A Private Cathedral

But everyone has a private cathedral that he earns, a special place to which he returns when the world is too much late and soon, and loss and despair come with the rising of the sun.

On the surface A Private Cathedral, the latest in the Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke is a book about family feuds - in an attempt to save a teenaged girl, Dave and his best friend and longtime partner, Clete Purcel finds themselves in the middle of a bloody rivalry between two crime families going back hundreds of years. However, that is just the skeleton of the story and there is so, so much more here.

Burke is considered one of the best mystery writers for good reason - the intense and beautiful, almost lyrical prose, the complex characters, the show more insights into the American psyche. And that is all here but, in this book Burke combines mystery with other genres. There is certainly a feel of noir with the extreme violence that entails here but, again, that is not all. I once read an article in America The Jesuit Review that talked about the God-Haunted characters and the war between good and evil in Burke's novels, and it has never been more clear than in this novel. Here, Burke makes it explicit crossing over into Southern gothic with its overwhelmingly dark, sinister atmosphere, irrational and horrifying thoughts and deeds, and terrifying and otherworldly characters. And his use of it creates one extremely powerful, even stunning story, one that is, no doubt, one of the best books I will read this year.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Simon & Shuster for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less

James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux books have always seemed darker and more violent to me than most of the other popular detective series of the day. Considering what Dave Robicheaux and his blood brother Clete Purcel have endured over the first twenty-two books of the series, they are lucky to still be standing, much less breathing. I have been reading the Robicheaux books as each of them is published all the way back to the third book in the series, Black Cherry Blues, so I thought I knew pretty much what to expect from A Private Cathedral when it comes to violence, mysticism, visions, and the like. Boy, was I wrong, because A Private Cathedral reaches a whole new level of darkness and evil brutality.

As the novel opens, Dave show more Robicheaux is a lonely man living with several cats and Tripod, his pet raccoon. The twice-married Robicheaux has by now been twice-widowed, and he is still grieving the loss of both women. Alafair, his daughter, is in school a long way from New Iberia, Louisiana, and Robicheaux misses her terribly, too. He’s lost his badge, and is waiting on investigators to decide if deserves to get it back (not that that much slows a man like Dave Robicheaux down). And now, things are going to get much, much worse for the “Bobbsey Twins,” Dave Robicheaux and Cletus Purcel.

There are two major crime families in the New Iberia area, the Shondells and the Balangies, and they hate each other’s guts. However, in order to avoid a bloodbath, it’s important that the two families figure out a way to keep the balance of power from being tipped too heavily in favor of one or the other of them. When Isolde Balangie, the teen-aged step-daughter of the Balangie kingpin, tells Dave one day that she is being delivered to Mark Shondell, head of the Shondell family, he understands that some kind of deal has been struck between the two families. But it all smells too much like human-trafficking for Dave to ignore what he’s been told and what he already knows about Mark Shondell.

In a Romeo and Juliet kind of twist, Isolde Balangie soon disappears along with Mark Shondell’s nephew Johnny. Dave knows that can’t be part of the families’ masterplan, so he wants to find them before anyone else does. Not only won’t that be easy, it will result in Dave and Clete having to run and hide from what appears to be a time-traveling hitman from the bowels of hell, a “man” who travels on a ghost ship, can induce traumatizing hallucinations, and strike directly at the weak spots of his prey. Oh…and he doesn’t have a nose, does have beady little eyes, and from the color of his skin may just be more reptile than human.

So, yes, A Private Cathedral requires a huge leap of suspended disbelief by the reader if it is to be taken seriously. But I don’t read Dave Robicheaux novels just for the plot; I read them to get inside Dave’s head - and sometimes inside Clete’s - in order to understand better what makes him tick. They are both “White Knights” despite their personal habits and their willingness to bend the law however much it takes to make sure that the good guys win in the end. They are both alcoholics, but only Dave seems to ever be on the wagon. They are both scarred by their mutual experiences in Vietnam. They are both Cajuns who believe in spirits, ghosts, and visions in a way that others will never understand. And, somehow, they are now two old men covered in battle scars from the past who have survived way longer than either ever expected to survive.

They are both rather brilliant, introspective men, although Clete hides it better than Dave. Dave describes Clete as “a closet bibliophile” who has “stored hundreds of paperback books he bought in secondhand stores and yard sales, most of them about American history and the War Between the States.” He reads and re-reads them. Dave, on the other hand, often speaks like a man with both a classical education and an education in the classics. He can’t hide his true character the way that Clete hides his own.

What worries me a little about A Private Cathedral is what seems to be a personal message from Dave to his admiring audience of readers. On the novel’s last page, Dave says:

“I didn’t want to hear any more of the story. I had already put aside the unhappiness of the past and no longer wanted to probe the shadows of the heart or the evil that men do. It was time to lay down my sword and shield and study war no more.”

It remains to be seen whether or not Dave is talking only about the Balangies and the Shondells or not. After all, James Lee Burke is 83 years old now, and one day we will have read the final chapter in the story of the Bobbsey Twins. And, honestly, Dave and Clete haven’t been acting their ages for a long time - Vietnam veterans must all be at least 70 years old now, and our heroes have hardly lost a step - but then again, neither has Burke. They are all still indestructible in the long run. show less

How do you review a James Lee Burke book? Let alone one featuring the iconic Dave Robicheaux?

This latest, and rumored last, novel -A Private Cathedral - fits right into the cannon. To read Burke is to read poetry. No modern writer is as deft with the use of language as he.

The Cathedral harkens back to earlier works like Confederates in the Mist, in which Burke interjects a little mystical realism into his hard-boiled thriller. Dave fights against the bad men while being haunted by a mysterious visage that may want to do him and his stalwart side-kick Clete harm. Or it may be more benevolent than anticipated.

Rumination, historical references, violence, alcoholism, and what it means to be a man in the modern age are all woven into a show more kick-ass crime novel that'll leave you wanting more and in awe over what the English language is capable of conveying. show less

I tried, I really tried to talk myself out of giving this five stars. There is just so much violence happening in the states right now, and this being JLB, with Robicheaux and Clete, one knows there is going to be plenty. Still, I failed, had to give it five stars simply because, to borrow from a song title, No one does it better.

His stories including this one are so multifaceted, so we'll written and his characters drawn so richly. Clete and Robicheaux have villians of their own internally to deal with, and in this outing they rise to the surface. The line between good and evil is so finely drawn, it is sometimes hard to tell the good guys from the bad. The veils between this world and another at lifted, a galleon appears in the fog show more and all bets are off. There very sanity now added to some heavy duty issues, seek to derail them in their quest to save two young people from feuding families. Can it be done and what will be the cost to their very souls?

I realize that this book will not appeal to all, but for me he is my number one favorite writer. show less

I've read all of the Robicheaux novels--some of them 2 or 3 times--and loved most of them. But, this one just wasn't good. The supernatural element that Burke has subtly and beautifully used in the past in such novels as [b:In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead|218736|In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead (Dave Robicheaux, #6)|James Lee Burke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347384287l/218736._SY75_.jpg|852498], was more than over-the-top distracting. At times I felt like Burke had lost his mind. Although this novel is full of Burke's poetic prose that I love, the story just didn't fit into the superb Robicheaux cannon. I really want to forget it exists, and hope that he does better next time.

A Private Cathedral: A Dave Robicheaux Novel is a book of two times. Set a couple of decades ago, it has numerous references to the here and now concerning the fight for social justice, the current occupant of the White House, and more. As one always expects in a Dave Robicheaux novel, aspects of the paranormal are front and center. Sometimes those aspects are subtle. At other times, like in this read, those aspects are major – if not the major character of the book.

In the here and now of the book set more than two decades ago, Dave Robicheaux is on a dock on the Texas gulf coast the night before he has a meeting at the Huntsville Penitentiary. He is out of work and grieving the loss of both his wives. He is a lonely man dreading the show more meeting the next day and thus thinking about history, his life, and other matters when he sees Johnny Shondell up on the bandstand playing and making the night come alive with his music.

He knows Johnny from watching him grow up in New Iberia after his Uncle Mark took over raising him after his parents were killed in a plane crash. Robicheaux knows all about his Uncle Mark and where the family money comes from. The family is powerful and their money comes from a long history of doing what they wanted to whomever they wanted to and getting away with it. Despite the family legacy, it is clear that Johnny is one of those rare musical gods who walk among us. He is watching Johnny and thinking about legacy, intended and otherwise, when his thoughts are interrupted by Isolde Balangie.

Dave Robicheaux is also well acquainted with her family and their legacy though he is not familiar with her specifically. Among other things she tells him, she mentions that Johnny is to “deliver her” to his Uncle Mark. She uses that phrase and Dave Robicheaux is deeply disturbed by the obvious implications of such a phrase. While she clearly has feelings for Johnny, their union is not to be as the families have made their decision and are using her to craft a shaky peace. There is hatred between the families that goes back four hundred years and she is to be the sacrifice to end the conflict. Stopping such a situation isn’t something he could do anything about, even if he wanted to, and at this point he bids her a good evening and moves on.

The next day he eventually meets with inmate Marcel LaForchette. Marcell is one of those folks who seems to have been born the way he is and never had a chance to be anything other than evil. The nature of evil has always been a topic of interest and contemplation for Robicheaux and such is the case here. Marcell started his first prison sentence at the same time and same age as Robicheaux graduated High School and was shipped off to Vietnam. While Robicheaux was trying to stay alive in the jungles of Vietnam, Marcel was trying to stay alive in the correctional system. Marcel wants Robicheaux’s help in getting him sent back to Louisiana to serve his parole sentence after he is released from the Texas prison system. To get that help, Marcel will share some information that could be of interest since Robicheaux brought up the Balangie family in their conversation.

Eventually, Marcel tells him that he was the driver on a killing for the Balangie family. The guy was a child molester. He was killed and dumped in the swamp on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain.

Robicheaux goes back to New Iberia and soon realizes he is being followed by people he would prefer not to have following him around. He is still bothered by what Isolde said and now these two guys are on his tail and are apparently trying to send him some sort of message. They work for the Shondell family and clearly want him to know he has their attention. Then word comes out, with Robicheaux doing nothing, that Marcel LaForchette is out and back in New Iberia. While Robicheaux does not want anything to do with any of it, soon he as well as Clete Purcel are in the thick of it.

A Private Cathedral: A Dave Robicheaux Novel is a complicated read that is part crime fiction, part philosophical text, part history lecture, and a massive amount of the paranormal. It would be easy to label this as a Romeo and Juliet style crime fiction tale and it is that on the surface. It is also far more complicated than that on every level. Robicheaux and Purcel always have had other world or paranormal experiences at some level in the books, but this one is very much out there with that stuff. It is a complicated tale of the nature of evil and the power of redemption.

A Private Cathedral: A Dave Robicheaux Novel is not an easy book to read. Grief is a major part of this book. Robicheaux spends a considerable portion of the book contemplating his loneliness and the loss of both spouses. His grief and sense of isolation, even when around others, is powerful and resonated deeply with this reader and thus was very tough to read.

There are also a tremendous number of references and allusions to different things in history, philosophy, religion, and more. While I caught and understood many of them, I am very sure that I missed more than a few. This is not a fast read as much of it is contemplation of various things interspersed with action of various types. This is not a read that you will finish fast.

A very complicated and powerful read, A Private Cathedral: A Dave Robicheaux novel is well worth your time.

A Private Cathedral: A Dave Robicheaux
James Lee Burke
https://www.jamesleeburke.com/
Simon and Schuster
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Private-Cathedral/James-Lee-Burke/Dave-...
August 2020
ASIN: B08286GQ5P
eBook (also available in audio, hardback, and paperback formats)
380 Pages

With my son’s help, I was able to get the eBook version from the Dallas Public Library System and the Libby app. The book is still on order in hardback for the library so if Scott Tipple had not made things work, I still would be waiting to read it.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020 show less

As James Lee Burke books go, this is VERY James Lee Burke. The only real surprise is the nature of the assassin getting pushed a little further into the supernatural, while the rest is violence, alcoholism, rich people being evil, beautiful women, gorgeous landscapes, epic weather, blood-soaked history, religious imagery and meditations on life, death and evil.