Rating: 
Summary: Evil Demons from the Bayou
Review: "Jolie Blon's Bounce" is so much more than a murder mystery. In this story, Lousiana police detective Dave Robicheaux is searching for clues to solve the murders of two women. Are the two murders related? One of the prime suspects is Legion Guidry. Legion is an evil demon through and through. He is a former overseer on a plantation in southern Louisiana and has a shameful history. Burke does a wonderful job developing the character of Legion and other interesting players in the story.The other evil demon is Robicheaux's continuing struggle to beat alcholism. Robicheaux flirts briefly with addiction to ampehtamines in his own battle with the bottle. James Lee Burke does a great job of sharing the thoughts of the police detective with us. As always in his books, his descriptions of the Lousiana bayous are fabulous. You can really feel the humidity and hear the haunting sounds of the bayou. I think this book would make a great movie. It has it all--great setting, great plot, and memorable characters. A real five-star read.
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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: Narrator Ruined Book
Review: I found this book from Burke to be surprisingly contrived and ended up getting boring
Rating: 
Summary: Born on the Bayou
Review: I would probably read anything written by James Lee Burke simply because I enjoy his style. The vivid details in his descriptions of the deep South, as well as his ability to capture the kind of racial dynamics that have somehow managed to make it into the 21st Century, are remarkable. The writing is often poetic and insightful, and Burke seems to recognize just what it is that separates the truly bad characters from the rest of us. That said, at some point the reader is forced to suspend reality within the pages of Jolie Blon's Bounce, which in my opinion, ultimately becomes more of an allegory about good versus evil than a murder mystery.
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: Dave Robicheaux makes you work
Review: It's hard to turn down the opportunity to read a James Lee Burke novel. Being in touch with the south and most of all, with the beauty of the flora and the fauna, it's impossible not to be moved with his travelogue detailing of what grows there and why it stopped growing there. Joining that is Mr. Burke's appreciation for the past, and how his hero, Dave Robicheaux, father, husband, RVN vet, alcoholic, cop, reminds us that we are forever responsible for the consequences of our acts. Finally there is Dave wrestling with his addictions, cognizant that it really is one day at a time, and he better not try to fill the one gallon bucket with five gallons of "stuff." Great list of characters: Legion Guidry, the Darth Vader of this novel, his wondeful wife Bootsie, recidivist offender Jimmy Dean Styles, gifted but terminally flawed Tee Bobby, and of course his best friend Clete Purcell. We get more out of the friendship of the two men here in "Jolie Blon's Bounce" than before and begin to understand why the two men are together as a pair, through hard times and good times and why Dave always sticks with Clete even though it's a brotherhood of only two. On it's own it's a great book with moments of humor, sadness, the continual racial agony that haunts especially the south, and the wonderful prose of Mr. Burke, and doesn't require any of the other Robicheaux novels to support it. If there is a drawback it is that with each successive Robicheaux tale, the writing becomes to some extent recipe or formula oriented. There's a killing most gruesome, a conflict in his marriage, a flirtation with drinking, ribald storytelling with Clete and retribution for the bad guys and vindication for the good guys. But like Parker's Spenser, I'll keep on reading him. Larry Scantlebury 5 stars.
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Summary: WILL PATTON IS SORELY MISSED !!!
Review: James Lee Burke hits another Home Run with Joilie Blon's Bounce, however the audiobook version falls far below par without the reading of Will Patton. Will Patton, in all the previous Dave Robicheaux audiobooks, has brought flesh and blood identities to all the characters with his unique ability to vocally create their individual voices. Mark Hammer reads in a droning monotone voice which fails to separate the principal characters, and quite frankly is effective only in either putting the listener to sleep or inspiring profound boredom. Between each Dave Robicheaux novel, I have always been anxious to read and hear what Cletus, Batist, the Sheriff, Bootsie, Alafair, and of course Dave are up to. I was so disappointed at not being able to hear all my old friends on the Jolie Blon's Bounce audiobook version. Will Patton is sorely missed, please bring him back and reissue Jolie Blon's Bounce with all the old gang's voices that we know and have come to cherish. The only redeeming feature of this current version is the preface read by James Lee Burke, and the recording of Jolie Blon. This feature should definitely become an addition to all future audiobooks.
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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: Read, don't listen
Review: This review is about the Mark Hammer audio tapes. I agree that he was not a good selection as reader. I listen as I go to sleep and usually get in at least one tape; I fell asleep the minute I heard Mark's voice. The content of the book is exceedingly exciting, but whether the protagonist is in conversation or being beaten to a pulp, the orator's voice never changes. He's just plain BORING while the story never is. Buy the book and read it yourself; I did and found it most enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Read, don't listen
Review: This review is about the Mark Hammer audio tapes. I agree that he was not a good selection as reader. I listen as I go to sleep and usually get in at least one tape; I fell asleep the minute I heard Mark's voice. The content of the book is exceedingly exciting, but whether the protagonist is in conversation or being beaten to a pulp, the orator's voice never changes. He's just plain BORING while the story never is. Buy the book and read it yourself; I did and found it most enjoyable.
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