Purple Cane Road (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)
by James Lee Burke
List Price:
Our Price: $4.12
You Save: $3.87 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: James Lee BurkeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-05-08
ISBN: 0440224047
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Dell
Book Reviews of Purple Cane Road (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)
Book Review: Pyschologically complex, atmospheric page-turner (although there are a few plot holes that need to be overlooked)
Summary: 4 Stars
Purple Cane Road is a beautifully written, complex thriller; its pages teeming with Louisiana atmosphere.
What I like most about these novels is the moral ambiguity of the characters. Dave is essentially a good man (although that's probably debateable) who, despite his self-righteousness, rarely takes the moral high road. He contemplates murdering a man in cold blood, considers hiring a hit-man, assaults anyone who gets on his nerves, and isn't above re-staging a crime scene if necessary. He's a dark, brooding, violent man, tormented by his tour in Vietnam and a recovering alcoholic. He makes Harry Bosch look like a well-adjusted boy scout.
Strangely, these are traits I like in a leading man. I like that Burke blurs the lines between right and wrong.
Burke's other great strength is dialogue. No one else, except perhaps the great Elmore Leonard, has a better ear for dialogue, in particular the language of the street. (Not that I, as a child of the Canadian suburbs, have much first-hand knowledge of how criminals talk).
Purple Cane Road features a complex multi-layered plot that involves Dave trying to track down the people responsible for his mother's 30 year-old murder, uncover the truth behind the murder of a pedophile before the alleged killer is executed, and catch a very polite but psychotic hit man. To complicate matters, Dave's wife has a history with the dirty cop Dave's trying to bring down, his daughter has a crush on a charming young hit-man, and his best friend Clete continues to be a loose cannon in danger of losing his license, going to jail or worse. I found the strange relationship that develops between Dave and the hired killer especially intriguing.
While I enjoyed the novel, I do feel compelled to point out that there are some significant plot holes and extraordinary contrivances in this novel. Dave doesn't actually do much (if any) detecting in this novel. Characters in the novel have the information Dave is looking for, but essentially wait until the author decides it is time for them to share the info with Dave, when the plot demands it. Dave, in a matter of minutes, uncovers evidence at an eight-year old crime scene, that somehow crime scene investigators missed the first time around. And in a pimp's dying recorded statement it's never clear how the pimp knew that his killer was linked to Dave's mother's murder. The plot just requires him to know.
Despite some of the shortcomings in the plot, this is a very good novel, arguably one of the best in the series. The ending of the novel, in particular, is very strong, full of that moral ambiguity that I like.
Summary of Purple Cane Road (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)
From Edgar Award-winner James Lee Burke comes this emotional powerhouse of a novel ... in which everyman hero Dave Robicheaux confronts the secrets of his long-forgotten past in a shattering tale of revenge, murder, and a mother's haunting legacy....Robicheaux first hears it from a pimp eager to trade information for his life: Mae Guillory was murdered outside a New Orleans nightclub by two cops. Dave Robicheaux was just a boy when his mother ran out on him and his whiskey-driven father.
Now Robicheaux is a man, still haunted by her desertion and her death. More than thirty-five years after Mae Guillory died, her son will go to any length to bring her killers to justice. And as he moves closer to what happened that long-ago night, the Louisiana cop crosses lines of color and class to find the place where secrets of his past lie buried ... and where all roads lead to revenge -- but only one road leads to the truth....
In New Iberia, Louisiana, memories are long and dangerous, and the past and present are seldom easy to untangle. Homicide investigator Dave Robicheaux is trying to help Letty Labiche, a New Iberia girl on death row for killing the man who molested her and her sister as children, when chance brings him to Zipper Clum, a pimp and pornographer who recognizes Robicheaux secondhand through a 30-year haze:
"Robicheaux, your mama's name was Mae.... Wait, it was Guillory before she married. That was the name she went by ... Mae Guillory. But she was your mama," he said.To Robicheaux, whose memories of the fun-loving Mae are few and bittersweet, the news comes like a bolt of lightning. Though she abandoned him to the uncertain mercies of a violent, alcoholic father, he loved her, and his desire to find her killers--cops in the pay of the Giacano crime family, according to Clum--is instantaneous and deeply felt. Unfortunately, Zipper Clum meets the wrong end of a .25 automatic soon after his electrifying announcement, but his conversation with his killer is recorded--and Mae Guillory's name comes up again."What?" I said.
He wet his lips uncertainly.
"She dealt cards and still hooked a little bit. Behind a club in Lafourche Parish. This was maybe 1966 or '67," he said.
Clete's eyes were fixed on my face. "You're in a dangerous area, sperm breath," he said to Zipper.
"They held her down in a mud puddle. They drowned her," Zipper said.
The winding trail of evidence connected to both Letty Labiche and Mae Guillory leads Robicheaux almost immediately to Jim Gable, the New Orleans Police Department's liaison with city hall, whose position has afforded him a number of less-than-legal advantages. Gable also happens to be an ex-lover of Robicheaux's wife, Bootsie--formerly the widow of Ralph Giacano. From there the web of connections grows ever wider, and (not surprisingly) incriminates those in high places. These include the state attorney general, a woman who, if photographic evidence is to be trusted, was once friendly with the Labiches' parents, who were known procurers.
But if Purple Cane Road has its share of corrupt powermongers, it's also filled with beautifully rounded characters, like piano-playing governor Belmont Pugh and hit man Johnny Remeta, whose personality slowly begins to unravel as he gets closer to Robicheaux's daughter. The plot converges seamlessly to its climax--the true story of what happened to Mae Robicheaux--as James Lee Burke's trademark of uncompromising justice is brought to fruition. Like Burke's other Robicheaux novels, Purple Cane Road offers a solidly satisfying piece in the picture of a complex hero. --Barrie Trinkle
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.64
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Jolie Blon's Bounceby James Lee Burke, James Burke
Pocket Star; Published: 2003-10-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
A Morning for Flamingosby James Lee Burke
Avon; Published: 1991-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.27
Price in other shops:
Last Car to Elysian Fields: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)by James Lee Burke
Pocket Star; Published: 2004-08-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
Cadillac Jukebox (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)by James Lee Burke
Hyperion; Published: 1997-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.97
Price in other shops:
Pegasus Descending: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)by James Lee Burke
Pocket Star; Published: 2007-08-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.26
Price in other shops:
BURNING ANGEL (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)by James Lee Burke
Hyperion; Published: 1996-07-08; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.34
Price in other shops:
Sunset Limited (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)by James Lee Burke
Island Books; Published: 1999-07-06; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.66
Price in other shops:
Heaven's Prisoners (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)by James Lee Burke
Pocket Books; Published: 2002-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.55
Price in other shops:
The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries)by James Lee Burke
Pocket Books; Published: 2002-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
Black Cherry Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novelby James Lee Burke
Avon; Published: 1990-12-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.28
Price in other shops: