Reviewing: "The Glass Rainbow" by James Lee Burke

The past, the often painful and tragic history of Louisiana, has always been a major theme of the Dave Robicheaux series. It certainly is again in The Glass Rainbow. Detective Dave Robicheaux of New Iberia, LA is a bit outside his jurisdiction as the novel opens. He is over in Mississippi to see a long term convict by the name of Elmore Latiolas.

Elmore has heard that Detective Robecheaux has been asking around about seven girls that have been killed recently in a neighboring parish where local law enforcement is doing absolutely nothing to solve the case. The media says that the young teenage girls were prostitutes. Elmore tells Dave that one of the dead is his sister and that he’s sure that she wasn’t a prostitute or anything like that. He also is convinced that a guy named Herman Stanga is involved but can’t prove that nor provide Detective Ronicheaux any real reason Herman could be responsible other than personal animosity between the two men.

Detective Robicheaux knows Herman and what he is. If the man is not directly involved he might know who is so Dave goes to see the man. And like many of the characters in James Lee Burke’s novels, the man is rotten to the core while hiding beneath a thin veil of civility. He is just the start of yet another large group of characters whose public illusion is far different than their private evil. The case is not in his jurisdiction, at least initially, but that has never stopped Dave before in his pursuit of justice and the removal of evil from the face of the earth.

While the past has always been a theme of this series, recently in the wake of the real life destruction of New Orleans and the surrounding area by Hurricane Katrina, the novels have taken a hard turn toward the melancholy as Detective Robicheaux contemplates that final ending. That is very much the case here with Robicheaux, who has always been susceptible to visions, having a large number of them and other characters also seeing a dark future for Dave and his good friend Clete Purcel. That leads to a rather open ending that gives rise to a concern widely reported on many media outlets and other places about the series going forward that has been recently been laid to rest on the author’s website.

As always, there is a large amount of noir and Greek tragedy mixed together in the read along with plenty of scenic description, occasionally graphic dialogue, and tons of convoluted characters and complex plot points. James Lee Burke does not construct simple minded books. His books are dense, full of nuance and impactful long after the book is finished. The Glass Rainbow is another excellent book that serves not only as cultural history but also as a complex mystery and mighty good reading.

The Glass Rainbow: a Dave Robicheaux novel

James Lee Burke

http://www.jamesleeburke.com

Simon and Schuster

http://www.simonandschuster.com

July 2010

ISBN# 978-4391-2829-9

Hardback

433 pages

Material provided by the good folks of the Plano, Texas public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2010