Rating: 
Summary: BURKE DOES IT AGAIN...
Review: In this installment of the Dave Robicheaux series, James Lee Burke again paints a rich tapastry of the failings and triumphs of the human spirit set against the backdrop of southern Louisiana. As is true in his other novels, Burke uses his standard plot woven around career criminals, the disenfranchised,and the poor with a violent psychopath or two thrown in for good measure, to explore the complexity of human relationships and how and why past experiences can motivate us, even subconsicously, to behave in certain ways. All of Burke's characters are fully formed, three dimensional people that I felt like I knew by the end of the book. There wasn't a card board cutout among them. No body is ever really quite as good, or bad, as they initially seem( well, except for Jimmie Lee Boggs). I have read his books out of chronological order, and I do think there has been some drop off in recent years. Maybe this is due to building too many stories around the same basic plot of gangsters, low lifes, and crazed hitmen, or maybe now that Dave is married to Bootsie and has been in the same job for several novels, there hasn't been any room for any major new plot twists. Hopefully, Burke can explore Robicheaux's relationship with his daughter Alafair more as she becomes a young adult.
Rating:
Summary: Burke's captivating characters set him apart
Review: James Lee Burke didn't write "A Morning for Flamingos" in black and white everything is in shades of gray. Yet what emerges is a richly textured mystery filled with a cast of characters as colorful as their Bayou surroundings.
It starts when Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux rejoins the New Iberia police department to pay off a few thousand dollars of debt and is nearly killed when a routine convict transport goes bad. And it ends with him in a $500,000 drug deal facing off against the same escaped murderer who nearly kills him at the beginning.
In between, Robicheaux fades to the background, becoming the eyes for the reader to see and evaluate everyone he encounters. There's his ex cop partner who now runs a bar, his old high school sweetheart who married into the mob and then couldn't break free, the top mob boss in New Orleans with a tender spot for his handicapped son, an illiterate "Negro" convicted of a crime he didn't commit but didn't stop and a bayou juju who has everyone scared of her.
Yet unlike many mysteries where characters like these would be eccentrics to provide comic relief, this one brings them to life. They're real people with real-life struggles, fears and hopes.
Burke accomplishes this feat with his masterful use of dialogue, proving once again that few, if any, mystery authors can convey personality, region and nuances better than he can.
As a result, the reader will struggle with Robicheaux to decide what's moral, what's legal and what's just the right thing to do. Because this is not about rules and regulations it's about people. And that's what makes this so good -- and Burke so special.
Rating: 
Summary: Back at the bayou....
Review: James Lee Burke is not only a great writer of gripping crime stories. If you have ever been to southern Louisiana and you loved it there-this book is the proper buy to give your memories a powerful boost. I have seldom read a book that gave me such a strong inmpression of the environment the story takes place in.
Rating:
Summary: Dave Robicheaux gris gris gumbo ya ya!
Review: My first introduction to James Lee Burke's Big Easy dectective, Dave Robicheaux, was via television, in Heaven's Prisoners. There were a
handful of truly unique characters...I wanted more
Dave Robicheaux is a basically honest cop, with a
tad too much humanity for the Southern Louisiana gator tank in which he swims. Shades of Travis McGee: Detectives on the take, women who aren't what they seem to be and bottom-feeding psychopaths who should be long gone, but are they?
At night, Dave wrestles with various demons from
Viet Nam, his murdered wife, and sundry flotsam
and jetsom of the Big Easy. From beyond the (watery)grave come Cajun homilies from his dad.
The very best thing about A Morning For Flamingos
is the writing. You taste the hot, yeasty beignets from Cafe du Monde, then lick your fingers and shake the powdered sugar from your
clothes. My, that chicory-infused coffee smells
good. It's a tad bit humid, but the pink-tinged
sunrise and the bayou barbeque draw you in, you.
Burke takes you with Robicheaux, as he tumbles
down a ravine after being shot, to a hot pillow
place in the parish, and most of all, inside the
head of the battered, taking sobriety a day at a
time detective with more conscience than survival
skills.
Like cowboy poetry, Burke's New Orleans is raw yet
beautiful. There's a terrible bunch of snakes that sizzle and hiss inside Robicheaux, yet he reaches out to a character most would paint with
broad "bad guy" strokes, but then you just never
know...The ending was truly satisfying, and if you
are new to this writer or series, this won't be
your last trip to New Iberia.
Rating:
Summary: There's not a finer crime/mystery author writing today.
Review: Over the last 15 years, James Lee Burke's character of Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux has been established as one of the best and most intriguing in modern crime fiction. The intrigue continues in the fourth book of the Robicheaux series, A MORNING FOR FLAMINGOS. This time we find Dave critically wounded and his partner killed after a prisoner transport goes awry. After his recovery, Dave is sent undercover by the DEA to try to bring down a drug dealer from his old stomping ground, New Orleans. Dave's old homicide partner Clete Purcel is a big part of this novel, as well as the rest of the series, and is the no-holds-barred sometimes law-bending character that Robicheaux fans are used to. We also find another appearance from DEA agent Minos Dautrieve, who had a big role in the earlier Burke novel (and subsequent film starring Alec Baldwin) HEAVEN'S PRISONERS. These two, along with all the others surrounding the story, provide a great story for the reader. The story is believable, the characters are believable, and at times the reader really starts to sympathize with people in the story that you are really not supposed to be cheering for! Nothing registers with a reader quite like a character with feelings, and these characters really come across that way. I've read several of the Burke/Robicheaux novels and this is right up there at the top of the class.
Rating:
Summary: There's not a finer crime/mystery author writing today.
Review: Over the last 15 years, James Lee Burke's character of Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux has been established as one of the best and most intriguing in modern crime fiction. The intrigue continues in the fourth book of the Robicheaux series, A MORNING FOR FLAMINGOS. This time we find Dave critically wounded and his partner killed after a prisoner transport goes awry. After his recovery, Dave is sent undercover by the DEA to try to bring down a drug dealer from his old stomping ground, New Orleans. Dave's old homicide partner Clete Purcel is a big part of this novel, as well as the rest of the series, and is the no-holds-barred sometimes law-bending character that Robicheaux fans are used to. We also find another appearance from DEA agent Minos Dautrieve, who had a big role in the earlier Burke novel (and subsequent film starring Alec Baldwin) HEAVEN'S PRISONERS. These two, along with all the others surrounding the story, provide a great story for the reader. The story is believable, the characters are believable, and at times the reader really starts to sympathize with people in the story that you are really not supposed to be cheering for! Nothing registers with a reader quite like a character with feelings, and these characters really come across that way. I've read several of the Burke/Robicheaux novels and this is right up there at the top of the class.
Rating:
Summary: Tough Time in New Orleans
Review: This 4th book in the Dave Robicheaux series is a tense, gritty visit to the old quarter of New Orleans. Early on, Dave is shot in the chest by Jimmie Lee Boggs, a death row prisoner who was in the process of being transferred in preparation for his execution. After recovering, Dave is asked by the DEA to work undercover in New Orleans in a sting operation to put away Mafia don Tony Cardo. The added lure is the opportunity to catch Boggs and repay him for the bullet. Once he gains the trust of Cardo, Dave finds himself developing a liking for the crime boss, regardless of the misery he is responsible for dealing out. The feeling of affection is mutual, with a deep respect developing between the two men. He finds that he has to struggle to keep focussed on the reason he's there and put his new friendship aside. Dave Robicheaux is still a man in torment, particularly after the trauma of being shot had reawakened the nightmares he hoped to have put behind him. James Lee Burke's Louisiana is a grim and dangerous place at times, yet the mouth-watering cuisine seems to make all the danger worthwhile. This is another solid effort in a tremendous series.
Rating:
Summary: "THE BEST OF BURKE"
Review: This is the fourth Burke book I have read, I am trying to take them in order. This is the best one so far, in my openion. Dave Robicheaux is left for dead after two prisoners excape while he and another policeman are moving them to another prison. After he recovers, he is asked to go undercover to help flush out Tony Cardo, a drug dealer. He should be able to get the person who left him for dead at the same time. His old partner, Clete Purcel, wants part of the action to protect Dave's back. They make a good team. Dave begins to have doubts about taking Tony down after he get close to him. Has a good ending. I like the Burke books because you can feel like you are there. I like the language spoken by the Cajun people. All in all a good read, if you like a good mystery with out a lot of blood and guts pouring out, you will like this.
Rating:
Summary: Building a Better Burke
Review: This is, without a doubt, one of the better of the Dave Robicheaux novels. As always, James Lee Burke writes with a lyrical grace that should awe the average reader. And this early novel was written before he started plagiarizing himself wholesale, stealing plots, characters and even entire paragraphs in order to flesh out his balletic swamp-songs. A black mark on this otherwise fine novel is the odd decision to have Dave go undercover in the home of Mobster Tony Cardo, a razor-edged freak of a man living on the outlines of his own criminal organization. Personally, if I were a crook, I'd never accept an ex-cop into my home, but maybe that's just me - the fact is that tony does and that's how this rollicking book gets going. It's not important that there's any more plot than that - in a Burkle novel, the setting is the most important element. As always, Burke paints pictures and only incidentally places characters and action within them, with the exception of Dave Robicheaux himself. I have always admired Dave - he is morally ambiguous and righteously angry, which causes him to behave in ways that are almost as freakish as Tony Cardo's ways. An example is dave's heroism at the climax of this novel - it's both awe-inspiring and breathtaking, but it's probably not what I wold have done in the same situation. Burke is an amazing writer and a good story-teller. He's not a bad painter, either.
Rating:
Summary: Building a Better Burke
Review: This is, without a doubt, one of the better of the Dave Robicheaux novels. As always, James Lee Burke writes with a lyrical grace that should awe the average reader. And this early novel was written before he started plagiarizing himself wholesale, stealing plots, characters and even entire paragraphs in order to flesh out his balletic swamp-songs. A black mark on this otherwise fine novel is the odd decision to have Dave go undercover in the home of Mobster Tony Cardo, a razor-edged freak of a man living on the outlines of his own criminal organization. Personally, if I were a crook, I'd never accept an ex-cop into my home, but maybe that's just me - the fact is that tony does and that's how this rollicking book gets going. It's not important that there's any more plot than that - in a Burkle novel, the setting is the most important element. As always, Burke paints pictures and only incidentally places characters and action within them, with the exception of Dave Robicheaux himself. I have always admired Dave - he is morally ambiguous and righteously angry, which causes him to behave in ways that are almost as freakish as Tony Cardo's ways. An example is dave's heroism at the climax of this novel - it's both awe-inspiring and breathtaking, but it's probably not what I wold have done in the same situation. Burke is an amazing writer and a good story-teller. He's not a bad painter, either.
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