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Dave Robicheaux #7
Dixie City Jam
As a child he was frightened by the stories...
It's out there, under the salt of the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast--a buried Nazi submarine. Detective Dave Robicheaux of the New Ibera Sheriff's office has known if its existence since childhood, when he was terrified by nightmares of the evil Nazi sailors just offshore. Then, as a teenager, he stumbled upon the sunken sub while scuba diving--but for years he kept the secret of its watery grave.
... And now he must face the terrible reality.
But decades later, when a powerful Jewish activist wants the sub raised, Robicheaux's knowledge puts him at the center of a terrifying struggle of conflicting desires. A neo-Nazi psychopath named Will Buchalter, who insists that the Holocaust was a hoax, wants to find the submarine first--and he'll stop at nothing to get Robicheaux to talk.
James Lee Burke looks long and hard into the human heart of darkness in his most electrifying novel yet, a story of terror and courage in a Southern Louisiana where the horrific and the beautiful rise from the same fertile soil.
It's out there, under the salt of the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast--a buried Nazi submarine. Detective Dave Robicheaux of the New Ibera Sheriff's office has known if its existence since childhood, when he was terrified by nightmares of the evil Nazi sailors just offshore. Then, as a teenager, he stumbled upon the sunken sub while scuba diving--but for years he kept the secret of its watery grave.
... And now he must face the terrible reality.
But decades later, when a powerful Jewish activist wants the sub raised, Robicheaux's knowledge puts him at the center of a terrifying struggle of conflicting desires. A neo-Nazi psychopath named Will Buchalter, who insists that the Holocaust was a hoax, wants to find the submarine first--and he'll stop at nothing to get Robicheaux to talk.
James Lee Burke looks long and hard into the human heart of darkness in his most electrifying novel yet, a story of terror and courage in a Southern Louisiana where the horrific and the beautiful rise from the same fertile soil.
494 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 4, 1994
629 people are currently reading
1920 people want to read
About the author
James Lee Burke
124 books4,184 followersJames 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.
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.
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October 4, 2025
DAS BOOT
Uno dei punti di forza di James Lee Burke è il luogo in cui ambienta le sue storie: la Louisiana, New Orleans, i bayou, i cajun, il Golfo del Messico (o è quello d’America? 🤔), la natura. Clima piovoso, umido, paludoso, che non sembra adatto ad accogliere storie in stile hard-boiled, genere che rimanda a metropoli, asfalti e auto luccicanti. Ma così è, e James Lee Burke ci riesce alla perfezione, facendo diventare la natura e il paesaggio da sfondo a coprotagonista.
Qui in particolare un ruolo principale è giocato dal mare, dal Golfo del Mexico (o è quello d’America? Magari chiedo a Donald), dove il prologo ci spiega che nei primi anni della Seconda Guerra Mondiale si nascondevano gli u-boot tedeschi che attaccavano e affondavano petroliere e navi commerciali. Proprio intorno al relitto sommerso di un sommergibile nazista, decorato da ovvia svastica, e che dovrebbe contenere una grande svastica forgiata con l’oro sottratto agli ebrei dei campi, si dipana la matassa.
Che vede coinvolti uno psicopatico senza cura dalla forza devastante, supremazia bianca, fratellanza ariana e altri soggetti simili. Ovvio che oltre che recuperare il carico d’oro, abbiano intenzione di far fuori qualche ebreo e qualche afro-americano (qui chiamati negri – edizione del 1997 – fa una certa impressione).
La statua in onore di James Lee Burke a New Iberia.
Come ogni buona crime story, anche qui, oltre trama thriller e intreccio poliziesco, contano le riflessioni sul senso profondo delle azioni umane. Tutto scorre alternandole a dialoghi secchi e battute caustiche, la parte del romanzo dove l’hard-boiled emerge maggiormente.
Il protagonista è ancora lui, Dave Robicheaux, il poliziotto che è stato in Vietnam e che a un certo punto abbandona la grande città (New Orleans) per trasferirsi in luogo di dimensioni contenute (New Iberia) dove ha una seconda attività di noleggio imbarcazioni e vendita di materiale per la pesca.
E come spesso succede con gli scrittori americani, prima di potersi mantenere con la sua scrittura (il successo arrivò superati i cinquant’anni), Burke svolse lavori diversi, dal giornalista all’assistente sociale a un impiego nell’industria del petrolio.
Uno dei punti di forza di James Lee Burke è il luogo in cui ambienta le sue storie: la Louisiana, New Orleans, i bayou, i cajun, il Golfo del Messico (o è quello d’America? 🤔), la natura. Clima piovoso, umido, paludoso, che non sembra adatto ad accogliere storie in stile hard-boiled, genere che rimanda a metropoli, asfalti e auto luccicanti. Ma così è, e James Lee Burke ci riesce alla perfezione, facendo diventare la natura e il paesaggio da sfondo a coprotagonista.
Qui in particolare un ruolo principale è giocato dal mare, dal Golfo del Mexico (o è quello d’America? Magari chiedo a Donald), dove il prologo ci spiega che nei primi anni della Seconda Guerra Mondiale si nascondevano gli u-boot tedeschi che attaccavano e affondavano petroliere e navi commerciali. Proprio intorno al relitto sommerso di un sommergibile nazista, decorato da ovvia svastica, e che dovrebbe contenere una grande svastica forgiata con l’oro sottratto agli ebrei dei campi, si dipana la matassa.
Che vede coinvolti uno psicopatico senza cura dalla forza devastante, supremazia bianca, fratellanza ariana e altri soggetti simili. Ovvio che oltre che recuperare il carico d’oro, abbiano intenzione di far fuori qualche ebreo e qualche afro-americano (qui chiamati negri – edizione del 1997 – fa una certa impressione).
La statua in onore di James Lee Burke a New Iberia.
Come ogni buona crime story, anche qui, oltre trama thriller e intreccio poliziesco, contano le riflessioni sul senso profondo delle azioni umane. Tutto scorre alternandole a dialoghi secchi e battute caustiche, la parte del romanzo dove l’hard-boiled emerge maggiormente.
Il protagonista è ancora lui, Dave Robicheaux, il poliziotto che è stato in Vietnam e che a un certo punto abbandona la grande città (New Orleans) per trasferirsi in luogo di dimensioni contenute (New Iberia) dove ha una seconda attività di noleggio imbarcazioni e vendita di materiale per la pesca.
E come spesso succede con gli scrittori americani, prima di potersi mantenere con la sua scrittura (il successo arrivò superati i cinquant’anni), Burke svolse lavori diversi, dal giornalista all’assistente sociale a un impiego nell’industria del petrolio.
July 21, 2017
I have to say that James Lee Burke is the best mystery writer today! I'm so hooked on his Dave Robicheaux series that I can't read it fast enough. His writing is phenomenal and I can't say it enough.
July 30, 2012
If this book was a truck, it would be a heavy duty Ford able to pull a submarine out of the water. As number seven in the Dave Robicheaux series, this book, I believe, was the best one yet and that’s saying a lot since I’ve given them all four or five stars. (I don’t give out five stars easily.)
Happy that I started with book number one because it lays out the development of Robicheaux otherwise I might think the guy is just simply crazy. He is certainly prone to violence but doles it out carefully. When presented with violence he doesn’t sidestep it except when it’s to his benefit, however his ex- New Orleans PD partner Cletus Purcel barrels right into it like a bull in a China shop.
If reading about violence and unseemly characters bothers you, pass this book up. The word unseemly isn’t strong enough because the main villain is simply evil and Burke’s description of him in some passages was downright scary. I’m not the sensitive sort either. The villain (and there are a few) is a neo-Nazi, known worldwide however has avoided capture. Some passages just made me uneasy and I know it’s a book.
Burke’s writing style is lyrical, singsong in some passages. I love his command of the English language. In my opinion it is well earned since his degree is in English and he was a college professor of English and creative writing. I’m drawn towards authors with similar backgrounds and Robert B. Parker comes to mind. Such writers know how to structure sentences and bring life to the English language for the reader.
I was struck by the sensuously written love scenes. Burke’s writing evokes the tenderness or sadness of Dave’s feeling at the time. They were just lovely passages and some I re-read because they were so beautifully written.
While some readers may find his description of the scenery of southern Louisiana tiresome, I never tire of reading the color of the sun coming up, bouncing off the curtains, or the sky’s brightness and when I said lyrical, I’m speaking mostly of those passages. After Burke's description after a rain you can almost feel the dampness on your arms.
Burke uses figures of speech in clever ways to draw the reader into the character or scene so the reader feels they’re a ‘fly on the wall’ eavesdropping. He brings the events and characters to life for the reader.
Clete plays an important role in the plot which had a number of subplots related both closely and peripherally to the main plot, that being the sinking and location of a Nazi submarine off the coast of Louisiana. The characters were numerous but all drawn so clearly by Burke that you did not need to make a special effort to remember them.
Although published in 1994, Burke used the book to make social commentary with references to a national right wing radio personality; the homeless, poverty and a number of other issues in the national dialog we read about daily.
Dixie City Jam was one of those books I had a very hard time putting down.
Wanting to savor the series, I chose to read a Dave Robicheaux book every two months or so. I want them to last. I like that feeling that I’m ‘going home’ when I begin a new one and want that feeling to be drawn out as long as possible. Savoring my Robicheaux binge, I know.
Happy that I started with book number one because it lays out the development of Robicheaux otherwise I might think the guy is just simply crazy. He is certainly prone to violence but doles it out carefully. When presented with violence he doesn’t sidestep it except when it’s to his benefit, however his ex- New Orleans PD partner Cletus Purcel barrels right into it like a bull in a China shop.
If reading about violence and unseemly characters bothers you, pass this book up. The word unseemly isn’t strong enough because the main villain is simply evil and Burke’s description of him in some passages was downright scary. I’m not the sensitive sort either. The villain (and there are a few) is a neo-Nazi, known worldwide however has avoided capture. Some passages just made me uneasy and I know it’s a book.
Burke’s writing style is lyrical, singsong in some passages. I love his command of the English language. In my opinion it is well earned since his degree is in English and he was a college professor of English and creative writing. I’m drawn towards authors with similar backgrounds and Robert B. Parker comes to mind. Such writers know how to structure sentences and bring life to the English language for the reader.
I was struck by the sensuously written love scenes. Burke’s writing evokes the tenderness or sadness of Dave’s feeling at the time. They were just lovely passages and some I re-read because they were so beautifully written.
While some readers may find his description of the scenery of southern Louisiana tiresome, I never tire of reading the color of the sun coming up, bouncing off the curtains, or the sky’s brightness and when I said lyrical, I’m speaking mostly of those passages. After Burke's description after a rain you can almost feel the dampness on your arms.
Burke uses figures of speech in clever ways to draw the reader into the character or scene so the reader feels they’re a ‘fly on the wall’ eavesdropping. He brings the events and characters to life for the reader.
Clete plays an important role in the plot which had a number of subplots related both closely and peripherally to the main plot, that being the sinking and location of a Nazi submarine off the coast of Louisiana. The characters were numerous but all drawn so clearly by Burke that you did not need to make a special effort to remember them.
Although published in 1994, Burke used the book to make social commentary with references to a national right wing radio personality; the homeless, poverty and a number of other issues in the national dialog we read about daily.
Dixie City Jam was one of those books I had a very hard time putting down.
Wanting to savor the series, I chose to read a Dave Robicheaux book every two months or so. I want them to last. I like that feeling that I’m ‘going home’ when I begin a new one and want that feeling to be drawn out as long as possible. Savoring my Robicheaux binge, I know.
December 16, 2017
Obviously, not one of my favorites in the series.
July 19, 2016
This is the 7th installment in the Dave Robicheaux series. As usual James Lee Burke spins a great story around a colorful cast of characters. For those not familiar with Dave Robicheaux he is a former homicide detective with the New Orleans Police Department. Dave is now a detective with New Iberia Sheriff's Office and also owns a bait and boat rental business. He is also a recovering alcoholic and Vietnam War vet. Dave's partner when he was with the NOPD, Cletus Purcel, is now a private investigator. Clete's one man war against the mob will have you laughing. It was great to see him back. I would love to say more but that would spoil things. Suffice it to say don't let Clete near any heavy equipment.
In Burke's last novel, In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead, the author created a story that touched on the Civil War. In this outing the story reminds us of World War II and Nazi Germany. Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast, there is a sunken German U-boat. Dave Robicheaux encountered it once when he was a teenager and scuba diving. Now decades later he is being pressured to find the sub so that it can be salvaged. Dave finds himself in the midst of a powerful Jewish activist who wants the sub raised, a neo-Nazi psychopath named Will Buchalte, a black woman cop dealing with gender bias in the workplace and her teenage son, ritual killings, and of course various mob figures. This time though the case hits close to home. Too close. His wife, Bootsie, is threatened and she seeks relief in drink. Dave wants to help but he knows she will have to find her own bottom first before she can begin recovery.
James Lee Burke is a master story teller. This is a story about hate crimes. The characters in the story are colorful but they are not pretty. For the most part they are either the underbelly of society or the members of law enforcement who have to deal with them on a daily basis. The story serves to remind us that although World War II is over the war against hate crimes isn't.
In Burke's last novel, In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead, the author created a story that touched on the Civil War. In this outing the story reminds us of World War II and Nazi Germany. Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast, there is a sunken German U-boat. Dave Robicheaux encountered it once when he was a teenager and scuba diving. Now decades later he is being pressured to find the sub so that it can be salvaged. Dave finds himself in the midst of a powerful Jewish activist who wants the sub raised, a neo-Nazi psychopath named Will Buchalte, a black woman cop dealing with gender bias in the workplace and her teenage son, ritual killings, and of course various mob figures. This time though the case hits close to home. Too close. His wife, Bootsie, is threatened and she seeks relief in drink. Dave wants to help but he knows she will have to find her own bottom first before she can begin recovery.
James Lee Burke is a master story teller. This is a story about hate crimes. The characters in the story are colorful but they are not pretty. For the most part they are either the underbelly of society or the members of law enforcement who have to deal with them on a daily basis. The story serves to remind us that although World War II is over the war against hate crimes isn't.
August 30, 2024
Ritmo, ambientazione e caratterizzazione dei personaggi davvero favolosa: classico libro di cui non si riesce ad interrompere la lettura.
Il romanzo parte in quinta già dalle prime pagine in cui si assiste ad un vero e proprio dispiegarsi rapido ed incalzante della trama che cresce fino _letteralmente_ all'ultima pagina: caro ispettore Robicheaux credo che ci reincontremo.
Il romanzo parte in quinta già dalle prime pagine in cui si assiste ad un vero e proprio dispiegarsi rapido ed incalzante della trama che cresce fino _letteralmente_ all'ultima pagina: caro ispettore Robicheaux credo che ci reincontremo.
February 11, 2021
Once again, Burke does not disappoint. I may need to take a good long shower (or undertake some other ritual cleansing) before I get a good night sleep, but, with this one, I got exactly what I bargained for: compelling momentum (OK, I struggled to put it down and lost a bit of sleep), brutal violence and deranged, nay pathological/psychotic wrong-headedness, all dressed up in gorgeous, lyrical, sensory-overloading, and teetering precariously on the edge of excessive, prose.
I'm (really) enjoying slowing working my way through Burke's Robicheaux series, and good 'ole Streak is growing on me (even if I'm still partial to Hackberry Holland, but that well ran dry much more quickly ... I've got more than a dozen Robicheaux's to go, ... so that'll keep me busy for a while).
I was surprised how difficult it was to find a decent hard copy of this book. Was this one less popular than most? As I've gravitated away from my Kindle (in support of my local independent bookstore), this was the first time in a while the bookstore wasn't much help (and I ended up buying a used hardback rather than read a mass market paperback, which I don't enjoy).
Hmmm, curious to learn what happens next....
I'm (really) enjoying slowing working my way through Burke's Robicheaux series, and good 'ole Streak is growing on me (even if I'm still partial to Hackberry Holland, but that well ran dry much more quickly ... I've got more than a dozen Robicheaux's to go, ... so that'll keep me busy for a while).
I was surprised how difficult it was to find a decent hard copy of this book. Was this one less popular than most? As I've gravitated away from my Kindle (in support of my local independent bookstore), this was the first time in a while the bookstore wasn't much help (and I ended up buying a used hardback rather than read a mass market paperback, which I don't enjoy).
Hmmm, curious to learn what happens next....
August 13, 2023
Dixie City Jam was fantastic from cover to cover. I could not put it down. What's good to read isn't always easy to summarize, but I'll try.
New Iberian drugstore magnate Hippo Bimstein offers Dave $10k to help him find a WWII Nazi U-boat that sank off the Louisiana coast. Thinking it's best to let dead Nazis lie, he initially turned down the offer until Dave's old nemesis from the NOPD pins a trumped-up murder charge on Dave's loyal family employee. Knowing that destitute, innocent Batiste may be facing Angola Prison through no fault of his own, he accepts Hippo's job... for $25k.
This is the beginning of a complex plot involving mafioso Tommy Lonighan; a couple of crooked club owners; Dave's BFF Clete Purcell; above-mentioned nemesis Nate Baxter; Sergeant Lucinda Bergeron and her son Zoot; and the character I consider the evilest of Burke's villains to date (and that's saying something!) - a neo-Nazi named Will Buchalter. The entire story is interesting and action-packed, with Buchalter terrorizing Dave's wife and then kidnapping Dave.
This book was as tense as it was dense - but it was packed with all the goodness I expect from James Lee Burke. I really thought he'd hit his peak with In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, so I thought I should reset my expectations going into this one - a totally unnecessary step on my part. Burke not only kept his foot on the gas; he accelerated with Dixie City Jam.
I'm blown away that I don't see James Lee Burke more often in my GR feed. The guy's an amazing Crime author and by this point in the series, he's hit his stride. Next up: Burning Angel.
New Iberian drugstore magnate Hippo Bimstein offers Dave $10k to help him find a WWII Nazi U-boat that sank off the Louisiana coast. Thinking it's best to let dead Nazis lie, he initially turned down the offer until Dave's old nemesis from the NOPD pins a trumped-up murder charge on Dave's loyal family employee. Knowing that destitute, innocent Batiste may be facing Angola Prison through no fault of his own, he accepts Hippo's job... for $25k.
This is the beginning of a complex plot involving mafioso Tommy Lonighan; a couple of crooked club owners; Dave's BFF Clete Purcell; above-mentioned nemesis Nate Baxter; Sergeant Lucinda Bergeron and her son Zoot; and the character I consider the evilest of Burke's villains to date (and that's saying something!) - a neo-Nazi named Will Buchalter. The entire story is interesting and action-packed, with Buchalter terrorizing Dave's wife and then kidnapping Dave.
This book was as tense as it was dense - but it was packed with all the goodness I expect from James Lee Burke. I really thought he'd hit his peak with In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, so I thought I should reset my expectations going into this one - a totally unnecessary step on my part. Burke not only kept his foot on the gas; he accelerated with Dixie City Jam.
I'm blown away that I don't see James Lee Burke more often in my GR feed. The guy's an amazing Crime author and by this point in the series, he's hit his stride. Next up: Burning Angel.
January 2, 2019
This has been the hardest book of the series to read and yet I am still plugging away at it.
I definitely felt the ending made up for the slow pace. Well worth reading.
I definitely felt the ending made up for the slow pace. Well worth reading.
August 9, 2013
Book Review
I suspect I have an edge as compared to most Burke fans. I have resided in the French Quarter so aptly described in the Burke novels. I've seen corruption and the broken infrastructure (pre-Katrina), smelled the molded heat lifting up from the pavement after a roaring rain, have had my shirt cling to my skin within two minutes of stepping outdoors, choked on the heat surrounding me, a humidity that I could carve with a steak knife. I've seen the above ground cemetery's filled with the bones of history, the languid Spanish moss like many umbrellas above your head, the levees (we call them dikes in Holland), the degradation of Bourbon street and Mardi Gras, exotic voodoo parlors, experienced the aura of supernatural practices that bely the belly fat of the city. I've tasted the breeze blowing off Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf, and spent many a morning sipping coffee and writing in journals in Cafe Du Monde. To this day, I always have a canister of Cafe Du Monde coffee in my cupboard, it's distinct flavor reminding me of my exotic and bohemian New Orleans.
Here's a personal story that may give you a view into corruption New Orleans style. I lived in a studio off Esplanade Avenue. One day, arriving home I noticed ambulances and police cruisers blocking the street before a small convenience store across the street. I walked up to the first floor and sat down on my patio to watch the action taking place, smoked a cigarette and mused at the scene before me. Later, watching the news, I was floored by the actual events that had apparently taken place across the street. Turns out that a female police officer, off work, robbed the convenience store and killed the proprietor. Unknown to her, the man's son had observed everything from a small alcove in the back. The remarkable thing was this: after robbing the store, the police officer returned to the police station, donned her gear, and answered the call to her own robbery. Justice is not blind though. The kid recognized her as she was investigating the scene and she was ultimately convicted of the crime.
In Dixie City Jam,Burke's 7th Robicheax novel, we find a sober Dave with the wheels of alcoholism giving our anti-hero an unexpected but sorrowful reprieve from temptation. For readers of this series, we sort of expect the constant snake's head of alcoholism to tempt Dave, to rob him of all breath, and reclaim his weak and addictive soul. Will he again succumb to the bottle, as he has done in previous novels, one asks? I don't remark on plot. But, suffice it to say that just this once, Dave Robicheaux has the unexpected opportunity to observe his addiction manifested in another, someone close to him.
The settings, their descriptions, the imagination of the reader (even if they haven't been to Louisiana) are set afire with Burke's prose. My friend Cathy described this author's prose as causing her to pause just to savor a particular sentence. Here we see the genre transcending itself and moving to literature. These morsels spread across each page are what gives us the pleasure we as readers should expect. There's never too much of it, his style doesn't overpower the plot. In particular, I noticed in this novel Burke's unique love scenes written unlike any love scene I've ever read (though they are brief). It makes you think, who is this man, James Lee Burke? Perhaps his wife of 48 years can answer that question.
Only Burke can infuse an American crime-novel with Nazism, racism, the mob, police corruption, religious fundamentalism, submarines, a serial killer, contract killings, alcoholism, and city politics and have it read as effortlessly as drinking a cup of coffee. One never tires of the effeminate literati sprinkled throughout the novel, islands of reprieve from the horrors that take place elsewhere. This is a superb addition to the Dave Robicheaux series!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Series Review
James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute and later received a B. A. Degree in English and an M. A. from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U. S. Job Corps.
He and his wife Pearl met in graduate school and have been married 48 years, they have four children: Jim Jr., an assistant U.S. Attorney; Andree, a school psychologist; Pamala, a T. V. ad producer; and Alafair, a law professor and novelist who has 4 novels out with Henry Holt publishing.
His short stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, New Stories from the South, Best American Short Stories, Antioch Review, Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. And, in case you're a write and often get discouraged, listen to Burke when he says: "My advice is to never lose faith in one's gift and to never quit. An artist must ignore the naysayers and not be discouraged by rejection and never, under any circumstances, give up submitting one's work." His novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated.
Has he won any awards?
In 1988 James Lee Burke Burke was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. [1]. Burke received the 2002 Louisiana Writer Award for his enduring contribution to the "literary intellectual heritage of Louisiana." The award was presented to him by then Lt. Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, on November 2, 2002, at a ceremony held at the inaugural Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge, LA. James Lee Burke has been recognized three times by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA). The MWA awarded its Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel of the year in 1990 for Black Cherry Blues. In 1998 the MWA again awarded its "Edgar" for Best Novel of the year for Burke's Cimarron Rose. Then in 2009 James Lee Burke received the MWA's Grand Master Award. It is rare for a mystery novelist to win both an "Edgar" [Edgar Allen Poe] Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Which of JLB's books have been made into movies?
TWO FOR TEXAS starring Kris Kristofferson and Tom Skerrit was produced by TNT. HEAVEN'S PRISONERS starred Alec Baldwin, Terri Hatcher, Kelly Lynch, Eric Roberts and Mary Stuart Masterson. IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD, starring Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman and Mary Steenburgen.
What else is on the horizon for the Dave Robicheaux series?
After two so-so attempts to adapt James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux terrific mystery novel series into features, the New Orleans-based crime saga is being redrawn for cable TV. Fox-based producer Hutch Parker has optioned Burke’s books and is packaging the series. After how well FX and Graham Yost did with Elmore Leonard’s U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens character in the series Justified, cable sounds like just the place for Robicheaux if you're still a believer in cable (personally, I think cable is so 20th century and I would guess it won't be around in ten years given Netflix and Hulu's move as of late into developing their own exclusive series. I've been seriously considering shutting down cable.
Primarily known for his Dave Robicheaux series (with his Billy Bob Holland series rapidly catching up), Burke is known for marrying literature with crime-fiction while simultaneously standing at the forefront of crime-fiction authors with his second-to-none character development across a series. In case you haven't noticed, there's a marked increase in "regional" crime fiction of which Burke is a pioneer (for example: the Cork O'Connor series set in Minnesota, or the Walt Longmire series set in Wyoming). In this series, Burke exposes America to Louisiana and specifically to New Orleans and New Iberia. Having traveled quite a bit both within the United States as well as outside of it, it is my opinion that Louisiana is one of those states that most resembles a foreign country. Its French ancestry, its Napoleonic law, its parishes, and its Creole and Cajun population infuse this series with a decidedly exotic slant, a perspective that is really driven home when one listens to a competent audio book reading (preferably read by Mark Hammer).
Every novel in this series delves into moral uncertainty, the menace of uncontrolled human behavior, greed and sloth and violence all delivered via a careful juxtaposition of Louisiana's coastal natural beautfy and its dark underbelly. If that were all there is to this series, it would be a fabulous read. But, Burke doesn't stop there. His novels are a study into the deep recesses of love and loyalty; Of family and compassion and in this sense his resembles the work of William Kent Krueger who explores a similar vein in his crime series featuring Sherriff Cork O'Connor. It is James Lee Burke who stands out as one of the true pioneers in American crime-fiction (much as his counterparts do by rote in Scandinavia) by seriving up a devastating expose of the sociopolitical issues that exist in our nation today, and more specifically within the region for which he writes.
Unlike Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire series, who delivers a hero rather than an anti-hero (to the delight of his romantic literature fans), Burke has engaged the help of a decidedly flawed anti-hero, Dave Robicheaux, to accomplish his mission on earth. It is a calculated move that allows his readers to experience a harrowing journey through the former Napoleonic waters of New Iberia and New Orleans. You will not be disappointed and if you're like me (New Orleans and its French Quarter is a former home of mine), you will find yourself willfully putting the book down...not because the book's no good, but because it's so good you will want to savor every moment.
I suspect I have an edge as compared to most Burke fans. I have resided in the French Quarter so aptly described in the Burke novels. I've seen corruption and the broken infrastructure (pre-Katrina), smelled the molded heat lifting up from the pavement after a roaring rain, have had my shirt cling to my skin within two minutes of stepping outdoors, choked on the heat surrounding me, a humidity that I could carve with a steak knife. I've seen the above ground cemetery's filled with the bones of history, the languid Spanish moss like many umbrellas above your head, the levees (we call them dikes in Holland), the degradation of Bourbon street and Mardi Gras, exotic voodoo parlors, experienced the aura of supernatural practices that bely the belly fat of the city. I've tasted the breeze blowing off Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf, and spent many a morning sipping coffee and writing in journals in Cafe Du Monde. To this day, I always have a canister of Cafe Du Monde coffee in my cupboard, it's distinct flavor reminding me of my exotic and bohemian New Orleans.
Here's a personal story that may give you a view into corruption New Orleans style. I lived in a studio off Esplanade Avenue. One day, arriving home I noticed ambulances and police cruisers blocking the street before a small convenience store across the street. I walked up to the first floor and sat down on my patio to watch the action taking place, smoked a cigarette and mused at the scene before me. Later, watching the news, I was floored by the actual events that had apparently taken place across the street. Turns out that a female police officer, off work, robbed the convenience store and killed the proprietor. Unknown to her, the man's son had observed everything from a small alcove in the back. The remarkable thing was this: after robbing the store, the police officer returned to the police station, donned her gear, and answered the call to her own robbery. Justice is not blind though. The kid recognized her as she was investigating the scene and she was ultimately convicted of the crime.
In Dixie City Jam,Burke's 7th Robicheax novel, we find a sober Dave with the wheels of alcoholism giving our anti-hero an unexpected but sorrowful reprieve from temptation. For readers of this series, we sort of expect the constant snake's head of alcoholism to tempt Dave, to rob him of all breath, and reclaim his weak and addictive soul. Will he again succumb to the bottle, as he has done in previous novels, one asks? I don't remark on plot. But, suffice it to say that just this once, Dave Robicheaux has the unexpected opportunity to observe his addiction manifested in another, someone close to him.
The settings, their descriptions, the imagination of the reader (even if they haven't been to Louisiana) are set afire with Burke's prose. My friend Cathy described this author's prose as causing her to pause just to savor a particular sentence. Here we see the genre transcending itself and moving to literature. These morsels spread across each page are what gives us the pleasure we as readers should expect. There's never too much of it, his style doesn't overpower the plot. In particular, I noticed in this novel Burke's unique love scenes written unlike any love scene I've ever read (though they are brief). It makes you think, who is this man, James Lee Burke? Perhaps his wife of 48 years can answer that question.
Only Burke can infuse an American crime-novel with Nazism, racism, the mob, police corruption, religious fundamentalism, submarines, a serial killer, contract killings, alcoholism, and city politics and have it read as effortlessly as drinking a cup of coffee. One never tires of the effeminate literati sprinkled throughout the novel, islands of reprieve from the horrors that take place elsewhere. This is a superb addition to the Dave Robicheaux series!
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Series Review
James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute and later received a B. A. Degree in English and an M. A. from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U. S. Job Corps.
He and his wife Pearl met in graduate school and have been married 48 years, they have four children: Jim Jr., an assistant U.S. Attorney; Andree, a school psychologist; Pamala, a T. V. ad producer; and Alafair, a law professor and novelist who has 4 novels out with Henry Holt publishing.
His short stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, New Stories from the South, Best American Short Stories, Antioch Review, Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. And, in case you're a write and often get discouraged, listen to Burke when he says: "My advice is to never lose faith in one's gift and to never quit. An artist must ignore the naysayers and not be discouraged by rejection and never, under any circumstances, give up submitting one's work." His novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated.
Has he won any awards?
In 1988 James Lee Burke Burke was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. [1]. Burke received the 2002 Louisiana Writer Award for his enduring contribution to the "literary intellectual heritage of Louisiana." The award was presented to him by then Lt. Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, on November 2, 2002, at a ceremony held at the inaugural Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge, LA. James Lee Burke has been recognized three times by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA). The MWA awarded its Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel of the year in 1990 for Black Cherry Blues. In 1998 the MWA again awarded its "Edgar" for Best Novel of the year for Burke's Cimarron Rose. Then in 2009 James Lee Burke received the MWA's Grand Master Award. It is rare for a mystery novelist to win both an "Edgar" [Edgar Allen Poe] Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Which of JLB's books have been made into movies?
TWO FOR TEXAS starring Kris Kristofferson and Tom Skerrit was produced by TNT. HEAVEN'S PRISONERS starred Alec Baldwin, Terri Hatcher, Kelly Lynch, Eric Roberts and Mary Stuart Masterson. IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD, starring Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman and Mary Steenburgen.
What else is on the horizon for the Dave Robicheaux series?
After two so-so attempts to adapt James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux terrific mystery novel series into features, the New Orleans-based crime saga is being redrawn for cable TV. Fox-based producer Hutch Parker has optioned Burke’s books and is packaging the series. After how well FX and Graham Yost did with Elmore Leonard’s U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens character in the series Justified, cable sounds like just the place for Robicheaux if you're still a believer in cable (personally, I think cable is so 20th century and I would guess it won't be around in ten years given Netflix and Hulu's move as of late into developing their own exclusive series. I've been seriously considering shutting down cable.
Primarily known for his Dave Robicheaux series (with his Billy Bob Holland series rapidly catching up), Burke is known for marrying literature with crime-fiction while simultaneously standing at the forefront of crime-fiction authors with his second-to-none character development across a series. In case you haven't noticed, there's a marked increase in "regional" crime fiction of which Burke is a pioneer (for example: the Cork O'Connor series set in Minnesota, or the Walt Longmire series set in Wyoming). In this series, Burke exposes America to Louisiana and specifically to New Orleans and New Iberia. Having traveled quite a bit both within the United States as well as outside of it, it is my opinion that Louisiana is one of those states that most resembles a foreign country. Its French ancestry, its Napoleonic law, its parishes, and its Creole and Cajun population infuse this series with a decidedly exotic slant, a perspective that is really driven home when one listens to a competent audio book reading (preferably read by Mark Hammer).
Every novel in this series delves into moral uncertainty, the menace of uncontrolled human behavior, greed and sloth and violence all delivered via a careful juxtaposition of Louisiana's coastal natural beautfy and its dark underbelly. If that were all there is to this series, it would be a fabulous read. But, Burke doesn't stop there. His novels are a study into the deep recesses of love and loyalty; Of family and compassion and in this sense his resembles the work of William Kent Krueger who explores a similar vein in his crime series featuring Sherriff Cork O'Connor. It is James Lee Burke who stands out as one of the true pioneers in American crime-fiction (much as his counterparts do by rote in Scandinavia) by seriving up a devastating expose of the sociopolitical issues that exist in our nation today, and more specifically within the region for which he writes.
Unlike Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire series, who delivers a hero rather than an anti-hero (to the delight of his romantic literature fans), Burke has engaged the help of a decidedly flawed anti-hero, Dave Robicheaux, to accomplish his mission on earth. It is a calculated move that allows his readers to experience a harrowing journey through the former Napoleonic waters of New Iberia and New Orleans. You will not be disappointed and if you're like me (New Orleans and its French Quarter is a former home of mine), you will find yourself willfully putting the book down...not because the book's no good, but because it's so good you will want to savor every moment.
December 15, 2020
Dark and thrilling, this is essentially a buried treasure crime story. In a search for a sunken Nazi submarine that he once stumbled upon as a teenager and has now become part of local lore, Dave comes up against quite a few baddies, including local criminal scum, a deranged vigilante, and some twisted neo-nazis. Burke's prose is vivid, affecting and beautiful.
May 6, 2011
James Lee Burke is an especially fluid and descriptive writer. Dixie City Jam is loaded with wonderful phrasing and exquisite descriptions. Being a mystery thriller, it is also full of action and lively characters that intrigues the reader. Burke doesn't seem to know how to write a one-dimensional character. Even the most minor ones are many layered and full of surprises. On top of this, add a close and personal knowledge of the Louisiana delta and New Orleans. The only other writer I can think of that brings this type of cultural intimacy to the literary thriller is Tony Hillerman in his Navajo mysteries.
Dixie City Jam is the seventh book in the series that feature police officer David Robicheaux. The nominal plot features a Nazi submarine sunk off of the Louisiana coast and a group of seedy people who want Robicheaux's help in recovering it. But this is a bit of a "MacGuffin", as Hitchcock would say. The true interest is in the complex relationship of persons as far afield as crooked detectives to Irish gangsters to psychotic Nazis. The novel is a melting pot of ethnic angst and corrupt dreams. I was thoroughly entranced with this novel and will no doubt devour the entire series. Four and a half stars.
Dixie City Jam is the seventh book in the series that feature police officer David Robicheaux. The nominal plot features a Nazi submarine sunk off of the Louisiana coast and a group of seedy people who want Robicheaux's help in recovering it. But this is a bit of a "MacGuffin", as Hitchcock would say. The true interest is in the complex relationship of persons as far afield as crooked detectives to Irish gangsters to psychotic Nazis. The novel is a melting pot of ethnic angst and corrupt dreams. I was thoroughly entranced with this novel and will no doubt devour the entire series. Four and a half stars.
January 5, 2016
I hate to give this book a sub-par grade since I'm a huge fan of this series, but the author has set the bar so high with previous novels that readers should expect some consistency. The plot is promising; Robicheaux knows of a sunken German WWII submarine in the Gulf, one he found in his youth and has relocated on other dives as an adult. (This is not entirely fictitious. In 2001, the U-166 sub was found in the Gulf, having been sunk in 1942). When word of the discovery leaks out, a neo-Nazi psychopath becomes interested in the sub and its contents, as does a local Jewish activist. But then the story slips into a fairly routine battle amongst mobsters, drug lords, and troubled folks from Robicheaux's past. Too many cliche confrontational scenes and the obligatory tension between Robicheaux and other law enforcement officers. Some trouble on the homefront adds little to the story, and for the first time, reading this series got a tedious. Also, the writing is a little repetitive. At least once, I came across and entire paragraph that was nearly identical to one earlier in the story. And the submarine is basically on the back burner until the very end of the story.
Hoping for a return to form in the next installment.
Hoping for a return to form in the next installment.
December 13, 2016
Dave Robicheaux is hunting a fanatical Nazi fanatic who is after the supposed treasure in a sunken WW2 u-boat. As usual, there is a lot of gratuitous violence, a great deal perpetrated by Clete Purcell. A fast paced novel with great descriptions of the Louisianna coast and enough action for everyone.
April 15, 2017
David Robicheaux knows where a Nazi submarine was sunk off the Louisiana coast during World War II. Soon two criminal outfits and a Neo-Nazi group are threatening and harassing him along with his family and friends. He must battle the evil forces to protect his loved ones.
July 18, 2020
“Dixie City Jam” by James Lee Burke, published by Hyperion.
Category – Mystery/Thriller Publication Date - 1994.
Leave it to James Lee Burke to bring a sunken Nazi submarine into one of his stories. Although there is some truth in that Nazi submarine patrolled the head of the Mississippi looking at the oil refineries and American tankers carrying oil in the area.
In this case, Dave, while scuba diving discovers a submarine while in college. He thinks nothing of it until later in life when he is with the New Iberia Police Department that this information comes back to haunt him.
It seems that there are two factors looking for this sub. So, Dave is not only faced with this problem but also is involved with the every day lows lives that inhabit the New Orleans area.
Dave becomes involved with a Holocaust survivor and a Neo-Nazi who want to debunk the Holocaust. Both of these individuals put pressure on Dave to reveal the whereabouts of the sub. This information put s no only Dave but his family in serious trouble as this information is wanted at all costs.
This is yet another great novel from James Lee Burke. These novels show the seedy side of mankind, as well as the good that can be done by them.
Category – Mystery/Thriller Publication Date - 1994.
Leave it to James Lee Burke to bring a sunken Nazi submarine into one of his stories. Although there is some truth in that Nazi submarine patrolled the head of the Mississippi looking at the oil refineries and American tankers carrying oil in the area.
In this case, Dave, while scuba diving discovers a submarine while in college. He thinks nothing of it until later in life when he is with the New Iberia Police Department that this information comes back to haunt him.
It seems that there are two factors looking for this sub. So, Dave is not only faced with this problem but also is involved with the every day lows lives that inhabit the New Orleans area.
Dave becomes involved with a Holocaust survivor and a Neo-Nazi who want to debunk the Holocaust. Both of these individuals put pressure on Dave to reveal the whereabouts of the sub. This information put s no only Dave but his family in serious trouble as this information is wanted at all costs.
This is yet another great novel from James Lee Burke. These novels show the seedy side of mankind, as well as the good that can be done by them.
January 26, 2019
In this installment Robicheaux draws the ire of Neo-Nazis as he is tasked with salvaging a World War II German submarine to pay off a debt. Dixie City Jam is much more action packed than its immediate predecessor, the comparatively contemplative In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead. The plot as always in the Robicheaux series is a vortex that pulls the reader in and throws him in the midst of the criminal underbelly of Louisiana.
Burke is the best all round crime writer and there is something in here for everyone. Be enamored with the lyrical descriptions of New Orleans; be assailed by the biting dialogue that aims to shock; be immersed in Robicheaux's ruminations about the justice system, morality, sin and everything in between; or be awed by characters that are vibrant and vicious but never vapid.
Robicheaux remains the rock that holds all the plot tangents together. Burke does not gloss over his lead's potential for violence. What keeps Robicheaux in line is not restraint or righteousness but a fear that if he succumbs to the temptation of giving in to reciprocating the violence, he is going to lose something intangible but vital. These little touches make him more humane and even readers who can't love him (or the series) like I do can surely find something to respect here.
The books in this series are filled with unsavory characters but Burke manages to distinguish each of them. He does not offer them anything as facile as sympathy but instead he gives the reader an understanding how they ended up where they did. The main antagonist is the notable exception, not because Burke could not make him three dimensional. He had done it many times before, but he wanted an antagonist that is probably the most frightening and deranged the series had seen so far.
The excessive violence in Dixie City Jam stretched my believability and there are plot points which are verbatim re-runs of previous books. It is not done badly but they have been done equally well before. Robicheaux's family walking into the firing line was done to more shocking effect in Heaven's Prisoners while Clete Purcell coming in for the last minute save is a tradition going on from Black Cherry Blues. They are only minor criticisms that might not even be noticed by a reader whose first exposure to Robicheaux is Dixie City Jam.
Burke creates a world where decency is disintegrating and every character's conscience is corruptible. So sometimes the violence reaches unsettling levels while the bleakness and decadence makes you feel powerless. If you can look past that I implore all admirers of good writing to check this out. Rating - 4/5.
Burke is the best all round crime writer and there is something in here for everyone. Be enamored with the lyrical descriptions of New Orleans; be assailed by the biting dialogue that aims to shock; be immersed in Robicheaux's ruminations about the justice system, morality, sin and everything in between; or be awed by characters that are vibrant and vicious but never vapid.
Robicheaux remains the rock that holds all the plot tangents together. Burke does not gloss over his lead's potential for violence. What keeps Robicheaux in line is not restraint or righteousness but a fear that if he succumbs to the temptation of giving in to reciprocating the violence, he is going to lose something intangible but vital. These little touches make him more humane and even readers who can't love him (or the series) like I do can surely find something to respect here.
The books in this series are filled with unsavory characters but Burke manages to distinguish each of them. He does not offer them anything as facile as sympathy but instead he gives the reader an understanding how they ended up where they did. The main antagonist is the notable exception, not because Burke could not make him three dimensional. He had done it many times before, but he wanted an antagonist that is probably the most frightening and deranged the series had seen so far.
The excessive violence in Dixie City Jam stretched my believability and there are plot points which are verbatim re-runs of previous books. It is not done badly but they have been done equally well before. Robicheaux's family walking into the firing line was done to more shocking effect in Heaven's Prisoners while Clete Purcell coming in for the last minute save is a tradition going on from Black Cherry Blues. They are only minor criticisms that might not even be noticed by a reader whose first exposure to Robicheaux is Dixie City Jam.
Burke creates a world where decency is disintegrating and every character's conscience is corruptible. So sometimes the violence reaches unsettling levels while the bleakness and decadence makes you feel powerless. If you can look past that I implore all admirers of good writing to check this out. Rating - 4/5.
July 6, 2016
Oh, what to do.... I like Burke's writing, but the sustained darkness and Southern stereotypes is unrelenting and his stories - as I read his Robicheaux series straight through - are a bit repetitive and, at times, over the top. Like this one. German sub. Hum... in reality there could be one in the water off-shore. But would this really provoke so much evil, criminal activity and violence?
Batist is the too-obvious plot set up at the beginning of this book to motivate why Robicheaux would continue to pursue his dangerous, underwater hunt for the sub (to repay the lawyer fee). Then Batist all but disappears in the rest of the story.
Additionally, bad things keep happening to Robicheaux and his family. A number of popular mystery series have this self-centric, "Murder She Wrote," tendency. Makes me roll my eyes and daydream about the author killing off the poisonous, main character and everyone's life would be safer - even for sweet little Jessica Fletcher's family, friends, and neighbors.
I still want to finish the Robicheaux series, but think I'll read several other books in between.
Batist is the too-obvious plot set up at the beginning of this book to motivate why Robicheaux would continue to pursue his dangerous, underwater hunt for the sub (to repay the lawyer fee). Then Batist all but disappears in the rest of the story.
Additionally, bad things keep happening to Robicheaux and his family. A number of popular mystery series have this self-centric, "Murder She Wrote," tendency. Makes me roll my eyes and daydream about the author killing off the poisonous, main character and everyone's life would be safer - even for sweet little Jessica Fletcher's family, friends, and neighbors.
I still want to finish the Robicheaux series, but think I'll read several other books in between.
June 22, 2019
Dave Robicheaux is a recovering alcoholic detective outside New Orleans. He is married and has an adopted daughter. Dave has lived in southern Louisiana all his life and he knows the bayous. Dave has found a Nazi sub sunk in WWII that moves with shifting sands. He has found it more than once, and now a Jewish man wants to hire him to find it again. Dave’s ex-partner Clete Purcel is stirring up trouble with the local mob. A crooked cop in New Orleans is trying to stir up trouble for Dave through Clete. News that Dave may know the location of the sub gets to a psychopath Nazi going by the name Will Buchalter. This depraved man begins to terrorize Dave’s wife. Will is like a nightmare ghost seemingly able to get to Bootsie whenever he likes. She is starting to drink heavily as her terror grows. Dave must protect his family and help Clete while trying to determine why this sunken sub is suddenly so important. James Lee Burke is a masterful describer, setting the scenes artistically. The seedy side of humanity is highlighted. I enjoy this series because of the intriguing plots and complex characters.
December 6, 2012
There are bad people in this world and then there are really bad (evil) people. This mystery is about evil people.
Dave Robicheaux is a former New Orleans copy who is now a sheriff deputy and bait shop owner. He's been asked to find an old sunken German WWII submarine that is off the Louisiana coast. But,he's not the only one looking for it. A neo-Nazi, a New Orleans jewish businessman/gangster, and a televangelist are after it as well. In addition there are vigilante killings in the projects of New Orleans. The NOPD are involved. Some of them are good cops, others are "on the take". What a mess!
It took me a while to really "get into" this story. It didn't become an all night read for me until near the end of the book. However, the author is very good at descriptions. I felt the wetness when he describes the rainy mist and lightning in the distance. He's also good at delving into the mind. Why are people evil? Whether cops or criminals, there is evil.
If you stick with it, this is a good mystery.
Dave Robicheaux is a former New Orleans copy who is now a sheriff deputy and bait shop owner. He's been asked to find an old sunken German WWII submarine that is off the Louisiana coast. But,he's not the only one looking for it. A neo-Nazi, a New Orleans jewish businessman/gangster, and a televangelist are after it as well. In addition there are vigilante killings in the projects of New Orleans. The NOPD are involved. Some of them are good cops, others are "on the take". What a mess!
It took me a while to really "get into" this story. It didn't become an all night read for me until near the end of the book. However, the author is very good at descriptions. I felt the wetness when he describes the rainy mist and lightning in the distance. He's also good at delving into the mind. Why are people evil? Whether cops or criminals, there is evil.
If you stick with it, this is a good mystery.
April 29, 2015
I cease to be amazed at what a great writer James Lee Burke is. I love his descriptions of places and situations. His use of language is wonderful. He often challenges my vocabulary, and I like that.
Dixie City Jam is not the best of the Dave Robicheaux series, but it is a good book. The enemy, Buchalter, is a bit unbelievable. Also the relationship between the fake nun and Bootsie could have been explored more in depth. But we do get to see a lot of Cletus Percell in the book, and Cletus is a favorite of mine, noble mon.
If you are a Dave Robicheaux fan, don't miss this book.
Dixie City Jam is not the best of the Dave Robicheaux series, but it is a good book. The enemy, Buchalter, is a bit unbelievable. Also the relationship between the fake nun and Bootsie could have been explored more in depth. But we do get to see a lot of Cletus Percell in the book, and Cletus is a favorite of mine, noble mon.
If you are a Dave Robicheaux fan, don't miss this book.
August 25, 2018
Good thriller in the series
September 4, 2018
finished this one earlier today four stars i really liked it.
November 28, 2015
It's too bad, really. I find Burke's writing engaging and his storytelling complex and satisfying. The style of writing in the Robicheaux books seems to fit the character perfectly - the matter-of-factness, the description, the somewhat taciturn presentation. I like Dave's strong, but damaged personality. I like other characters and Burke brings most of them to life. I can almost see and smell and taste New Orleans in these books, even though I have never been there. But the vulgarity is just too much. I understand that he is portraying a certain culture and life-style. However, I believe that a great writer can portray the same feeling, the grittiness, without stooping to the excessive profanity - so MANY f-bombs - the excessive vulgar and course euphemisms and the sexual content. Those are cheap and easy crutches.
Batist is a main character in the beginning, has a couple of little pop-ups, but mostly disappears. The incident sets up the rest of the story, I guess, but having him so prominent and then nonexistent was jarring. I expected Batist to appear throughout the story because of that beginning and was very conscious of his absence.
The villains are pretty creepy and compelling. Having your home and family violated is its own kind of terrifying. But after all the set up it was wrapped up a little too easily.
I read book 6 in 2007. Maybe the content is why I put them aside for so long. I won't be continuing because of the graphic content and profanity. These are not the images and language that I want floating around in my head.
Burke is a very good writer. I wish he would stretch just a little more to be great and not use the garbage he relies on to set the scene and tone.
Batist is a main character in the beginning, has a couple of little pop-ups, but mostly disappears. The incident sets up the rest of the story, I guess, but having him so prominent and then nonexistent was jarring. I expected Batist to appear throughout the story because of that beginning and was very conscious of his absence.
The villains are pretty creepy and compelling. Having your home and family violated is its own kind of terrifying. But after all the set up it was wrapped up a little too easily.
I read book 6 in 2007. Maybe the content is why I put them aside for so long. I won't be continuing because of the graphic content and profanity. These are not the images and language that I want floating around in my head.
Burke is a very good writer. I wish he would stretch just a little more to be great and not use the garbage he relies on to set the scene and tone.
January 5, 2016
I have read nine of James Lee Burke's mysteries featuring Dave Robicheaux and each one, while leaning on the histories of the previous works still manages to come at the reader in a unique and extremely interesting plot....Some characters remain, book to book, but each seems to grow in the details of the new cases that are presented.
Still, one of my favorite aspects of the series is the relationship between Dave and his adopted daughter, Alifair, as with each new book they both grow older together and they deal with each other in respect to the changes that their ages bring, especially Alifair, who ages from five years old into her teens while Dave has to adjust to her while working his cases.
Great characters in the series include Dave's best friend Cletus, a wild and crazy ex cop who always has Dave's back, whether he wants his help or not; Annie, Dave's second wife who, because of Dave not backing off on a dangerous case, is murdered in book three.. Bootsie, Dave's third wife, who battles her own demons while hanging on to her love for Dave...
Plus the baddies who show up in each book, but are not just relegated to blank faces and personalities, but human beings who Burke gives a history and deeper personalities than many mystery or crime writers might bother with...
While there is plenty of action in Burke's books there is also a great deal of psychology and insight into the characters and their actions and the results of their actions.
I will keep on a reading....
Still, one of my favorite aspects of the series is the relationship between Dave and his adopted daughter, Alifair, as with each new book they both grow older together and they deal with each other in respect to the changes that their ages bring, especially Alifair, who ages from five years old into her teens while Dave has to adjust to her while working his cases.
Great characters in the series include Dave's best friend Cletus, a wild and crazy ex cop who always has Dave's back, whether he wants his help or not; Annie, Dave's second wife who, because of Dave not backing off on a dangerous case, is murdered in book three.. Bootsie, Dave's third wife, who battles her own demons while hanging on to her love for Dave...
Plus the baddies who show up in each book, but are not just relegated to blank faces and personalities, but human beings who Burke gives a history and deeper personalities than many mystery or crime writers might bother with...
While there is plenty of action in Burke's books there is also a great deal of psychology and insight into the characters and their actions and the results of their actions.
I will keep on a reading....
February 23, 2012
I've always been a huge fan of James Lee Burke. I just love the feeling I get of being swept away down south into the world of Louisiana and New Orleans and the vivid picture he paints of the places and people in his books. Burke's writing is always so descriptive, down to the leaves on a tree and this always adds such a great extra element to his stories and enhances your whole reading experience.
I always get mixed feelings when reading one of Burke's books, and this one was no exception. I gravitate from being disgusted at certain events, to being fascinated by others and that is another reason I love this author.
The way he makes you feel as if you can visualise and even smell the evilness of the main charater, Will Buchalter really gets you interested in the story and makes you want nothing more that to see this guy get put in his place.
Dave Robicheaux is again playing the typical cop trying to do things the correct way but who doesn't mind going against the grain whenever it will work out in the good guys favour, or if it means protecting his family.
I've always been a huge fan of Clete Purcell too. I think this character is hilarious and I just love his complete disregard for any laws. Sometimes he can go overboard but that's half the fun of waiting to see what he will do next.
I definitely recommend this book to any Burke fan. Once I was halfway through I just couldn't put it down!
I always get mixed feelings when reading one of Burke's books, and this one was no exception. I gravitate from being disgusted at certain events, to being fascinated by others and that is another reason I love this author.
The way he makes you feel as if you can visualise and even smell the evilness of the main charater, Will Buchalter really gets you interested in the story and makes you want nothing more that to see this guy get put in his place.
Dave Robicheaux is again playing the typical cop trying to do things the correct way but who doesn't mind going against the grain whenever it will work out in the good guys favour, or if it means protecting his family.
I've always been a huge fan of Clete Purcell too. I think this character is hilarious and I just love his complete disregard for any laws. Sometimes he can go overboard but that's half the fun of waiting to see what he will do next.
I definitely recommend this book to any Burke fan. Once I was halfway through I just couldn't put it down!
March 23, 2018
By the middle of each Dave Robicheaux book I find myself being convinced that this is the best of the series yet, until I read the next book. Each one manages to improve upon the last or at least match the quality of the previous one. It has the darkest, most sinister villain in the series so far and a couple of very interesting new characters in the form of Lucinder Bergeron, Zoot, Bimstine and Lonighan who each add different elements to the story which keep you interested at every turn. For the first time as well, Robicheaux looks completely outmatched by his foe who always seems to be a step ahead. Overall it is a very strong book, but I had one main gripe that bothered me and lost this title a star.
HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD, DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE READ THE BOOK
HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD, DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE READ THE BOOK
October 19, 2013
Dixie City Jam is the 7th book in James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series - I'm still catching up, as he's written at least that many more since "Dixie City Jam".
If you like Dave Robicheaux and the world in which he lives, you will love this book. Typical vivid descriptions of the scenery, and of the colorful characters that make up his southern Louisiana world. To me, Burke's work reads like an awkward love letter to New Orleans and New Iberia - he spends a lot of time describing their flaws and weaknesses, and then adds in a "but I love you anyway" section of prose.
If you know Burke's work and don't like it, well you will not like this one, either. Same reasons.
The big difference between this and the earlier works ... we've got some neo-Nazis running around the area, in addition to the colorful characters of Burke's world of criminals.
RATING: 4 stars. As usual, the book stretched a little long for me. BUT at least it was paced well, with highs and lows as you went along as opposed to some writers that spend the first 80% of the book setting the mood then cram all the action into the end.
If you like Dave Robicheaux and the world in which he lives, you will love this book. Typical vivid descriptions of the scenery, and of the colorful characters that make up his southern Louisiana world. To me, Burke's work reads like an awkward love letter to New Orleans and New Iberia - he spends a lot of time describing their flaws and weaknesses, and then adds in a "but I love you anyway" section of prose.
If you know Burke's work and don't like it, well you will not like this one, either. Same reasons.
The big difference between this and the earlier works ... we've got some neo-Nazis running around the area, in addition to the colorful characters of Burke's world of criminals.
RATING: 4 stars. As usual, the book stretched a little long for me. BUT at least it was paced well, with highs and lows as you went along as opposed to some writers that spend the first 80% of the book setting the mood then cram all the action into the end.
October 3, 2012
I generally like or even really, really like Burke's novels, but this one was just too over-the-top for me to find it believable. Though I imagine that the German submarine incident that Burke writes about here did occur, the rest of the plot is sooooooo gothic that it's ridiculous. The characters are such caricatures--and their activities so extreme and ludicrous--that I just could not for one moment believe in them or in the plot. And what's the deal with bringing together the criminal interests of the Irish, Jewish and Italian mobsters in New Orleans and then making nothing of it? What was all that about? So they are all schmucks, liars and losers, so what? I thought there was going to be some powerful symbolic resonance in this joining which, the book tells us, is most unusual. Anyway, I didn't enjoy this book. Big disappointment. I've read just about all of them now, though, so it won't put me "off" James Lee Burke.
November 28, 2019
Robicheaux is back battling the Mob, neo-Nazis hunting for a U-boat that was sunk in 1942 while carrying a secret cargo, a psychopathic killer and the NOPD's corrupt detective, Nate Baxter. On his side are his the rampaging Clete Purcel, Batist his black employee/friend, a black police detective and her son, and the assorted minor characters. As usual Burke's descriptions, dialogue and characterizations are all right on target. However, for the first time he makes the mistake of allowing Robicheaux to become political, and a scene where Dave watches Rush Limbaugh on t.v. and thinks in personally slanderous terms is completely out of character; it's hilarious, yes, but the narrator becomes intrusive, violating a fundamental rule of novelists. This one quibble aside, the book is fast-paced and unique...in other words, it's just James Lee Burke doing what he does so well. The series had not yet begun it's eventual nosedive into pedantic sameness.
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