Product Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR JAMES LEE BURKE

THE NEON RAIN

Detective Dave Robicheaux has fought too many battles: in Vietnam, with killers and hustlers, with police brass, and with the bottle. Lost without his wife's love, Robicheaux's haunted soul mirrors the intensity and dusky mystery of New Orleans' French Quarter -- the place he calls home, and the place that nearly destroys him when he becomes involved in the case of a young prostitute whose body is found in a bayou. Thrust into the world of drug lords and arms smugglers, Robicheaux must face down a subterranean criminal world and come to terms with his own bruised heart in order to survive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91834 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 275 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Burke's sixth novel pits New Orleans homicide detective Dave Robichaux against the mob, the contras, the Feds and just about all the other cops. The trouble starts when Robichaux insists on investigating the murder of a young prostitute and discovers that it isn't only the crooks who don't want the truth to come out: the police don't want it revealed, either. The underworld and the authorities combine to cobble up a frame against Robichaux, and suddenly he's on the run. Burke's maverick detective and his gritty, realistic dialogue and convoluted plotting are reminiscent of Elmore Leonardwhose latest novel, Bandits, has a contra angle, too. The matter of subterranean government policy running amok suits the world of suspense fiction well, serving it in the 1980s the way Cold War themes fed the genre in earlier decades. With its fine local color and driving action, this novel is both chilling and first-rate entertainment.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
New Orleans homicide cop Dave Robicheaux has a passion for fishing. While pursuing his hobby on a back country bayou, Robicheaux finds a body. His discovery pulls him into a network of small-time Mafiosi, Nicaraguan drug dealers, federal Treasury agents and retired two-star generalsall involved in a plot to ship arms to the Nicaraguan contras. More interesting than the unraveling of this plot is Robicheaux himselfCajun, recovering alcoholic, practicing Catholicand his efforts to preserve his integrity in the face of provocation. Better still are Burke's evocative descriptions of New Orleans life both high and low. The book is marred slightly by a resemblance to the Travis McGee seriesRobicheaux lives on a houseboat and has a penchant for color-laden metaphor. But Neon Rain is a well-crafted novel with a likable hero. Louise A. Merriam, L.E. Phillips Memorial P.L., Eau Claire, Wis.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Richmond Times-DispatchA winner of a book.

The Washington Post Book WorldLike a violent summer storm....Dizzying action....Burke's writing is masterful.

San Francisco ChronicleBurke writes with honesty and tough compassion....An intelligent and intriguing story of greed, vengeance, and the precarious redemptive qualities of love.

?The Washington Post Book World Dialogue that's so right, so real, so true to the personality you'd swear the guys were right there in the room with you; and a setting...that's so vivid you can feel the heaviness in the air, see the heat lightning, and taste the sauce piquante. I love this book!

San Francisco ChronicleBurke writes with honesty and tough compassion....An intelligent and intriguing story of greed, vengeance, and the precarious redemptive qualities of love.

James CrumleyAuthor of The Last Good KissThe Neon Rain is a dream come true, a detective novel that bridges the gap to serious fiction with marvelous characters, an intricate plot, and lyrical prose....This is a novel I really admire.

St. Petersburg Times (FL)Horrifying....Nerve-racking....If Robert Mitchum wrote books, he'd write like this....The Neon Rain has all the right components.

Kirkus ReviewsBloody, ripsnorting suspense....Fine scenes that fairly crackle with menace.

Customer Reviews

More graphic than I expected
I've been holding onto this book for awhile, having bought it on the recommendation of Doug and Tomi Lewis at the Little Bookshop of Horrors in Denver. I'd been interested in Burke's novels based on his critical reputation and evocative titles, but had hesitated to start another mystery series when I was having so much trouble getting throught the ones I had started years ago. But then Burke visited the Bookshop on a signing tour, and Doug and Tomi convinced me to give him a try.

Dave Robicheaux is a New Orlean's detective who's got two problems. One, a man on death row tells him that he's marked for death, and, two, he's worried about what this floater he found in an east side bayou might mean. Along the way, he discovers that the time problems are not as separate as they might seem. The writing is good, but the plot is steamier and more graphic than I had expected. The brutality in the book matches Burke's style, but was surprising coming from what I had thought the book would be based on the critical comments that I had read.

The most intriguing aspect of this book was the handling of Robicheaux's alcoholism. This is a modern detective novel, tough but not in the unrealistic hard-boiled style. Robicheaux's drinking problem is a living thing--not a static bit used to "develop" the character and only ends up being paint on the cardboard cut out. Robicheaux's problem is as much of a dynamic as himself, or, to put it better, is a reflection of his own dynamic personality.

Mystery 101 (One Man's Continuning Education)
Except for a few Christies in my teens, I never read mysteries at all (except for one or two that somehow made it into my college curriculum). It had less to do with a lack of interest than a lack of time. I was a struggling academic a long time (too long) and, although I enjoyed mystery films and TV shows, almost everything I read had to do with what I thought would be my life's vocation.

But the genre always intrigued me. International literary figures from Borges to Duerrenmatt have championed the genre and have often used it to their own ends. I was aware that many mystery writers were quite serious about their writing and that much of it rivaled the best in contemporary serious literature.

So in recent years, I've been playing catch up. I've joined with others in forming a Mystery Discussion Group in my public library...and most of these folks are much more knowledgeable than I am. In the past year, we have been doing a lot of sampling of various series, usually a very early work.

I will say that of all the authors we've discussed thus far, James Lee Burke was the least well received--by OTHERS! I found this hard hitting, hard bitten writer to be compelling. But most of the other members of the group seem to prefer more of a "drawing room" type mystery. I don't think I had ever really realized how great a gulf there was between the various sub-genres (I guess it's the Hammett vs. Christie school of thought).

If you've ever railed against the "bloodless" old-school, high tea kind of mysteries, you may want to check Burke out. People really die brutal, ugly deaths here. Murder is not seen as an intellectual puzzle, but as a horrible, de-humanizing reality. For that alone, I give Burke high marks. His complex, not very likeable (anti-)hero, Dave Robicheaux is another. This scarred Viet Nam vet is cynical, bitter and almost unapproachable. Yet he retains a core of decency that, I think, will redeem him in most readers' eyes. But like his extraordinarily understanding and patient love interest in the novel, the reader will have to cut through an almost impenetrable wall of defenses before discovering that moral core.

Some of the readers below have commented that this is not the strongest effort in the Dave Robicheaux series. That seems likely: first efforts usually aren't. I will certainly encourage my fellow discussion group members to sample other Burke novels before they pass final judgment. But I don't expect that Robicheaux, or Burke himself, to develop a rosier take on life and of human nature. Dave Robicheaux seems to belong to the subset of detective that we call "hard-boiled." I'm interested in reading other entries in the series, and know that if NEON RAIN is any indication, they'll be chock-full of surprises. But one thing I know not to expect is for Dave Robicheaux to turn into Mr.Warmth at any point. Now THAT would be a real disappointment!

On The Way To Burnout
New Orleans Detective Dave Robicheau finds the body of a black prostitute named Lovelace Deshotels while fly-fishing in Bayou Lafourche. Robichaux believes Lovelace is a murder victim although the Cataouatche Parish sheriff is treating the case as an accident. He begins to get interested in the case even though it is out of his jurisdiction and with the help of his partner, Cletus Purcel, is led to drug boss Julio Segura from Nicaragua and Didoni Giacomi of New Orleans organized crime. Robicheaux's task is complicated by the fact that his half-brother Jimmy is a friend of Giacomi.

This book is the first in the Dave Robicheaux series and the finale for Dave on the New Orleans police force. He retires due to burnout. THE NEON RAIN is one of the better entries in the Dave Robicheaux series.