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Jolie Blon's Bounce
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Like James Lee Burke's other Dave Robichaux novels, Jolie Blon's Bounce has at its core a sense of people as driven by demons; both their own demons--Robichaux's controlled alcoholism and the dark rages that lie behind it--and the demons handed down to them by history. Robichaux knows that gifted young black musician Tee Bobby Hulin was present at the rape and murder of a young white woman--he is also certain that Hulin was neither rapist nor murderer. Equally, though he has no grounds for certainty about it, he has a sense that the killing of the sister of a local mobster has nothing to do with the case and that the interest of an eccentric young bible salesman in the tough woman DA Shanahan and the woman private eye Zerelda is not harmless at all. Robichaux wants to play cases by the book--this gets harder when he is brutalised by a mad old racist and when his friends find themselves in jeopardy.
James Lee Burke has always been intelligent about the edge of things, and here he is taking his hero to the edge of police procedure and the edge of the real--some of this case skirts battles with principalities and powers. This is one of the nerviest and darkest of this extraordinary series and one of the most poetic--an odd word to use of a thriller, yet the right one. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Three men are present when Amanda Boudreau is raped and murdered, and small-time hustler Tee Bobby Hulin's prints are found at the crime scene. Dave Robicheaux reckons he's innocent, and Tee Bobby pleads so, then attempts suicide in his holding cell. Why? Tee Bobby is released on bail and soon after there is a second murder. When lawyer Perry LaSalle takes on the defence of Tee Bobby, Dave knows his motives are fuelled by guilt. For Tee Bobby's grandmother was seduced by Perry's grandfather, and Amanda Boudreau's death is related to events that happened long before Tee Bobby was born...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I used to look forward to the next Dave Robicheaux book like I looked forward to Christmas when I was a child. I used to feel the same anticipation, the same thrill I would feel upon waking too early to go into the living room to see what Santa had brought. I would buy the new James Lee Burke novel and rush to get it home, sneaking looks at the dust jacket, reading the first few pages while waiting in line to get on the bus and finally arriving home to immerse myself. They were wonderful, yes, well-written and poetic, with a dark, malevolent beauty hiding beneath the rot and detritus of the swamps and rural backwaters, but they were more than that. They were like mini-trips to Louisiana for me, a place I love and visit whenever I can. And they were a new treat from a favorite author, something that was new to me, as many of the writers I discovered in my youth were long dead and would be producing no more books.
These days, a new Dave Robicheaux novel is like a phone call from a distant aunt. It's nice to hear from her, but she keeps telling the same old stories over and over again and you wind up preferring that maybe the calls were less frequent, or of shorter duration. "Jolie Blon's Bounce" is like that. It's still Burke and it's still welcome, but you've heard all the stories, read all the lovely descriptions, wondered about the vaguely supernatural elements, thrilled at Dave's headstrong determination to do exactly the most self-destructive thing at any given moment, despite what his family, friends and colleagues tell him. There's nothing new.
The story is about a poor black person accused of a crime and the rich white people who have a dark secret and may actually be the criminals. No, wait. That's ALL of them. Let's try it again...
"Jolie Blon's Bounce" finds Dave investigating the murders of a young, white, teenaged girl and of a prostitute, the daughter of a New Orleans gangster. Everyone figures local hophead and musician Tee Bobby Hulin as the murderer; everyone except Dave, who wants so much to believe in the boy's innocence that he follows a few unorthodox leads.
Along the way he encounters Legion Guidry, a former plantation manager who may or may not be the demon Legion from the Bible, a man who violates and twists his way through New Iberia like a thread of mold. He threatens, bullies, beats and kills any number of people before turning his charms on Dave himself, who nearly does not come away from the encounter intact.
Throw in Clete Purcell, Dave's old partner, the Private Investigator daughter of another mobster, a malevolent Bible salesman, the prostitute's grieving father, the local police, and Dave's curiously bitchy family and you have a nice, murky roux, full of red herrings, macguffins and dead ends.
As usual, Dave sews it all up in his unique, ethically challenged way. But what has begun to strike me about these books is how surly and dislikeable is the lead character. Dave barely communicates his thoughts to anyone, is rude and disrespectful to people he doesn't like and is merely grumpy and hostile to people he loves. He pontificates to those close to him, all the while dipping his toe in the same toxic water from which he warns them. With each new book I wonder why his wife Bootsie hasn't filed for divorce - they only seem to have sex when she's mad at Dave and they don't talk or show affection any other time. Dave's daughter, Alafair, once a cool character, has grown into a charmless teenager who finds every reason to pick a fight and no reason to show us, the reader, what a great guy Dave is under the surface. If you liked the other books in the series, you are bound to like this one, but be warned: the books are getting darker and I'm not sure even Dave can see the light anymore.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Dave Robicheaux is the archetypal southern law enforcer - and who better to play him on film than Tommy Lee Jones (in a 2009 film)- yet James Lee Burke is so much more than a crime fiction writer - he is a writer that immerses you in New Iberia and Louisiana. He describes American society so effectively - so magical yet so flawed. "Jolie Blon" is up there with the best of Burke's 17 Robicheaux novels - but if you haven't read one begin with the first " The Neon Rain"
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Summary ; another journey into the darker side of Louisiana with sheriff's deputy Dave Robicheaux.
James Lee Burke yet again manages to combine the tension between good and evil with another chapter in the life of Dave Robicheaux. Haunting images from his childhood are brought up to the present with his encounters with a strange and unpleasant individual called Legion. Dave's sexuality is also challenged in one of these, and the reader will understand his response to such provocation. Clete Purcell, who I do hope is one of your favourites, roller coasts through the story exposing his softer side in the process in more ways than one! One of the problems with a writer such as James Lee Burke is one always wants more. This paradox is slowly being resolved since one gets the hint that Dave is nearing retirement. If there is a new version of Jolie blon then it's worth listening to, just as much as reading the book of the same name.
James Lee Burke yet again manages to combine the tension between good and evil with another chapter in the life of Dave Robicheaux. Haunting images from his childhood are brought up to the present with his encounters with a strange and unpleasant individual called Legion. Dave's sexuality is also challenged in one of these, and the reader will understand his response to such provocation. Clete Purcell, who I do hope is one of your favourites, roller coasts through the story exposing his softer side in the process in more ways than one! One of the problems with a writer such as James Lee Burke is one always wants more. This paradox is slowly being resolved since one gets the hint that Dave is nearing retirement. If there is a new version of Jolie blon then it's worth listening to, just as much as reading the book of the same name.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Continues to Write with Energy, Passion and Power Enough to Hook Most...
"Jolie Blon's Bounce," (2002), was apparently the twelfth novel published by American author James Lee Burke in his mighty New York Times bestselling Detective Dave Robicheaux... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Stephanie DePue
The Master
Burke maintains his reputation as the master of modern crime, with another great entry in the Robicheaux series, probably the most influential series in contemporary crime writing. Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2004 by Mr. Warren M. Fisher
One of Robicheaux' best
Two murders, three enigmatic and dangerous men, and a hundred years of Louisiana's violent and racist past... Read more
Published on 5 May 2003 by Charlie Hore
Pure Genius
This is probably James Lee Burke's masterpiece. Warm and savage, heartrending and terrifying, the horrors of this world have never been so beautifully evoked. Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2002 by Mr. Warren M. Fisher
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