I suppose i should start this review with a disclaimer, this is the first James Lee Burke i have read, so five stars may leave me nowhere to go in future.
I found JLB's writing style to be wonderfully emotive and evocative at turns, and while the book runs at a fairly fast pace, and never drags, the sense of place, and the descriptions of the characters are drawn with such deft strokes that they will stay with you long after you close the pages.
Indeed, it's possibly with the characters he does some of his best work, as he develops them subtly by their actions, not pages of plodding exposition.
He gives us a wonderfully varied cast from the loyal, but loose cannon that is Clete Purcel, to the creepily unsettling Ronald Bledsoe
Their motives and deeds never seem telegraphed or forced, and even the most downtrodden antagonists are shown in a somewhat sympathetic light.
It's fair to say that the picture painted of New Orleans after Katrina is not a pretty one, and JLB is not afraid to shirk from the horrific conditions found there, but despite this, JLB's love of the place itself shines through in virtually every chapter and has made me already start adding the rest of his considerable body of work to my wishlist
Highly Recommended
oh and there's a three-legged Raccoon called tripod, not at all integral to the story but how can you resist that ?
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