- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix; Re-issue edition (7 Oct 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752826115
- ISBN-13: 978-0752826110
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 3 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 209,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
James Lee Burke's rural Louisiana cop, Dave Robicheaux, is a haunted man--haunted by his past in Vietnam and the New Orleans Vice Department; but also haunted, sometimes literally, by the ghosts of bad faith and betrayal that pervade his backwater beat. Burke has a seemingly endless ability to make the return of chickens to their roost seem new each time. This is partly because of his real understanding of the power structures of Louisiana crime and politics and partly because the dry alcoholic Robicheaux convincingly inhabits an interior moral universe in which all actions have consequences and there will always be some sort of payback, even after decades.
Labour organiser Flynn was crucified by the Klan when Robicheaux was a child; photographer Megan Flynn and her director brother Cisco are back in town and have not forgotten a thing. Other troubles are also brewing--the FBI is trying to pressure a black thief into turning on the Mafia dons he has successfully defrauded by leaving him in the hands of a corrupt and brutal local jailer, and, incongruously, two rednecks are wanted for the vigilante killing of the unconvicted white rapists of a black teenager. Robicheaux scents disaster, and as usual, is underestimating the situation's potential.
Winner of the CWA Macallan 1998 Gold Dagger Award for Fiction, Sunset Limited is written with depth and elegance, and Robicheaux is one of the most engaging investigators in the business. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
The tenth Robicheaux mystery from the bestselling and Edgar Award- winning author.
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First Sentence
I had seen a dawn like this one only twice in my life: once in Vietnam, after a Bouncing Betty had risen from the earth on a night trail and twisted its tentacles of light around my thighs, and years earlier outside of Franklin, Louisiana, when my father and I discovered the body of a labor organizer who had been crucified with sixteen- penny nails, ankle and wrist, against a barn wall. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I had seen a dawn like this one only twice in my life: once in Vietnam, after a Bouncing Betty had risen from the earth on a night trail and twisted its tentacles of light around my thighs, and years earlier outside of Franklin, Louisiana, when my father and I discovered the body of a labor organizer who had been crucified with sixteen- penny nails, ankle and wrist, against a barn wall. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Before I began reading James Lee Burke, I believed the two best Crime writers were Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald. Burke's writing possesses the finest aspects of both these exceptional novelists. He writes with the elegant, flowing prose of Raymond Chandler and marries to this the dark, complex plots that were Ross MacDonald's trademark. In my opinion he is the finest Crime writer of all, and really, one of the finest writers of the 20th Century.
In "Sunset Limited" however, JLB comes somewhat unstuck. At times I felt I was reading other Robicheaux novels, and the plot, whilst complex as usual never fully gelled. At the end I was left vaguely unsatisfied: a feeling I han't before experienced with this writer. "Sunset Limited" is still a very good read, but it falls short of the other Robicheaux novels, and 1997's marvellous "Cimarron Rose", which introduced a new character, lawyer and ex-Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland. He could - and maybe should - replace Robicheaux as the author's primary creation.
My recommendation - buy "The James Lee Burke Collection" if you haven't read this author before - they are three of the better novels of this century ("To The Bright And Shining Sun" is my personal favourite) - if you have, buy "Sunset Limited" - but don't expect the same brilliance.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Photojournalist Megan Flynn and her brother Cisco return to New Iberia after many years as part of a film crew. Their father, union activist Jack Flynn, had been crucified when they were children. Some folks in New Iberia know who did it, others had a part in it. Now a new series of violent murders are occurring and the key to solving them is the old crucifixion. Parrish Detective Dave Robicheaux becomes involved to right old wrongs, catch the bad guys and put a hurtin' on the mob, wrapping it up just in time to make it to his AA meeting and eat a bowl of cush-cush with Bootsie and Alafair.
Sound familiar? Yeah. Me, too.
Burke has been accused in the past of lifting descriptive passages whole and transplanting them to later books. Just lately he seems to be swiping his own plots and transplanting them to current books, but it isn't working anymore. Ideas that seemed bold and fresh earlier in the series are here worn and anemic. Why are all the criminals tied to the mob? Why are all the old Creole gentility tied to the mob? Why are all the film crews tied to the mob? I just don't buy it anymore.
I think Burke must still have some anger with Hollywood over "Heaven's Prisoners".
Burke's poetic writing is strong as always and his nostalgic evocation of the past makes for beautiful, melancholic reading. But he seems to have forgotten who Dave Robicheaux is and what Dave's doing in the middle of ! all this craziness. I have been frustrated over the last few books by Dave's brooding silence and refusal to discuss things with his wife, Bootsie. Instead, he alienates her and makes her feel bad with his inability to express himself. This is the woman who saved his life, for Heaven's sake! You'd think something like that would bring them closer.
Dave's daughter Alafair has also been pushed to the wayside. The interaction between these two characters used to be sparkling moments; Dave's love and pride in her was his weakness. in "Sunset Limited", Dave speaks to Alafair twice, both times to tell her to leave so he can carry on a conversation with someone else.
I like Burke. I like "Sunset Limited", but I miss Dave Robicheaux; I think much of my disappointment in this book is having spent eleven years with the character and watching him become a shell of his former self.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is no doubt that Dave Robicheaux is the hardest detective in fiction. He's nails. Just as well, given the unhealthy enviroment he operates within, where demented Argentinian dwarfs with a penchant for chewing off certain parts of your anatomy drink coffee in the Café du Monde, New Orleans. His partner, Clete Purcel, is even harder. You wouldn't want to spill his pint (Dave is off the wagon). Together they solve some of the bloodiest American crime fiction written, but this is no schlock horror. Stylish, literate, almost moral, with plots that grip like the aforementioned dwarf, there are now ten Dave Robicheaux novels. Buy it now, and get the other nine while you're at it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"Sunset Limited" a one-track book
Photojournalist Megan Flynn and her brother Cisco return to New Iberia after many years as part of a film crew. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2003 by Patrick Burnett
Excellent
This is an excellent thriller. The book keeps you intrigued right up to the end. It manages to juggle several mysteries at once, which all intertwine. Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2001
Fear and Loathing on the Bayeaux
There is no doubt that Dave Robicheaux is the hardest detective in fiction. He's nails. Just as well, given the unhealthy enviroment he operates within, where demented Argentinian... Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2000 by J. Mcgregor
Robicheaux revisited one time too many?
Before I began reading James Lee Burke, I believed the two best Crime writers were Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 1999
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