Rating: 
Summary: Only time I recommend skipping the first in a series...
Review: A bookseller in Washington D.C. recommended Burke to me. She said "you'll love this character." I thought, a cop running around New Iberia Louisiana? No way. I've been to New Iberia and there's nothing there! But I decided to give it a try and started with the first in the series (Neon Rain). I almost couldn't get through it. This is a poorly written cop story, set in New Orleans, where Robicheaux is a drunken homicide Lt. It has none of the charm or style of the books that follow. Fortunately, Robicheaux decides to move to New Iberia in the second book, and the series really takes off and starts scoring strikes. New readers just discovering James Lee Burke's cajun hero might want to skip "Neon Rain" and pick up the series with "Heaven's Prisoners." You won't be missing much, if anything.
Rating:
Summary: Only time I recommend skipping the first in a series...
Review: A bookseller in Washington D.C. recommended Burke to me. She said "you'll love this character." I thought, a cop running around New Iberia Louisiana? No way. I've been to New Iberia and there's nothing there! But I decided to give it a try and started with the first in the series (Neon Rain). I almost couldn't get through it. This is a poorly written cop story, set in New Orleans, where Robicheaux is a drunken homicide Lt. It has none of the charm or style of the books that follow. Fortunately, Robicheaux decides to move to New Iberia in the second book, and the series really takes off and starts scoring strikes. New readers just discovering James Lee Burke's cajun hero might want to skip "Neon Rain" and pick up the series with "Heaven's Prisoners." You won't be missing much, if anything.
Rating: 
Summary: Adventure story set in New Orleans
Review: Dave Robicheaux, New Orleans cop, gets involved with lowlives, including hefty mobster Didi Gee. Dave kills a few people and eventually has a confrontation with the Didi Gee crowd. It's not a bad adventure story, and the ending is one to be envious of.
Rating: 
Summary: Mystery 101 (One Man's Continuning Education)
Review: Except for a few Christies in my teens, I never read mysteries at all (except for one or two that somehow made it into my college curriculum). It had less to do with a lack of interest than a lack of time. I was a struggling academic a long time (too long) and, although I enjoyed mystery films and TV shows, almost everything I read had to do with what I thought would be my life's vocation.But the genre always intrigued me. International literary figures from Borges to Duerrenmatt have championed the genre and have often used it to their own ends. I was aware that many mystery writers were quite serious about their writing and that much of it rivaled the best in contemporary serious literature. So in recent years, I've been playing catch up. I've joined with others in forming a Mystery Discussion Group in my public library...and most of these folks are much more knowledgeable than I am. In the past year, we have been doing a lot of sampling of various series, usually a very early work. I will say that of all the authors we've discussed thus far, James Lee Burke was the least well received--by OTHERS! I found this hard hitting, hard bitten writer to be compelling. But most of the other members of the group seem to prefer more of a "drawing room" type mystery. I don't think I had ever really realized how great a gulf there was between the various sub-genres (I guess it's the Hammett vs. Christie school of thought). If you've ever railed against the "bloodless" old-school, high tea kind of mysteries, you may want to check Burke out. People really die brutal, ugly deaths here. Murder is not seen as an intellectual puzzle, but as a horrible, de-humanizing reality. For that alone, I give Burke high marks. His complex, not very likeable (anti-)hero, Dave Robicheaux is another. This scarred Viet Nam vet is cynical, bitter and almost unapproachable. Yet he retains a core of decency that, I think, will redeem him in most readers' eyes. But like his extraordinarily understanding and patient love interest in the novel, the reader will have to cut through an almost impenetrable wall of defenses before discovering that moral core. Some of the readers below have commented that this is not the strongest effort in the Dave Robicheaux series. That seems likely: first efforts usually aren't. I will certainly encourage my fellow discussion group members to sample other Burke novels before they pass final judgment. But I don't expect that Robicheaux, or Burke himself, to develop a rosier take on life and of human nature. Dave Robicheaux seems to belong to the subset of detective that we call "hard-boiled." I'm interested in reading other entries in the series, and know that if NEON RAIN is any indication, they'll be chock-full of surprises. But one thing I know not to expect is for Dave Robicheaux to turn into Mr.Warmth at any point. Now THAT would be a real disappointment!
Rating:
Summary: Mystery 101 (One Man's Continuning Education)
Review: Except for a few Christies in my teens, I never read mysteries at all (except for one or two that somehow made it into my college curriculum). It had less to do with a lack of interest than a lack of time. I was a struggling academic a long time (too long) and, although I enjoyed mystery films and TV shows, almost everything I read had to do with what I thought would be my life's vocation. But the genre always intrigued me. International literary figures from Borges to Duerrenmatt have championed the genre and have often used it to their own ends. I was aware that many mystery writers were quite serious about their writing and that much of it rivaled the best in contemporary serious literature. So in recent years, I've been playing catch up. I've joined with others in forming a Mystery Discussion Group in my public library...and most of these folks are much more knowledgeable than I am. In the past year, we have been doing a lot of sampling of various series, usually a very early work. I will say that of all the authors we've discussed thus far, James Lee Burke was the least well received--by OTHERS! I found this hard hitting, hard bitten writer to be compelling. But most of the other members of the group seem to prefer more of a "drawing room" type mystery. I don't think I had ever really realized how great a gulf there was between the various sub-genres (I guess it's the Hammett vs. Christie school of thought). If you've ever railed against the "bloodless" old-school, high tea kind of mysteries, you may want to check Burke out. People really die brutal, ugly deaths here. Murder is not seen as an intellectual puzzle, but as a horrible, de-humanizing reality. For that alone, I give Burke high marks. His complex, not very likeable (anti-)hero, Dave Robicheaux is another. This scarred Viet Nam vet is cynical, bitter and almost unapproachable. Yet he retains a core of decency that, I think, will redeem him in most readers' eyes. But like his extraordinarily understanding and patient love interest in the novel, the reader will have to cut through an almost impenetrable wall of defenses before discovering that moral core. Some of the readers below have commented that this is not the strongest effort in the Dave Robicheaux series. That seems likely: first efforts usually aren't. I will certainly encourage my fellow discussion group members to sample other Burke novels before they pass final judgment. But I don't expect that Robicheaux, or Burke himself, to develop a rosier take on life and of human nature. Dave Robicheaux seems to belong to the subset of detective that we call "hard-boiled." I'm interested in reading other entries in the series, and know that if NEON RAIN is any indication, they'll be chock-full of surprises. But one thing I know not to expect is for Dave Robicheaux to turn into Mr.Warmth at any point. Now THAT would be a real disappointment!
Rating: 
Summary: I have to disagree--Neon Rain is the best
Review: I have all of the Dave Robicheaux books, and I think Neon Rain is still the best. Tightly constructed and enthralling. Burke blends the macho of Hemingway, the sensitivity of Fitzgerald, the plot of a J.M. Cain, and the off-beat characters of Elmore Leonard. I reread all the DR series before Jazzfest every year, and I see each subsequent novel after Neon Rain as just a little less polished. Burke is still the best of his genre!
Rating:
Summary: The Next Best Thing to Living on Lake Ponchartrain
Review: I have never before seen Southern Louisiana captured in print with such realism as shown by James Lee Burke. The pages drip with Spanish moss, Creole history, and stifling humidity.
Whether you say "Neon Rain" is the beginning of a first-rate detective series, or a bayou passion play, it really doesn't matter. You can't put the book down. When you read the last Dave Robicheaux tale, you start over. The bar has just been raised in this genre, and nothing else is quite good enough anymore.
Rating:
Summary: Meet Dave Robicheaux, the cop who plays by his own rules...
Review: I'm in the middle of reading all of the Dave Robicheaux's
novels (there's nine of them now), so it was a little
awkward reading "The Neon Rain," the first Robicheaux book,
having already read three of the others. I was far from
disappointed. Burke creates the character nicely, giving
him a believable past and a strong personality. Robicheaux
is so easy to like that, even when he makes his own rules
and goes hunting for bad guys with a sawed-off shotgun,
you're thinking to yourself, "Yeah, that's just what I would do..."
Rating:
Summary: More graphic than I expected
Review: I've been holding onto this book for awhile, having bought it on the recommendation of Doug and Tomi Lewis at the Little Bookshop of Horrors in Denver. I'd been interested in Burke's novels based on his critical reputation and evocative titles, but had hesitated to start another mystery series when I was having so much trouble getting throught the ones I had started years ago. But then Burke visited the Bookshop on a signing tour, and Doug and Tomi convinced me to give him a try. Dave Robicheaux is a New Orlean's detective who's got two problems. One, a man on death row tells him that he's marked for death, and, two, he's worried about what this floater he found in an east side bayou might mean. Along the way, he discovers that the time problems are not as separate as they might seem. The writing is good, but the plot is steamier and more graphic than I had expected. The brutality in the book matches Burke's style, but was surprising coming from what I had thought the book would be based on the critical comments that I had read. The most intriguing aspect of this book was the handling of Robicheaux's alcoholism. This is a modern detective novel, tough but not in the unrealistic hard-boiled style. Robicheaux's drinking problem is a living thing--not a static bit used to "develop" the character and only ends up being paint on the cardboard cut out. Robicheaux's problem is as much of a dynamic as himself, or, to put it better, is a reflection of his own dynamic personality.
Rating:
Summary: What a terrific book!
Review: My dad listens to a ton of audio books and James lee Burke is at the top of his list; he has most of Burke's books on tape. I listened for months about how good this series was until I just had to give it a try. I ordered the whole series and a few days later a bunch of paperback books were piled high on my desk. Now, a couple of months later I'm on Dixie City Jam and I'm not looking back. Dave is one of the most self-destructive characters I've run across, but that's what makes the book so engrossing. Neon Rain is a great mystery read
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