This book, while not the first in the series, is the one where Dave rescues the little girl who will become his adopted daughter, and I consider it the true foundation for the rest of the series. ( )

This is the second of the series, and I liked it a lot. If you don't care anything about New Orleans, you might find parts of it boring as he describes the geography, the people, the basic flavor of the area. ( )

It is a mystery, telling too much will give it away. Bad people do very bad things and Dave Robicheaux goes after them. In this story we find out how his daughter Alafair came to be part of his family. Heaven's prisoners is #2 in the series. ( )

I ran across an article about James Lee Burke. I wanted to read what all the fuss was about. Well-rounded characters speaking dialogue so crisp it doesn’t need tags. Really incredible lines lesser writers would come across as hokey or out-of-place like, “…curled inside a wooden box of your own pain….” Admittedly, this novel may be a little dated by modern standards. His ability to transport the reader into the setting is second to none in my opinion. I understand the fuss; very impressive and well worth the reader's time. ( )

Well, since Goodreads ate my first review, this one's going to be shorter.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel better than the first in the series. Cleaner plot, better characters, and more comfortable overall.

However, I'll be glad when Burke moves away from exploring territory already explored in the first novel. He's a cop, he's not a cop, he's a cop, he's not a cop. He's dry, he has a horrible life event, and he falls off the wagon.

Yes, I get the second one is more real life (coming from a family of alcoholics, I'm well aware, believe me), but as a plot device, this one will get old really quick.

But if I have any real complaint, it's with the piss-poor narration of the audiobook. I can't even be bothered to look up this guy's name, but he's hesitant, has no sense of drama or rhythm, and reads the lines like someone's feeding him one at a time as he's recording. Thank god the writing's good, because the delivery is for shit.

But, for all of that, I'm anticipating the next one will show more improvement. ( )