Review: The Hadacol Boogie: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke

  

History and the mystical have always been a constant presence in this series. Such is the case here where both are major characters in The Hadacol Boogie: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke. The setting itself, at the very end of the late 90s with a new year fast approaching, is its own character as well.

 

Though one could, if so inclined, argue that all of this started way earlier. In Eden, perhaps. Or back during the Civil War. Or any other location in time that you would like to choose. Maybe we, as the reader, just think it starts in the late 90s at the dawn of the new year.

 

While some have some have shot off fireworks and had a good time, Dave Robicheaux is thinking about the long history of Louisiana, good and bad, as well as the things he has seen and done. He’s in his kitchen and trying to stay sober so he settles for some chocolate milk when he sees some kids in a small boat out on the Bayou Teche fire off a bottle rocket. Instead of going skyward, the flaming bottle rocket ends up going inside a tent he has set up on the end of his yard to protect an armadillo and her babies from the wet weather.

 

In the aftermath of putting the fire out, the kids tell an annoyed Dave Robicheaux that they fired the thing into his yard to light it up as they did not have a flashlight. They saw a large man who scared them. They saw him dragging a big plastic garbage bag through his yard. They lost sight of him and the bag. The kids are seemingly good kids that he has seen around and they certainly are very clearly scared.

 

Robicheaux soon finds the bag. He gets it open and discovers the nude body of a woman inside. She has a wire wrapped around her throat that may or may not be a guitar string. She is very clearly dead. Now he has to report in to his boss and others, see to it that the kids get to their respective parents safely, and do a lot of other stuff.

 

After calling it in to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department where he works and other folks that need to know, he also calls his former homicide detective partner, Clete Purcell. Soon, seemingly, half the local population has shown up to his house and yard, as does Purcell. Identifying the dead woman is his first course of business. Then comes figuring out who did it and why dump her body in his yard?

 

Before long, things get strange in the neighborhood. History and the mystical constantly power this latest read in the series. As often happens, though not usually nearly to this level, The Hadacol Boogie: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke is part mystery and part out of reality adventure. While both aspects are very common in this series, here they are so constant and so large in their presence, that they threaten to overshadow the actual murder case and the complications surrounding that.

 

Despite that aspect of the read, the book keeps the reader turning pages and hooked in the story. In the end, that is all that matters.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4aK8MNG

 

My digital ARC came by way of the publisher, Atlantic Crime (Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, and with no expectation of a positive review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026

Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – CLETE BY JAMES LEE BURKE

Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – CLETE BY JAMES LEE BURKE

Clete: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke

Clete: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke takes readers back to the late 90s and events that Clete Purcell and Dave Robicheaux experienced. Told primarily from the point of view of Clete, the read features all the classic elements of a Dave Robicheaux novel. Southern Louisiana setting and vivid descriptions, references to faith and societal decay, and apparitions that are symbolic of history and the great wrongs that have happened before and will happen again.

 

Both Clete and Dave served in Vietnam, had horrible experiences, and came back home. Coping with their military service has been a struggle for both of them. While Dave is still a cop, Clete no longer is thanks to some of the things he did. He is now a private investigator and is struggle to hang on in every way possible. He drives a 1959 El Dorado and loves that car.

 

He entrusts it to Eddy Durbin, owner and operator of the car wash, Eddy’s Car Wash, over in Algiers. Eddy did all his time in Angola and has made a name for himself in the years since. Clete was late in picking up the car as he was in New Orleans for a bondsman chasing down a dancer. He got back, got the car, and takes it back home to where he lives in the Garden District.

 

Couple of days later one morning, he hears noises, and discovers three guys pulling the leather off the seats and pulling damn near everything else out of the car. The three guys are sure there was something of theirs in the car. If not there, maybe it made its way into the house. When confronted about what they are doing to his car in his driveway, they get the idea in their heads that they want to come inside and check. Clete wasn’t going to have that.

 

Clete was holding his own until one of the three hit him in the head with a crowbar. Down and out, the guys got away, and New Orleans police were of no help. That means Clete is going to have to hunt these guys on his own,.

 

Obviously, the first stop is the carwash. Eddy Durbin sees him coming and jumps into an available car. He takes off with Clete chasing him. He finally stops and explains that there was another El Dorado and that his little brother is involved. The stuff, whatever it was, was supposed to go into that car and got put in Clete’s car by mistake. He has no idea where his brother, is but thinks the Dixie Mafia is involved. He also thinks that the stuff was probably fentanyl.

 

The same horrible drug that recently killed Clete’s grandniece. That makes it double personally for Clete. One way or another, Clete is going to see everyone involved dead or locked up in cage for forever. He would be fine with killing them all.

 

What follows is a highly atmospheric story as Clete explains what happened in the case long ago as well as shares observations on faith, morality, politics, environmental issues, and the slow destruction of Eden (Louisiana). Many of the observations fit the time period of decades ago as well as are accurately reflect the times we are in today. There have always been those among us that seek to profit off of others and just don’t care how they do it.

 

As often happens in Dave Robicheaux series, knowing that a person is evil and doing crimes, is one thing. Proving it for a court of law takes a lot of work with numerous detours.

 

Such as the case here in Clete: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke. A book where the evil one sees is just the tip of a rotten iceberg that could destroy everything.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3XdgusU

 

My reading copy came from the publisher, Atlantic Monthly Press, by way of Net Galley.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024

 

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Private Cathedral by James Lee Burke

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Private Cathedral by James Lee Burke: Once again, we are pleased to have Kevin Tipple provide us with a guest review.  Kevin's own award-winning blogspot features reviews, ne...

Crime Watch: Review: NEW IBERIA BLUES by James Lee Burke

Crime Watch: Review: NEW IBERIA BLUES: NEW IBERIA BLUES by James Lee Burke (Orion, 2019) Reviewed by Craig Sisterson Detective Dave Robicheaux’s world isn’t filled with too ...

Review: The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke

As The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel begins, it has been 25 years since Dave Robicheaux last saw Desmond Cormier in New Orleans. Born of mixed race and in serious poverty, Cormier is a classic story of somebody who rose above his lot in life through hard work and sheer determination. He was a sidewalk artist when Robicheaux last saw him on a cold and gray January morning. Cormier told him he was headed to Hollywood and would be a film director.

He came back home twenty-five years later as an award nominated and award winning director and now lives part time in a house on stilts out at Cypremort Point. A known eccentric who does not fit the expectations of anyone, he gets in trouble and makes the news for his behavior and comments. On this particular August afternoon, Detective Dave Robicheaux and Deputy Sean McClain are at Cormier’s home because distant neighbors have called 9111 and reported hearing a woman screaming somewhere nearby. The officers who first came out earlier that morning found nothing, but Detective Robicheaux is checking again as far too many people reported the same thing for it to be nothing.

The tennis shoe, size 7, might be nothing or it might be proof that a woman had been on the beach at some point in the recent hours as the shoe is in fairly good condition. The location of the shoe means that the person wearing it was probably within yelling distance of Cormier’s house.

A visit to the house reveals Desmond Cormier is at home along with his friend,  Antoine Butterworth. Mr. Butterworth is a unique individual. One of those types that Robicheaux has met over the years and knows from the get go he should be dropped in a vat of bleach and left to dissolve and go away. An awkward conversation begins until Cormier suggests that Robicheaux should look through the telescope out at the bay.

Robicheaux does and sees a number of different things. That includes something that seems more a hallucination or a vision than anything grounded in substance. Yet, though Cormier and Butterworth deny seeing the body, Robicheaux is sure he saw a young, African American woman, wearing a purple dress, floating out there in the Bay while affixed to some sort of cross.

McClain sees her too and thinks the cross is stranded out on a sandbar. Just after 10:30 that night they find her by way of a department rescue boat and retrieve her from her watery fate. That body of the young woman is the first they recover, but it won’t be the last by far in The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke.

A James Lee Burke novel is always a complicated read full of mystery, history, and legacy. Such is the case here where numerous references to Robicheaux’s past especially in terms of being a widower twice, the past of Louisiana, the past of America, etc. are made again and again. Significant portions of the book are aimed at the ongoing and systematic degradation of our institutions by the current administration as well as the degradation of the environment of Louisiana caused by ongoing climate change and other factors that are destroying the wetlands and coastal areas of the state.  As a result, significant portions of the book are a lament of the present and an ode to decades ago that now seem to be far more simpler times.

At the heart of The New Iberia Blues, the cross and the deceased woman is the main mystery. Who killed the woman? Why was she affixed to the cross? Both questions take on highlighted urgency as additional bodies fall becuase a killer kills and kills again. The pressure of the case is ramped up considerably when both Robicheaux’s longtime friend and former police partner, Clete Purcell, as well as his daughter, Alafair, are drawn into the case by very different ways. One knows that it most likely will be settled by the Clete and Robicheaux doing what they do best regardless of the legalities. Sometimes you really do need to kill all the bad guys no matter the legalities of the matter.

The New Iberia Blues is the latest powerful and compelling novel by James Lee Burke. Those who prefer fast moving books that feature very little or no scenic descriptions are again advised to look elsewhere. Author James Lee Burke is well known for his ability to create detailed visual images of the environment around characters and does so splendidly again in this read. Those who argue that authors should ignore the corrosive effects of the current administration on politics and more should also avoid this book as the author pulls no punches and makes it clear what his characters think about our country today.

Those who like a very complicated mystery that is rich with detail will find much to like in The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke. It is a very reflective read that praises aspects of the past, confronts the future, and provides a mystery that defies easy answers or expectations. In short, it is a good one.  

The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

James Lee Burke

http://www.jamesleeburke.com

Simon & Schuster

http://www.simonandshuster.com

January 2019

ISBN#978-1-5011-7687-6

Hardback (also available in audio and digital formats)

464 Pages

$27.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019

Review: "Creole Belle: A Dave Robicheaux Novel" by James Lee Burke

Morphine is a wonderful drug for those who need it. Dave Robicheaux certainly needs it as he slowly recovers in a New Orleans hospital from being shot twice in the back. For a person with Dave’s documented addictions, morphine is a dangerous drug that could easily end his hard fought sobriety. Morphine also has caused Dave and others to question his sanity as he no longer apparently knows what is real or not.

Despite what others have told him, Dave Robicheaux believes that a young Cajun woman, Tee Jolie Melton, came to his hospital room. She brought him an iPod filled with music and a problem. She is pregnant, seeing a married man who does business with dangerous people, and he may have some connection to the oil rig explosion out in the Gulf.

While the iPod is clearly real, her music is not on it according to others. Yet, when Dave uses the iPod he has no trouble finding Tee’s music. He isn’t sure if she was real or not, but believes she was there and that she needs his help. It isn’t the first time that Dave has seen what others claim could not possibly be there or the first time when Dave’s obsessions have made others question what he was thinking and doing. That might have been the end of it if Frankie Giacano hadn’t insisted Clete Purcel owed money on a marker to an absolute nutjob named Bix Golightly. It doesn’t take long before Bix Golightly makes a run at Clete for the money and their war is on.

Though eventually released from the hospital, Dave Robicheuax can’t shake his belief that Tee Jolie Melon came to his room. This despite all the evidence to the contrary, including the fact she went missing weeks ago which Dave was in the hospital. While no one else believes him, including Clete who reluctantly assists him as his own issues mount, the discovery of Tee’s dead sister’s body in a block of ice in a nearby marsh seems to prove Dave’s point. Inside the dead girl’s throat is a piece of red balloon with the chilling message – “My sister is still alive.” (Page 73)

Over the five hundred plus pages these two storylines gradually work together to lead Dave and Clete to what could very well be the final battle with everyone they hold dear at stake. When evil is this deep and this powerful one can’t wait for the wheels of justice as Clete constantly reminds Dave. Dave and Clete have done it before and when pushed can do it one more time. The black flag was raised long ago and the only answer is to kill the ingrained evil once and for all.

In what reads as an ode to the series and the Louisiana that was, author James Lee Burke spends much of the novel reminiscing on the past and commenting on the present day.  There are long multi-page passages of philosophy regarding the super rich, the gulf disaster, the destructive changes to the Louisiana wetlands, government, the unchecked power of corporations, and nature of true evil among other topics. While such themes and variations of them have always been present in his books, they are front and center here pushing the actual mysteries to back burner where they simmer for most of the book.

Death and mortality have always been a heavy and major theme as well. That is much more prevalent in this book where the coming of winter and what that represents in both a figurative and a literal sense is at play throughout the book. While Clete shows by acting out in various ways that he has reservations and guilt about the past dating back to Vietnam, Dave Robicheaux as narrator details his thoughts through long passages of narrative in the book.

Slow moving and heavily atmospheric with long passages of metaphor and symbolism, Creole Belle: A Dave Robicheaux Novel, is a complex work very hard to sum up in a book review.  Those who prefer constant action, stripped down prose, and little contemplation will be best advised to look elsewhere for reading material. Those who prefer complexity and substance with long detailed history and deep questions of morality and faith will have much to ponder in this latest powerful installment of this long running series.

Creole Belle: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

James Lee Burke

http://www.jamesleeburke.com

Simon & Schuster

http://www.SimonandSchuster.com

2012

ISBN# 978-1-4516-4813-3

Hardback (also available in large print and audio)

530 Pages

$27.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System. Again this year the summer reading challenge for adults and kids is now underway. For more information go to

http://www.plano.gov/Departments/Libraries/Pages/default.aspx

Kevin R. Tipple ©2012