Rating: 
Summary: Violent Poetry
Review: Mr. Burke keeps getting better and better. Violent poetry, but always on a human level and scale. To be able to tell a story like that takes an extraordinary amount of talent and skill. Dave Robichaux by far outshines the antics of his imaginary collegues (invented by John Sandford and James Patterson), although it would be nice to have him meet up with Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch. Jolie Blon's Bounce is the absolute best in the series. Don't even think twice about buying it!! Terrific.
Rating: 
Summary: The morose Dave Robicheau
Review: You've got to pay attention and not just go through the motions. We have a rape murder that seems to lack motive...a quiet boyfriend who shouldn't be that scared. The crime and its solution would have been twenty minutes max on Law and Order. Two very different women are all over Clete Purcell...why? How many crooked (gotta pay for their past) genteel families are left in New Iberia? I'm a fan and have read every one. I started when the first book came out...but like Robert Parker, Burke is just stitiching what he knows we like together.
Rating:
Summary: Best Yet!!
Review: This is the darkest of the Dave Robicheaux series to date---but also one of the most riveting. Dave's demons come back to haunt him---literally and figuratively---in this story of good vs. evil. No other author on earth can personify evil like Burke. The poetic, lyrical language of South Louisiana and Mr. Burke's lush descriptions of the Louisiana landscape are quintessential Burke. If you've enjoyed the other books in the Robicheaux series, you'll love this one...I highly recommend it!!
Rating:
Summary: Darkly and mysteriously wonderful
Review: When teenager Amanda Boudreau is murdered in New Iberia, Louisiana, the evidence points to Tee Bobby Hulin, a gifted musician but a crackhead and general ne'er-do-well. Detective Dave Robicheaux is not convinced, though. Then there is another murder, this time of the drug-addicted daughter of a local Mafia figure, and Tee Bobby is again implicated. Robicheaux still doubts the evidence and continues to investigate when he crosses paths with the mysterious and malevolent Legion Guidry, an elderly former plantation overseer. Robicheaux questions his own sanity when his instincts tell him that Legion is pure evil in human form.Meanwhile, Robicheaux's sidekick, Clete Purcell, is having woman troubles, and competition in the person of cracker ex-con Bible salesman Marvin Oates. Even Robicheaux's own attorney, Perry LaSalle, is behaving strangely in the wake of the two murders. They all have secrets and present different faces to different people, and it's up to Robicheaux to navigate the labyrinthe, pick out the necessary pieces, and put it all together. And who better than James Lee Burke to throw it all out there, knead it and meld it with his dark and menacing poetry, and then pull it all together with brilliant finesse. This may be Dave Robicheaux's darkest voyage yet but, boy, what a ride. The atmosphere, rife with human suffering and the nature of evil, is very intense and roiling with preternatural undercurrents, with an ending that is both shocking and just.
Rating:
Summary: fascinating crime thriller
Review: Tee Bobby Hulin, a black junkie who never committed a violent crime, is fingered for the murder of Amanda Boudreau. New Iberia, Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux doesn't believe he committed the crime even though the evidence points that way. When a local prostitute Linda Zeroski is also murdered in a violent manner, Tee Bobby, who is out on bail, becomes the number one suspect for that homicide too. Linda's father is a powerful New Orleans mobster who comes to New Iberia to enact vengeance on his daughter's killer. Dave's investigation leads him to lean on Legion Guidry, a man who is the embodiment of evil. Legion beats up and emasculates Dave who first ends up in the hospital and ultimately off the wagon. Before he can discover who the killer is, he must defeat his own demons before they destroy him. James Lee Burke is one of the better writers of the last decade. His prose is lyrical yet atmospheric, smooth yet dangerous, silk yet graphic. His protagonist is a flawed tortured soul who immediately makes a place for himself in the hearts of the audience. Jolie Blon's Bounce is a fascinating crime thriller with so many vile villainous suspects that readers will find it near impossible to figure out who the killer actually is. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Still Number One
Review: Burke's mix of local color and great plotting, served up with a style that is crisp and vivid, have made him a favorite of readers and fellow mystery novelists. And he keeps getting better, a dozen novels into a series. The new book presents us with two violent crimes against women. Serial killer? The prime suspect is a brilliant young musician, the man you want to be the killer is a rich white kid. Hovering in the background is Burke's sleaziest, nastiest villain in years. Burke never deals in cliches, though his characters might. The second victim is the daughter of a Mafia hit man, and one of the most startling and engaging elements of the story is the humanization of the grieving father. When the crimes resolve into solutions, we lose some people we care about. And one villian gets justice in a form we can only shake our heads over. Robicheaux suffers a disgusting humiliation in this book, and his family is rocked by the result. I listened to another mystery writer recently ascribe the appeal of his books to the fact that his hero is a nice normal guy with a nice normal family. Well, maybe so, but Burke has gotten tremendous mileage out of something a bit more challenging. Watching Alafair grow, seeing the strength of Bootsie's love for her scarred man, feeling their pain as they cope with the literal scars of her incurable illness, have made this series the best around for a decade. Let's hope for a few more.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read! It's a very well written mystery novel that intertwines characters and their stories. I just couldn't put it down. It would make a great movie!
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps Burke's best since "Black Cherry Blues"
Review: Aside from Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan", Burke's Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux is my favorite character in current popular fiction. Robicheaux and his familiar cast of characters are in top form, as is Burke's writing, in JOLIE BLON'S BOUNCE.
The synopsis for the story is already available here, but to me the most intriguing part of the book is the cast of characters. Legion Guidry is one of the most interesting, formidable, and flat out frightening characters that Burke has created throughout the series. Is he just a bad man, is he possessed...what IS wrong with him? He's possibly the only adversary that Dave Robicheaux has had that truly scared him. Of course the constant sidekick for Dave throughout all of the novels has been his former partner and friend Clete Purcel. Clete has always been interesting and at times hilarious, but this book shows perhaps better than any other the connection that these two have. Clete has been the only constant for Dave throughout everything, and their friendship really adds a lot to the series.
Burke's writing and prose is at its best. The beautiful descriptive prose, believable characters, plausible plot, and exciting action combine for what may be his best overall effort since 1990's award-winning BLACK CHERRY BLUES.
Not a long read, at 349 pages, but a fast and exciting one. Fully recommended. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Another Winner for Burke
Review: If you have grown up in the South, especially Louisiana as I have, Burke's descriptive style and ability to paint a morning in a small Cajun town such as New Iberia rings so true it makes one homesick. The ability to describe but, at the same time, give such vitality and life to the characters is the real treasure of reading Burke.
Like enjoying the unapologetic brutality of the Sopranos or the curt language of Deadwood, this book also will not pass any P.C. conventions. The characters live and breathe with a life of their own. The dialogue is as lively and crisp as the thugs drifting up from the Mafia dens of Nu-Awlins.
As usual there will be setbacks and hardships galore for our life challenged hero but Dave will walk that fine line between alcoholism, honor and anger managemnet in the only way he knows how. The Burke way.
Rating:
Summary: Looking forward to a long, beautiful relationship!
Review: This was my first brush with the Dave Robicheaux series, but it certainly won't be the last!
After a slow start, I was awestruck by Burke's poetic/hypnotic prose and the originality of Robicheaux in a literary world filled with hard-boiled, moralistic detectives/P.I.s. Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series has been my long-time favorite, but I think I've found a new standard bearer for the genre.
I'm used to protagonists with a "history" but the fact that Robicheaux's demons are always so close to the surface (and sometimes break through) was highly entertaining. Sidekick Clete Purcel was also a revelation (and a real scene stealer whose periodic female dilemmas had me laughing out loud).
I look forward to starting book one in the series and getting to know Dave Robicheaux / James Lee Burke much better in the months ahead.
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