The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke

This audiobook was obtained from NetLibrary.com, through the Alachua County Library. It was 13 hours and 2 minutes long, and was narrated by Will Patton.

This is my second post-Katrina New Orleans crime novel in the past two weeks. In this story, four young black looters are using a stolen motorboat to get to the abandoned homes of the wealthy, and run into a bit of bad luck. And that's to put it mildly. First, they score a big load of cash, cocaine, and a hand gun from a home that is owned by one of New Orleans' most feared and vindictive crime boss. Second, they decide to steal a gas can from a garage so they can refuel their boat. The garage happens to belong to a man whose daughter was raped by two of the men. A shot rings out in the dark, and one is killed and another paralyzed.

New Iberia Sheriff's Department Detective Dave Robicheaux is mobilized to help in New Orleans, and he is tasked with investigating this crime in a sea of wrongdoing. The crime boss, Sidney Kovick, is also mobilizing his people to find the people who sacked his house and urinated in the spice drawer.

This is one of the better Dave Robicheaux novels in a long time. I had thought it might be time to retire Dave, but I was wrong. I get a little weary of his frequent political asides, but Dave is a flawed man, so one more is not so noticeable if you let yourself get absorbed by the story. And this one is easy to fall into. This one gets 4 stars.

Last Known Victim. by Erica Spindler

This audiobook was obtained for free from Overdrive Audio, through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 11 hours and 51 minutes long, and was narrated by Susan Ericksen.

I thought I was discovering a new author, but as I was searching for the cover art, I discovered that she has 12 titles in print, and that there are 8 books that are no longer in print. It goes to show you that you can develop a fan base while much of your market still does not know you exist.

This book is about Patti O'Shay, a police captain in New Orleans, who lost her husband, another police officer, during the upheaval of Hurricane Katrina. There is some evidence linking his death to an at-large serial killer the press has labeled "The Handyman" because he collects his female victims' hands. Suck a collection is discovered when a stinking refrigerator is found, after Katrina, with some decomposing trophies.

The Handyman has survived, however. And he is stalking an exotic dancer who distrusts the police so much that she tells them enough lies to screw up the investigation, and to make herself a possible suspect.

At times, it seemed like this book was just too busy. The love lives of the characters were not interesting enough to rate the distraction it created. However, the characters are well written and complex enough to be believable. It's a 3 star book.

Pegasus Descending, by James Lee Burke

I got this book from the library on compact disc, so I cannot tell you offhand how may hours long it was. It came on 11 discs and was read by Will Patton.

I know we just did a JLB novel recently, but people line up to get them at the library, so I have to be opportunistic. This one was released just last year, and it is yet another Dave Robicheaux novel. Dave is an on again off again Iberia County Sheriff's Detective, as well as an on again off again dry alcoholic. He is on his third or fourth wife, Molly, an ex-nun with leftist political tendencies.

Dave is once again doing battle with the dirtbags of privilege as he is investigating the death of a homeless man, the apparent suicide of a young girl, and a group of grifters who are trying to take down a local gangster as an act of revenge for a murder committed long ago. Yes, resurfacing evil from a bygone era is a recurring theme in these books. And since this is Louisiana we're talking about, the swamps are full of hastily sunken evil.

As usual, there is the poetic descriptions of the creepy southern crime scenes and romantic poverty, juxtaposed with trash-talking bad guys and cops with flexible consciences. Burke writes about promiscuous and vulgar people as well as anyone. He is a good story teller. But what is troubling is that I have started to do the math on Dave Robicheaux. If Dave was 20 years old in 1958, he is now 69, getting into brutal bar fights, taking beatings, and does not need to take a pill 30 minutes before intercourse. Dave is a baby-boomer fantasy. It's time that he retires, and puts down his three-legged pet raccoon, Tripod. Maybe in some future Dave Robicheaux novel, Dave will be solving cases in his nursing home, but I doubt it.

This was a 3 star book, but the series is beginning to stretch credulity.

Crusaders Cross, by James Lee Burke

This book was 10 hours and 43 minutes long, was read by Will Patton, and is the fourteenth novel based on Louisiana cop/ex-cop Dave Robicheaux.

James Lee Burke is one of my guilty pleasures. His books are not for people with delicate sensibilities. They are bloody and profane and take place in a place that was, in my opinion, the bleeding sore of Western Civilization before Hurricane Katrina attempted to flush it away. It is a credit to Burke's power as a writer that he is able to romanticize the world of alcoholic lawman Dave Robicheaux in such a way that transforms him into some kind of Southern warrior-poet who battles the living gargoyles of a Gothic-Noir netherworld.

Burke's novels are not content to live in the present, and this one is no different. It begins as a trip down a trash-strewn memory lane to a time when Dave and his half-brother, Jimmie, lose track of time on a sandbar, and are stranded there when the tide comes in and they are surrounded by sharks as the water gets deeper. A girl in a boat comes out and rescues them, and Jimmie falls for the girl, unaware that she has a pimp and has no life of her own.

Jimmie tries to help her get out of "the life" and falls just minutes short of rescuing her before her pimp leaves town with her with vengeance on his mind. That was in 1958, and Jimmie has spent the rest of his life keeping hope alive that she was not killed for her attempt to escape the business.

Many years later, the girl in the boat resurfaces as part of a tangled mess that is getting cleaned up the old-fashioned way: killing off the participants. Dave has recently been restored to his position on the Iberia County Sheriff's Detective squad to help find a serial killer among the low-lifes he knows so well.

The writing is much better than the plot in this one. And that happens a lot when you've milked a character dry. And there are still 3 Dave Robicheaux novels after this one. It's worth 3 stars, especially if you've never read Burke before.