Burning Angel [Paperback]

James Lee Burke is an amazing author with a growing body of terrific work. On some levels, his novels work as beach reads and on other levels they are morality plays and presentations of philosophical discussions. His work also includes healthy doses of social commentary, perception, and observation. Burke is, like his series hero, a man who has been banged around by life and has survived only by adhering to strong convictions and faith. He's written several Dave Robicheaux novels, and has another series about Texas attorney, Billy Bob Holland. In addition to his two bestseller series, Burke has written several award-winning standalone novels such as: THE CONVICT, HALF OF PARADISE, THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE, and TWO FOR TEXAS.

BURNING ANGEL is a good book of crime and suspense, but where the novel really shines is in the prose. James Lee Burke is a poet, a skilled craftsman who knows how to use words. He paints with emotion, and he textures his world in guilt and nobility, self-doubt and a resilience of morality. No one writes with a stronger lyrical resonance than James Lee Burke. And no one paints scenes or people with the same uncanny skill. When a reader follows Dave Robicheaux into a scene from the novel, that reader can feel wherever that place is. Burke also has the knowledge and love for those places, too, because he wraps up bits of history (both personal and geographical and political) behind those places and areas. The interpersonal relationships between Robicheaux and his family, friends, co-workers, and boss also round out the picture of a solid man rather than a mere cardboard character. By doing this, he also rounds out and lifts the characters around Robicheaux. The author is also skilled in the use of drama, tension, suspense, and mystery-especially when tying current mysteries to ones that come rattling out of the closets from the past. In one last tip of the hat to his Southern roots, Burke's title and thrust of the story alludes to one of the most Southern of tales, the Gothic-that bit of the supernatural world that is seen just from the corner of the eye that must be believed in or taken on faith rather than made tangible.

The only weakness BURNING ANGEL shows is in trying to tie everything together at the end. Events become blurred and a little disorganized, and a few big leaps of logic are made to give the villains proper motivations.

James Lee Burke is an amazing author who offers up scintillating prose, deep characters, and a rich tapestry of physical environment and history. Fans of Robert B. Parker, Robert Crais, Dennis Lehane, and Elmore Leonard will be happy with this book.

James Lee Burke has been called "the Faulkner of crime fiction." The phrasing, descriptions, and word usage are so beautiful that the reader wants the cadences to go on and on. Burke was successful early in his writing career. But after his third book was published in the l960s, it was fifteen years before another book made it into print. One book, THE LOST-GET BACK BOOGIE, was rejected one hundred times. It was finally nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Burke's prose is breathtaking. His poetic descriptions put the reader right in the scene where all five senses are pulsating and alive. When Dave has a continuous nightmare about his alcoholism, he thinks "the rush is just like the whiskey that cauterizes memory and transforms electrified tigers into figures trapped harmlessly inside oil and canvas."

The plot, however, is all over the place like the lush growth along the banks of Louisiana's bayous. Some subplot ends are left untied. We never find out, for instance, why the Blue Sky Electric Company wants Berti's land and is willing to destroy a hundred-year old cemetery to get it. However, the story is rich with villains like Johnny Carp and Sweet Pea Chaisson and gutsy characters Helen Soileau, Dave's side-kick, Clete and Alafair, Dave's daughter. Appearances of the burning angel add a fantasy element that is believable and scary.

BURNING ANGEL will appeal to readers who want an intelligent story exquisitely told. Some of Burke's other novels are BLACK CHERRY BLUES, DIXIE CITY JAM, and CIMARRON ROSE.