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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This is one of the better installments. Dave in search of his mother. Lots of Clete Purcel (  ) Darrol | Oct 15, 2009 |  A little disjointed to start but it turned into a page turner. Once again Robicheaux deals with the maelstrom of south La as he tries to keep his act together day to day. This book also highlights Cletus Purcel a little more than previous novels and that is a good thing. A great sense of place is Burke's bayou.. (  ) JBreedlove | Oct 15, 2009 | I probably should not have read this book. A friend of mine insisted that I try one more of the Dave Robicheaux books. I have read 5 of James Lee Burke's books before this one and only liked the first one I read. He is a very capable author and can use words in a very effective way. But the Dave Robicheaux series has a sameness to them that has worn me out. The books are pretty much the same each time, a psychopath that is threatening some poor girl and Dave is having to battle the crooked and/or stupid police to save lower Louisiana. The villians are always without redemption and to some degree they have to be or we would easily recognize that Dave, and especially his friend Cletus, are criminals themselves. This one has the added drama of Dave's mother who was killed by someone years ago after she abandoned Dave to a life lived with his brutal, alcoholic father. They are the first set of killers without a conscious. Then there is the psychopath that is brought in to kill a prositiute who ends up trying to court Dave's daughter. Then there are the two black girls that were molested by the psychopath next door that one of them is on death row for killing. There are a lot of women being molested, taken advantage of, and even killed by a whole herd of both indigenous and invading psychopaths. And it is up to Dave and Clete to defend them in book after book. It makes you wonder after awhile why Dave doesn't move to Montana like James Lee Burke did. There probaly are only half again as many psychopaths in Montana as there are in Louisiana. The major redeeming quality in this book is that it did give me a nomination for Dumbest Scene Award of all the books I read in 2008 for the scene that starts on page 255 (First Edition). It lost out to a scene in The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. But it was a very close vote. (  ) markatread | May 23, 2009 | Completely hooked me on this author. ( ) mtnmdjd | Apr 19, 2009 | James Lee Burke never lets me down. Love the Dave Robicheaux series! (  ) CatieN | May 7, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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"Robicheaux, your mama's name was Mae.... Wait, it was Guillory before she married. That was the name she went by ... Mae Guillory. But she was your mama," he said.To Robicheaux, whose memories of the fun-loving Mae are few and bittersweet, the news comes like a bolt of lightning. Though she abandoned him to the uncertain mercies of a violent, alcoholic father, he loved her, and his desire to find her killers--cops in the pay of the Giacano crime family, according to Clum--is instantaneous and deeply felt. Unfortunately, Zipper Clum meets the wrong end of a .25 automatic soon after his electrifying announcement, but his conversation with his killer is recorded--and Mae Guillory's name comes up again."What?" I said.
He wet his lips uncertainly.
"She dealt cards and still hooked a little bit. Behind a club in Lafourche Parish. This was maybe 1966 or '67," he said.
Clete's eyes were fixed on my face. "You're in a dangerous area, sperm breath," he said to Zipper.
"They held her down in a mud puddle. They drowned her," Zipper said.
The winding trail of evidence connected to both Letty Labiche and Mae Guillory leads Robicheaux almost immediately to Jim Gable, the New Orleans Police Department's liaison with city hall, whose position has afforded him a number of less-than-legal advantages. Gable also happens to be an ex-lover of Robicheaux's wife, Bootsie--formerly the widow of Ralph Giacano. From there the web of connections grows ever wider, and (not surprisingly) incriminates those in high places. These include the state attorney general, a woman who, if photographic evidence is to be trusted, was once friendly with the Labiches' parents, who were known procurers.
But if Purple Cane Road has its share of corrupt powermongers, it's also filled with beautifully rounded characters, like piano-playing governor Belmont Pugh and hit man Johnny Remeta, whose personality slowly begins to unravel as he gets closer to Robicheaux's daughter. The plot converges seamlessly to its climax--the true story of what happened to Mae Robicheaux--as James Lee Burke's trademark of uncompromising justice is brought to fruition. Like Burke's other Robicheaux novels, Purple Cane Road offers a solidly satisfying piece in the picture of a complex hero. --Barrie Trinkle
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:15 -0400)
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