Dave Robicheaux has spent his life confronting the age-old adage that the sins of the father pass onto the son. But what has his mother’s legacy left him? Dead to him since youth, Mae Guillory has been shuttered away in the deep recesses of Dave’s mind. He’s lived with the fact that he would never really know what happened to the woman who left him to the devices of his whiskey-driven father. But … But deep down, he still feels the loss of his mother and knows the infinite series of disappointments in her life could not have come to a good end.
While helping out an old friend, Dave is stunned when a pimp looks at him sideways and asks him if he is Mae Guillory’s boy, the whore a bunch of cops murdered 30 years ago. The pimp goes on to insinuate that the cops who dumped her body in the bayou were on the take and continue to thrive in the New Orleans area.
Dave’s search for his mother’s killers leads him to the darker places in his past and solving this case teaches him what it means to be his mother’s son. Purple Cane Road has the dimensions of a classic-passion, murder, and nearly heartbreaking poignancy-wrapped in a wonderfully executed plot that surprises from start to finish.
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I enjoy the characters and hard boiled dialogue.
Purple Cane Road is a great addition to the Dave Robicheaux series, probably the best one yet. This is a “hard” book…nothing soft about it. It is gritty and tough all the through. Get ready for a rough ride and tremendous writing.
If you haven’t ever read James Lee Burke start now. A superb writer and story teller. You feel like you actually in Southwest Louisiana when reading his books
Burke is the Best!!
Great story, and Burke’s prose is wonderful — reads easily, and a great style with dozens of poetic paragraphs that elevate this to the status of literature. Highly recommended.
Love James Lee Burke
I have enjoyed this series in the past, but it has become trite and predictable with the same themes repeated often enough to make the reader numb.
Another brilliant book by James Lee Burke
Loved all James Lee Burke’s books. One of my favorite writers.
Good book. I will look for more by this author.
As always, he has written a good story with great plot and characters.
Burke is one of my favorite authors. He always keeps my mind guessing and filled with more than interesting characters.
Few if any have the command of language to paint pictures with words like James lee Burke.
Fantastic plot.
Great book – keeps you guessing…love these books
This was a great book for me. Having family that live in the Deep South I could relate to the ways some of characters spoke.
I have read every one of his books. He is one of my favorite authors.
James lee Burke may be the most underated author writing over the last 50 years. He is a serious author in the range of Hemingway, Michener, or JDM.