Black Cherry Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

I have read so many of James Lee Burkes' books and I did not start with his first book Lost Get Back Boogie. I was knew to him and was introduced to Burke after reading his Foreword for a new crime suspense novelist, Michael Donnelly who is fantastic and who Burke wrote 20 pages in the foreward. The book "The Poet" phenomenal. Anyway I just started purchasing Burke's books when I could find them cheaply in 2nd hand stores. Then I got into them deeply. I have read at least 15 and just finished The Lost Get Back Boogie, middle of Black Cherry Blues and felt compelled to say that I am finally getting to know Dave Robicheaux very well. Wish I started here but it gets better and better. The characters, cultures, absorb me until my current world is unimportant (sort of) I am retired with no pressures. So Black Cherry Blues is fantastic, ties many references from his later books now that I know where they started and the story behind them. Recommend Mr. Burkes books to anyone and everyone.

James Lee Burke is an amazing author, No one I've read puts you in the moment like he does. Being from the south I can relate to so many situations he writes about, it's like reading a memory of my youth. Love this author!

I've read most of Burke's Dave Robicheaux series, and enjoyed them quite a bit. Heaven's Prisoners is one of the two best, the other being In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead. Mist is Burke at his most exotic--Dave's on an acid trip for a substantial part of the book; Heaven's Prisoners is Burke at his darkest. I'm unwilling to go into the plot; in fact I strongly urge you not to read further reviews as there are substantial spoilers in many of them that will ruin the experience for you. Suffice it to say there's plenty of action, plenty of suspense. Of course, most any thriller or action novel today promises that; where Burke is unusual is in his ability to handle language. He writes like he's in love with language, and it's a pleasure to read him. Mickey Spillane once said about himself that he didn't write novels, he wrote books; Burke definitely writes novels, and extremely literate ones at that. He's one of a generation of novelists, along with Michael Connelly, James Hall, and Dennis Lehane, who have inherited the mantle of Raymond Chandler and wear it with pride; in Burke's case, he seems also to draw inspiration from William Faulkner. Robicheaux's a complex man, tortured by his own inadequacies and yet immensely strong simultaneously, and he's a prisoner of the dark, decaying Southern environment he was raised in. If you prefer simple action, plots, and characters like Mike Hammer or Robert Parker's Spenser, you'll surely think Burke is overwritten. But for a real literate treat, with an electric story, fantastic dialogue and descriptions, and characters you'll want to revisit, read Heaven's Prisoners. I almost never reread a fiction book, except by accident--there's just too much new stuff out there; but I deliberately read this one again, and enjoyed it just as much the second time.

James lee Burke is one of thosed underrated masters of prose,forever delegated to second rung because of his genre. Heavens prisoners, the second in this series,is,in many ways, the best. Dave Robicheux, the alcoholic new Orleans cop,is out fishing when a single engine plane crashes into the lake,and everything changes.Mr. Burke's descriptions of alcoholic despair and rage are perhaps the finest,and least sentimental I have read. The violence is brutal and freakish in its intensity[as violence is],the dialogue is so well written that i feel for these characters,and want to read more. Though much Longer then Neon rain, the first entry,Mr. Burkes seems to hold the intensity through the narrative. From the lousiana locales to histroical comments on Cajuns, from Cletus Purcell{his sort of sidekick]to the suprising[at least for me] ending, Mr. Burke solidifes himself as one superb writer.And, fortunately, the series goes on ...

Dave Robicheaux is a classic, tragic hero. He has retired to the Bayou to find serenity, but trouble falls from the sky and brings him a blessing and a curse. Dave's weakness for poking bullies in the eye with a sharp stick starts a chain of events that costs him his wife and a trip into Hell. James Lee Burke paints beautiful, cruel pictures of Dave's Bayou world, and he has created a noble, battered character that fights his internal demons as hard as he fights the monsters in the real world. Heaven's Prisoners is one of Burke's best.