Details
Synopsis
Photojournalist Megan Flynn returns home to Louisiana and becomes embroiled in her family's attempts to reconcile their bloody history. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.
| Size | | Length: | 309 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 20.8 oz |
Industry Reviews
Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux is back, as polite as ever, after sitting out Burke's Cimarron Rose (LJ 6/15/97). Accompanying Dave is his buddy Clete and a marvelous cast of characters downtrodden Cool Breeze Broussard, tortured Lila Terrebonne, slimy Harpo Scruggs, and photojournalist Megan Flynn, whose father, a labor organizer, was crucified on a barn wall 40 years ago. When Megan, still haunted by her father's unsolved murder, returns to New Iberia, she sets in motion a series of events that draws Dave into the dark, twisting relationships of these tortured characters, who are intertwined in a plot too convoluted to summarize but that bears all the hallmarks of a Burke mystery bloody racial sins from the past mixed with violent, inbred kinships that haunt the present. Once again, with strong and graceful prose, Burke presents a tale as dark and rich as a cup of chicory coffee. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/98.] Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN
Graves
After stepping into stand-alone territory with Cimmaron Rose (1997), Burke choreographs a masterful return to the lush and brooding world of volatile New Iberia Sheriff's Deputy Dave Robicheaux (Cadillac Jukebox, 1996). This tale's strength lies in breathtaking, moody descriptive passages and incisive vignettes that set time, place and character. Burke's major themes, that the past is key to the present and that money buys power, pervade this mystery. The narrative, with more twists and bounces than a fish fighting a hook, rises from the violent, unsolved murder 40 years ago of union organizer Jack Flynn. The story encompasses at least eight disparate but interlocking subplots: the crooked money behind a movie directed by Flynn's son Cisco; the hold that ex-con Swede Boxleiter has on Cisco's photojournalist sister, Megan; Willie "Cool Breeze" Broussard's theft of a mob warehouse; his wife Ida's suicide 20 years ago; the shooting of two white brothers who raped a black woman; alcoholic Lisa Terrebonne's haunted childhood; her wealthy, arrogant father's ties to Harpo Scruggs, a vicious murderer; the post-Civil War killing by freed slaves of a Terrebonne servant. Hired assassins, snitches, lawmen and FBI agents weave through the novel. Dave and his partner Detective Helen Soileau find the connections, but Dave knows that in the ongoing class war, the worst criminals wield too much influence to pay for their crimes. In rich, dense prose, Burke conjures up bizarre, believable characters who inhabit vivid, spellbinding scenes in a multifaceted, engrossing plot. $300,000 ad/promo; author tour. (June)
Lopate
Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux is back, as polite as ever, after sitting out Burke's Cimarron Rose. Accompanying Dave is his buddy Clete and a marvelous cast of characters--downtrodden Cool Breeze Broussard, tortured Lila Terrebonne, slimy Harpo Scruggs, and photojournalist Megan Flynn, whose father, a labor organizer, was crucified on a barn wall 40 years ago. . . . Once again, with strong and graceful prose, Burke presents a tale as dark and rich as a cup of chicory coffee. Highly recommended.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Ott
Following his inclination to make a Federal case out of every grass-roots crime, Burke pulls in everyone from the F.B.I. to the Dixie Mafia to stir up the action. But even when the plot gets so muddy you can't see the fish, the characters leap right out of the water. Burke gives voice and heart to luckless souls like Cool Breeze ('He tried to stay out of trouble but wouldn't nobody let him') and sad, wasted Lila Terrebonne, . . . and greasy guts to villains like Swede Boxleiter, a 'sewer rat' with revolting criminal habits. Whatever the misery at hand, Burke finds meaning for it in the old crimes of race hatred and class tyranny that obsess his brooding hero--that the people in his books seem compelled to repeat.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Stasio
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