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
Simon & Schuster
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
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