 2008-11-18 - great buy
this book was a great bargain considering it just came out for a much higher price in the chain stores. it arrived on time and in excellent condition.
 2008-11-11 - Dave and Clete still busting the bad guys
The other reviewers have well detailed the plot in this umpteenth Dave Robicheaux mystery thriller. The "Bobbsey Twins" -- Iberia Parish Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux and his sidekick New Orleans P.I. Clete Purcel are at it again. The commercial series that brought author James Lee Burke wide acclaim and commercial success, after a string of several very more "literary" works which failed to hit the charts, continues, if not con brio. And we continue to love to read Dave Robicheaux books, because we're hooked on Burke's inimitable page-burning style. And we're eagerly waiting the release of the movie version of one of Burke's finest Robicheauxs, "In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead" starring Tommy Lee Jones. But lately, as good as they still are, Dave and Clete's antics all seem to blur into one basic story. Burke does do a good job with continuity in his saga, and the locale of his second home in Montana (he also has one in New Iberia) ties one of the characters in "Swan Peak", a retired college professor, to a short story in Burke's recent collection "Jesus Out to Sea", which compares with his earlier and excellent "The Convict" collection. Also, there is a nice tie-in with Burke's third Robicheaux, "A Morning for Flamingos", which used the Montana locale for Clete's retribution against New Orleans gangster Sally Dio, involving the crash of an airplane which had sand poured into its gas tanks. As is not unusual for Burke, there are careless little factual errors here that go beyond artistic license -- in "Swan Peak" he states that former New Orleans mafia don Carlos Marcello was deported to Mexico -- when in fact it was to his native Guatemala. This is forgiveable, just as his post-Hurricane Katrina op-ed for the Los Angeles Times stated that Jack Kerouac for a time lived in "Bridge City" rather than the actual locale of Algiers across the river from New Orleans, some 40 miles away. Despite my tempered enthusiasm of the coninuation of this series, I still wouldn't miss the next Robicheaux, if there is one, for the world. This was by no means a bad book, just not a great one, which can be said of the last half-dozen books in the series. Other readers may be feeling the same way. Maybe it's just due to an imminent paperback release, but yesterday I saw a stack of about 50 or so copies of "Swan Peak" remaindered at $4.98. Perhaps it's not yet time for Dave and Clete to hang up their rock and roll shoes. What I'd really like to see from Burke is the release of his pre-Robicheaux New Orleans gangster novel, written in the wake of Puzo's "Godfather", the still unpublished "Underneath These Hills", which is a source for the later Robicheaux books. Carry on, Mr. Burke -- you're still kicking, and we're still reading. Three and a half stars.
2008-11-10 - Better than ever
You might think that, like some writers, by the time they get to their 17th novel based on the same characters, that the quality would diminish. However, this is Burke and Robicheaux and Clete as good as ever, if not better. I really enjoyed this book! The Montana location was a nice change of pace also.
 2008-11-01 - Superb as usual
Swan Peak finds James Lee Burke playing many of the same notes that he's played before but it's done so well it's hard to mind.
The big change in this book is the setting as we leave the big easy and move to Montana where both Dave and Clete have some history going back to the book "Black Cherry Blues".
Robicheaux and company are just trying to do some fishing but the plot lands on them quickly as both Dave and Clete get mixed up with some no good rich folks and the lackeys that work for them.
The villians are familiar to anyone whose read Burke but one character, a Texas prison guard, takes a path that has more shades of gray than I expected at first.
James Lee Burke is a master at crime fiction and some of his writing is so lyrical and beautiful that I'd make the argument that it expands genere fiction into the land of literature.
If your a fan your going to buy this book and you'll be well rewarded.
2008-10-08 - Man oh man, how I love Burke
I cannot say loudly enough how much I enjoy reading James Lee Burke. Every new novel seems to be better than his last, and Swan Peak is no exception. (And I'm not saying this just because I'm from Louisiana.) In this book, I particularly loved:
- his pacing
- his character development
- his use of similes
- his dialogue
- his interweaving storylines
If you've never read Burke, do yourself a favor and give him a try (especially if you're from the South).
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