America’s most acclaimed crime writer and winner of the CWA Gold Dagger returns to Louisiana with his great detective, Dave Robicheaux
Three men are present when Amanda Boudreau is raped and murdered, and small-time hustler Tee Bobby Hulin’s prints are found at the crime scene. Dave Robicheaux reckons he’s innocent, and Tee Bobby pleads so, then attempts suicide in his holding cell. Why?
Tee Bobby is released on bail and soon after there is a second murder. When lawyer Perry LaSalle takes on the defence of Tee Bobby, Dave knows his motives are fuelled by guilt. For Tee Bobby’s grandmother was seduced by Perry’s grandfather, and Amanda Boudreau’s death is related to events that happened long before Tee Bobby was born…
Praise for one of the great American crime writers, James Lee Burke:
‘James Lee Burke is the heavyweight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed.’ Michael Connelly
‘A gorgeous prose stylist.’ Stephen King
‘Richly deserves to be described now as one of the finest crime writers America has ever produced.’ Daily Mail
Fans of Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly and Don Winslow will love James Lee Burke:
Dave Robicheaux Series
1. The Neon Rain
2. Heaven’s Prisoners
3. Black Cherry Blues
4. A Morning for Flamingos
5. A Stained White Radiance
6. In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead
7. Dixie City Jam
8. Burning Angel
9. Cadillac Jukebox
10. Sunset Limited
11. Purple Cane Road
12. Jolie Blon’s Bounce
13. Last Car to Elysian Fields
14. Crusader’s Cross
15. Pegasus Descending
16. The Tin Roof Blowdown
17. Swan Peak
18. The Glass Rainbow
19. Creole Belle
20. Light of the World
21. Robicheaux
Hackberry Holland Series
1. Lay Down My Sword and Shield
2. Rain Gods
3. Feast Day of Fools
4. House of the Rising Sun
Billy Bob Holland Series
1. Cimarron Rose
2. Heartwood
3. Bitterroot
4. In The Moon of Red Ponies
* Each James Lee Burke novel can be read as a standalone or in series order *
Three men are present when Amanda Boudreau is raped and murdered, and small-time hustler Tee Bobby Hulin’s prints are found at the crime scene. Dave Robicheaux reckons he’s innocent, and Tee Bobby pleads so, then attempts suicide in his holding cell. Why?
Tee Bobby is released on bail and soon after there is a second murder. When lawyer Perry LaSalle takes on the defence of Tee Bobby, Dave knows his motives are fuelled by guilt. For Tee Bobby’s grandmother was seduced by Perry’s grandfather, and Amanda Boudreau’s death is related to events that happened long before Tee Bobby was born…
Praise for one of the great American crime writers, James Lee Burke:
‘James Lee Burke is the heavyweight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed.’ Michael Connelly
‘A gorgeous prose stylist.’ Stephen King
‘Richly deserves to be described now as one of the finest crime writers America has ever produced.’ Daily Mail
Fans of Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly and Don Winslow will love James Lee Burke:
Dave Robicheaux Series
1. The Neon Rain
2. Heaven’s Prisoners
3. Black Cherry Blues
4. A Morning for Flamingos
5. A Stained White Radiance
6. In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead
7. Dixie City Jam
8. Burning Angel
9. Cadillac Jukebox
10. Sunset Limited
11. Purple Cane Road
12. Jolie Blon’s Bounce
13. Last Car to Elysian Fields
14. Crusader’s Cross
15. Pegasus Descending
16. The Tin Roof Blowdown
17. Swan Peak
18. The Glass Rainbow
19. Creole Belle
20. Light of the World
21. Robicheaux
Hackberry Holland Series
1. Lay Down My Sword and Shield
2. Rain Gods
3. Feast Day of Fools
4. House of the Rising Sun
Billy Bob Holland Series
1. Cimarron Rose
2. Heartwood
3. Bitterroot
4. In The Moon of Red Ponies
* Each James Lee Burke novel can be read as a standalone or in series order *
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Reviews
A gorgeous prose stylist.
Richly deserves to be described now as one of the finest crime writers America has ever produced.
James Lee Burke just gets better and better . . . With each new novel James Lee Burke reaffirms his status as the best crime writer around: no one else can create, as he does here, such a gallery of extraordinary, brilliantly described characters, can integrate them into a complex, intriguing plot, and can use language with such sharp precision, while at the same time being so sensuously aware of every nuance of sight, smell and taste
The gentle giant of US crime writers, Burke always ensures that his Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux grapples with hot topics as much as with his own inner demons.
We expect high standards of James Lee Burke. He is not just a fantastic crime novelist, he is a fantastic novelist. Jolie Blon's Bounce is so far above the prevailing standards of crime fiction that it is pointless to make the comparison. With every book his sombre, ruminative writing gets more powerful, his denunciation of the evil he sees around him more stern. Jolie Blon's Bounce is probably his darkest, angriest novel yet. And his best
Critics are running out of superlatives to describe the writing of James Lee Burke . . . Burke is an American original
James Lee Burke is the heavyweight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed.
His lyrical prose, his deep understanding of what makes people behave as they do, and his control of plot and pace are masterly.
Dark, intelligent and poetic
The king of Southern noir.
He has always been a writer of infinite promise and surprise. The promises have all been kept. The surprises go on and on
This author is more and more a writer for our times
Burke is such a fine writer and evokes the fetid swamps and bayous, brilliant rain-and-sun-drenched landscapes of his native place so well that one is captivated . . . It is always difficult in a short review to give more than a hint of the denseness and atmosphere of a Lee Burke novel, for layer is piled upon layer in a weave of plot and subplot, with perfectly observed characters coming and going with insidious intent. Suffice to say that this one sees our author at his sinister best, stirring the pot gleefully and throwing in ever more juicy components to keep it bubbling malevolently
Majestic . . . In what makes his work distinctive - Faulknerian grotesque characters, lyrical expressionist use of landscape, dancing dialogue - Jolie Blon's Bounce is as rich as any of Burke's Louisiana novels
A new Dave Robicheaux mystery is a treat to be savoured, for James Lee Burke's small-town Louisiana cop is one of the most interesting and complex characters in crime fiction . . . Dark and compelling this is James Lee Burke at his best, delivering a fast-moving, mayhem-filled walk on the wild side of the Louisiana bayous and levees and their bizarre and outlandish residents
There are not many crime writers about whom one might invoke the name of Zola for comparison, but Burke is very much in that territory. His stamping ground is the Gulf coast, and one of the great strengths of his work has always been the atmospheric background of New Orleans and the bayous. His big, baggy novels are always about much more than the mechanics of the detective plot; his real subject, like the French master, is the human condition, seen in every situation of society.
When it comes to literate, pungently characterised American crime writing, James Lee Burke has few peers.
