his characters' character is starting to grate.

[Marie Hviding · Rating 4 out of 5]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I have been crazy in love with Dave Robicheaux for over 15 years now. The seriously flawed noble mon never disappointed. The same is true in "The Glass Rainbow". Dave and Clete tear through the landscape, avenging angels handing out rough justice and ham-fisted redemption. Burke's luminous blend of spirituality and violence are as seductive as ever...and so I was not ready. Burke warns the reader again and again, but I still was not ready. It's maybe not Burke's best, my vote goes to either "In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead", "Dixie City Jam", or "The Tin Roof Blowdown", but it is far and away above everybody else out there.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Dave Robicheaux, deputy sheriff
SETTING: Louisiana
SERIES: #18 of 18
RATING: 3.0

Dave Robicheaux, a deputy sheriff for Iberia Parish, Louisiana, has just returned from a trip to Montana, only to find a grievous crime spree in front of him, one involving the rape and mutilation of seven local women. Although many of the victims resided outside his area of responsibility, Dave finds himself pulled into the case because of the plight of two of the victims. Unlike the other five, thely were people who had led good lives. In particular, Dave is moved by the senseless death of Bernadette Latiolais who had overcome tremendous poverty to make something out of her life.

But THE GLASS RAINBOW doesn’t really focus on the investigation of these murders. Instead, a large part of the narrative is devoted to two threads: Dave’s adopted daughter Alafair’s serious relationship with Kermit Abelard, the author of historical novels and the son of a powerful robber baron; and the ongoing self-destructive behavior of his best friend and former partner, Clete Purcel. Alafair is working on a book of her own, and Kermit and his oily friend, Robert Weingart, are helping her find a publisher. Weingart is an ex-con and best-selling author. Needless to say, Dave has no use for any of these people, which leads to huge conflict with Alafair, who feels that Dave is trying to control her life. Weingard in particular is a reprehensible character, closely followed by Kermit’s father.

The Clete Purcel situation is really the main plot thread of the book. Clete is an alcoholic and borderline sociopath. He almost kills another evil local, Herman Stanga; and Dave tries to help him avoid incarceration. When Stanga is murdered, Clete is the obvious suspect. He also becomes involved with a nearby parish sheriff, Emma Poche; of course, that doesn’t end well either.

Although I wanted to like THE GLASS RAINBOW, I found the book quite unsatisfying. Its pages are peopled with a large group of unlikable characters, which at times included several of the main characters. Both Alafair and Clete are quite inconsistent. On the one hand, Alafair finds Dave to be overwhelmingly controlling and irrational about her relationship choices; on the other, she touts him as about the finest man on the planet. That portrayal seemed very forced. Clete and Dave have a long-standing and unbreakable bond with one another; but there were many instances where one or the other of them pushed the relationship to its limits. Clete is depicted as a man with many demons, one who could easily kill a man if he felt the situation required it. Yet, he is also painted as a kind of “noble savage”, a man whose loyalty and caring for his friend redeems all of his bad behavior.

Ultimately, what made the book one that I didn’t much like was the character of Dave. Throughout the book, he is operating under non-stop rage. There is no warmth anywhere in the book, other than in a few passages dealing with the unfortunate victim, Bernadette. Dave’s wife, Molly, is barely mentioned; the scenes between them seem perfunctory and lacking in affection.

I’m sure that the dedicated fans of James Lee Burke will love THE GLASS RAINBOW. There’s no denying that Burke writes beautifully; but for me the book was fatally flawed, mostly because of the heavy-handed characterization. I found it to be a real downer.

[Johnsergeant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrated by Will Patton

15 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

James Lee Burke’s eagerly awaited new novel finds Detective Dave Robicheaux back in New Iberia, Louisiana, and embroiled in the most harrowing and dangerous case of his career. Seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish have been brutally murdered. While the crimes have all the telltale signs of a serial killer, the death of Bernadette Latiolais, a high-school honor student, doesn’t fit: she is not the kind of hapless and marginalized victim psychopaths usually prey upon. Robicheaux and his best friend, Clete Purcel, confront Herman Stanga, a notorious pimp and crack dealer whom both men despise. When Stanga turns up dead shortly after a fierce beating by Purcel, in front of numerous witnesses, the case takes a nasty turn, and Clete’s career and life are hanging by threads over the abyss.
Adding to Robicheaux’s troubles is the matter of his daughter, Alafair, on leave from Stanford Law to put the finishing touches on her novel. Her literary pursuit has led her into the arms of Kermit Abelard, celebrated novelist and scion of a once prominent Louisiana family whose fortunes are slowly sinking into the corruption of Louisiana’s subculture. Abelard’s association with best-selling ex-convict author Robert Weingart, a man who uses and discards people like Kleenex, causes Robicheaux to fear that Alafair might be destroyed by the man she loves. As his daughter seems to drift away from him, he wonders if he has become a victim of his own paranoia. But as usual, Robicheaux’s instincts are proven correct and he finds himself dealing with a level of evil that is greater than any enemy he has confronted in the past.
Set against the backdrop of an Edenic paradise threatened by pernicious forces, James Lee Burke’s The Glass Rainbow is already being hailed as perhaps the best novel in the Robicheaux series.

[Gayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My all time favorite series.....Somehow Burke manages to combine Faulkner,( the South, Race , class and family secrets)..."The past is not-past it is-not even-over yet" Dostoevsky
( fallen humanity and redemption) and Steinbeck( the great mass of the downtrodden trampled by capitalism) all rolled into one.

The intensely flawed main character continues his one step forward two back path of redemption amid a cast of truly evil characters and a bunch as flawed as himself. The setting as well as the Robicheaux's struggles are the real back bone of the writing.

I would recommend starting at the beginning but any one of the books can stand alone. My personal favorite is In the Electric Mist with the Confederate War Dead. Tin Roof Blowdown is a brilliant capture of New Orleans and the Louisiana coast during and after Katrina.

[Yigal Zur · Rating 4 out of 5]

good story of friendship and great thriller

[Irene Ziegler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dave Robicheaux books are starting to blend together for me, but that's all right. I don't read them for the plot; I read them for the swoon factor.

The swoon factor occurs after you have placed yourself in the hands of a confident, assured author whom you trust to gently carry you through his world, and at journey's end, safely return you to your own. You arrive at that last page, linger on the closing sentence, and sigh, contented.

Swoon factor.

Nonetheless, I think I'm done with Dave Robicheaux (not James Lee Burke, mind you, but his character). I've been around the block with him too many times, and know his hot buttons and who is going to push them. I know he's going to fight with demon alcohol, with the sheriff, with his partner, Clete. I know he's going to come face to face with evil personified, and ignore his family's warnings. I know he's going to put them all in danger, and step in front of bullets to protect them.

In other words, he has stopped surprising me.

The Glass Rainbow is elegant, sharp-edged, haunting and terrific,just like all Burke's novels. Dave's daughter Alafair is romantically involved with a man who is shepherding Alafair's first novel toward publication, but the company he keeps makes Dave justifiably nervous. As Dave goes on the offense, he uncovers links to several murders of young girls, and tries to steer Alafair away from the company she has chosen to keep. But nobody likes to be told who she can or can't fall in love with, and Alafair (naturally) insists that Dave has it all wrong. But we know (becsuse we've read 20 other Dave Robicheaux novels) that Dave is never wrong, and must watch as Alafair's heart beats a march toward disaster.

I need to say something about the ending without saying anything about the ending: ...
I can't do it.
I'll just say there is one. An ending, I mean.
Or (cue scary music) IS THERE?

Burke will continue to churn out a novel a year, and I wish him and his characters well. I hope we'll see more of the Montana novels, with Texas ranger Billy Bob Holland. I wonder what he's up to?

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started the Dave Robicheaux series by reading Pegasus Descending then Tin Roof Blowdown and Swan Peak. I grew to love all of the characters, the description of the beautiful Louisiana settings and of course Burke's writing. So I decided to go back to the first book and work my way through the entire series. I made it through from Neon Rain to the 9th book Cadillac Jukebox. I couldn't stand waiting so I jumped ahead and read The Glass Rainbow.

This book was the best of the entire series that I have read so far. Burke's writing is poetry in novel form. I have listened to most of the books on audible and I feel like I'm on a trip to Louisiana in each one. I can picture the places described in the books as if I have been there.

Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel are some of the best characters I have ever encountered ... they balance each other out perfectly. And, there has been great character development as the series progressed. The ending in this book is a true masterpiece. I'm sure that this will be considered an American Literature Masterpiece or Classic someday.

Now, I'm glad that I still have five more of the Dave Robicheaux books to go back to and finish the series. Thank you James Lee Burke for your creative efforts.

[Mitch White · Rating 1 out of 5]

I give up on James Lee Burke, and I hate to do that. But this book just rambles. The plot would be good if he would let it occur, but he seems determined to fit any progress toward the plot. He used to be compelling because of his style; and people used to compare him (and correctly so) to the great southern novelists who told involved and meandering stories. But they eventually go somewhere. Burke just doesn't do that at all anymore. He seems to have gotten so buried in the writing style that ALL he does is ramble and the plot RARELY pops up. A truely sad loss...

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of the same, for the most part, and that's just fine ... particularly because I took this one along on lengthy trip (with two long flights in each direction) - and when I wasn't sleeping on the planes, it kept me fully entertained.

I enjoyed this one more than many (in the series), but it wasn't one of my favorites. I can't put my finger on it, but the bad guys (and girls) and miscreants didn't really come to life for me. Alas. Conversely, as expected, and true to form, it all held together relatively well, the eventually momentum picked up, and the grand finale of mayhem and madness was sufficiently gratifying to make the whole worthwhile (even if the conclusion/ending felt a bit abrupt).

Consistent with the series, the prose was languid, the descriptions were evocative, the mayhem and madness never ceased, and the violence and brutality were deeply disturbing. Once I got past the halfway point (and became fully vested), I was highly disinclined to put it down.

I've now read something in the ballpark of two dozen JLB novels, and I don't expect to stop anytime soon. I consistently restock with a couple in my to-read pile (although I almost never read them consecutively, I do tend to buy a few at at time and keep one or more in the pile for when I'm looking for a safe/reliable choice). As was its predecessor on my last big trip (when I dragged along the preceding book in the series), this proved perfect for long-haul-airline-and-hotel consumption.

With only a couple of exceptions, I've read JLB's serials (and, in particular, Robicheaux) in order, and that makes sense to me. If I continue to ration, I expect I'm now only a year or two away from catching up to JLB on Robicheaux, and then I need to work through the Holland family saga... So many books, so little time...

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robicheaux has a problem with his adopted daughter's new boy friend. He's a dozen years older and from a unsavory, rich family. Robicheaux is also trying to keep his friend Cletus on the straight and narrow while investgating the deaths of several prostitutes.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book kept me glued to the end. I find Dave Robicheaux to be one of the most interesting characters in detective fiction, or perhaps fiction. Burke's descriptions of Louisiana--the people, the history, the landscape, everything is wonderful and sometimes horrible. Louisiana is a character along with the people.

Highly recommended. But suggest that those who have not read any or much of Burke's Robicheaux novels start with an earlier work so as not to miss the background.

[Byron Washington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just Amazing!!

James Lee Burke is so gifted and talented. Clete Purcel and Dave Robicheaux make you believe in a better world. The love they have for one another is the kind of friendship that we all should experience. The depths that they will travel to defend and save one another is truly life affirming. Man, what a book!!!

Buy it, read it and enjoy!!👍🏾🔥👍🏾🔥👍🏾🔥👍🏾🔥👍🏾🔥

[Amy Cottrell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Talk about a terrible read. I slogged through the whole story hoping to at least have a decent ending. Boy, I was totally disappointed. Don't waste your time reading this book unless you really like endings with absolutely no resolution.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the best book in this series since Black Cherry Blues. Brilliant and insightful. Full of surprises, even for longtime fans.

[Gary Sosniecki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read some popular fiction recently that I thought was pretty good. But then I picked up this 11-year-old paperback at a used bookstore. From the first paragraph — 27 eloquent lines long — I once again was mesmerized by the writing of James Lee Burke. "The Glass Rainbow," from Burke's Dave Robicheaux series, is the sort of book that night after night keeps you reading long past your planned bedtime. The storytelling was so good that two days after finishing the novel, I reread the exciting final chapter.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

by James Lee Burke
Simon & Schuster July 2010
978-1-4391-2829-9
From my personal library
Rating: 5 of 5 - sheer perfection

Have you ever smelled the magnolias, tasted the gumbo, seen the Spanish moss strung like Christmas garlands in the live oaks, heard the rain play on a tin roof, felt the damp salt breeze off the Gulf of Mexico? And the fleeting visions in the corner of your eye are indeed ghosts of an antebellum past, in the land of Marie Laveau. James Lee Burke's gifts are such that you will experience all of these things right there in your own home or in the coffee shop or on the evening train, even if you have never made it to New Orleans (NuOrlans) or south to New Iberia Parish.

Mr. Burke is the recipient of two Edgars (Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel of the year), awarded by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA), the only author to win more than one. In 2009 he was named a "Grand Master" by the MWA. He also received the Louisiana Writer Award presented by the now Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco. Mr. Burke is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Bread Loaf Fellow and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow (NEA). The Lost Get Back Boogie, his fourth novel, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He also taught creative writing at Wichita State University.

The Glass Rainbow is the best James Lee Burke novel, the best Dave Robicheaux tale. The novel begins with the investigation of the deaths of seven girls and young women. There is a list of suspects: an heir to a plantation fortune turned author of historical novels; an ex-con turned author of a novel about his prison time (one of those people made famous by an affluent "sophisticated" readership living vicariously on illicit thrills); a swamp-wise dealer/pimp/entrepreneur who preys expertly on desperate people with dreams of a significant life; a nouveaux-riche millionaire and his wife with old money pretensions, under investigation by the IRS and the SEC.

Dave Robicheaux, New Iberia Parish Sheriff Detective, Vietnam vet and recovering alcoholic who harbors no illusions about his fellow man, is conducting the investigation into the young women's deaths. As always, best friend and private investigator Clete Purcel, Vietnam Vet, disgraced former cop and alcoholic with a death wish (who is somehow adorable despite these things), has his back (sometimes in the form of ag assault and maybe justifiable homicide.)

The extra ingredient in this mix is the presence of Dave's daughter Alafair, home for the summer between college and law school. She is also writing a novel (there's a lot of writing going on here) and becomes involved with Kermit Abelard, aforementioned plantation heir from our suspect list.
This brew comes to a boil with results that I did not see coming. I kept counting the pages because I did not want it to end. This novel changes everything. Nothing in Dave and Clete's world will ever be the same. By the climax of The Glass Rainbow I was holding my breath with tears in my eyes.

[Larry H]

If I were to make a list of my all-time favorite authors, there's little doubt that James Lee Burke would find a place on that list. I've been reading his books since 1990 (he's one of those prolific authors who have the ability to write a book a year) and I can honestly say that there hasn't been one I didn't enjoy. It's a combination of his narrative skills, his creation of memorable characters that I see in my head after reading so many books they've been in, and the way he can evoke amazing imagery. (Plus, I met him at a book signing once and he was such a friendly and gracious person.)



The Glass Rainbow, another installment of Burke's series featuring Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux, certainly didn't disappoint. Robicheaux is one of those people that trouble seems to follow wherever he goes, plus the doggedness that makes him a good detective often puts him in perilous situations. In this book, Dave is investigating the deaths of seven young women in a neighboring parish, although one, Bernadette Latiolais, doesn't seem to fit with the others. His investigation brings him—and his compadre, trouble magnet Clete Purcel—into the circle of violent pimp and drug dealer Herman Stanga. Stanga's murder doesn't make the situation any easier; in fact, every random situation Dave seems to come into contact with tends to uncover another double-cross, another dangerous person with their eyes set on destroying Dave and his family. The twists come fast and furious in this book, although Burke's narrative style doesn't give you too much too soon. I'll admit the ending confused me a little (if someone else reads this book, please let me know) but I found that the book really packed a punch.



For a fantastic series of books—and one you can start anywhere in the series if you don't want to go back to the beginning—pick up one of the Dave Robicheaux books by James Lee Burke. Truth be told, you can pick up any of Burke's books and you won't be disappointed. And now I have to wait another year for him to write another...

[Gerald Sinstadt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dave Robicheaux has a more complex back story than most policemen. In his own words, "My daughter had grown from a terrified five-year-old refugee I had pulled from a submerged plane into an aspiring novelist and law student. My wife, Molly, had been a Catholic nun, a missionary in Central America, a labor organizer in southern Louisiana, and the wife of a police officer who had shed the blood of many men."

Potential material there for more than one book, and The Glass Rainbow's 522 pages do begin to feel overladen - not just with plot but with deep South history, Viet Nam flashbacks and the seemingly obligatory alcoholism. The disappearance of two young girls is the peg on which the investigation is hung, but there are many offshoots, not least the propensity of Robicheaux's friend and semi-official partner to commit acts of extreme uncontrolled violence. Indeed, it is a frequently violent tale, the villains are downright evil, and there is an underlying element of revolting nastiness that stops just short of being explicit.

James Lee Burke's output is impressive but, with seventeen Robicheaux novels before this, the search for more depth and fresh story-lines looks a little desperate.

[Bob Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a Dave Robicheaux fan actually, so I have to explain the lower rating. Here his characters use language that is just gratuitously obnoxious, and it goes on and on. The same impact is perfectly possible without this excess. More importantly however, the language seems designed to make the reader think that Robicheaux and his buddies are just dumb and can't for unexplained reasons see what Burke already has made clear to the reader. At crucial points, Robicheaux seems to waken to see precisely what needs to be done, suddenly becomes hyper-intelligent and moves to master the play. All this occurs against a backdrop that reveals that Robicheaux is socially sensitive, racially blind, a strong supporter of women's rights and a natural rescuer of the downtrodden. That many people can't climb into one skin. If Burke would round off the sharp edges on each end, as I believe he used to do in his earlier novels, I would enjoy reading them more. Dave Robicheaux doesn't give up on himself, and I'm not giving up on Burke, just hoping.