The Glass Rainbow: A Dave Robicheaux Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: James Lee Burke
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Rating:  85 reviews
Sales Rank: 49
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
ASIN: B003L786Q4
Publication Date: June 24, 2010
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Product Description
James Lee Burkeâs eagerly awaited new novel finds Detective Dave Robicheaux back in New Iberia, Louisiana, and embroiled in the most harrowing and dangerous case of his career. Seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish have been brutally murdered. While the crimes have all the telltale signs of a serial killer, the death of Bernadette Latiolais, a high school honor student, doesnât fit: she is not the kind of hapless and marginalized victim psychopaths usually prey upon. Robicheaux and his best friend, Clete Purcel, confront Herman Stanga, a notorious pimp and crack dealer whom both men despise. When Stanga turns up dead shortly after a fierce beating by Purcel, in front of numerous witnesses, the case takes a nasty turn, and Cleteâs career and life are hanging by threads over the abyss. Adding to Robicheauxâs troubles is the matter of his daughter, Alafair, on leave from Stanford Law to put the finishing touches on her novel. Her literary pursuit has led her into the arms of Kermit Abelard, celebrated novelist and scion of a once prominent Louisiana family whose fortunes are slowly sinking into the corruption of Louisianaâs subculture. Abelardâs association with bestselling ex-convict author Robert Weingart, a man who uses and discards people like Kleenex, causes Robicheaux to fear that Alafair might be destroyed by the man she loves. As his daughter seems to drift away from him, he wonders if he has become a victim of his own paranoia. But as usual, Robicheauxâs instincts are proven correct and he finds himself dealing with a level of evil that is greater than any enemy he has confronted in the past. Set against the backdrop of an Edenic paradise threatened by pernicious forces, James Lee Burkeâs The Glass Rainbow is already being hailed as perhaps the best novel in the Robicheaux series.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 85
 The best Dave and Clete story ever told September 4, 2010
Cheryl L. Boswell (Hammond, LA USA)
I am a huge fan of James Lee Burke, especially of his Dave Robicheaux series. Burke exceeds all expectations in every aspect of his writing in "The Glass Rainbow," and it is one of the best novels I have ever read -- finely crafted and deeply moving. I will definitely read it again, maybe twice more. It's that good.
Hated for this one to end! September 4, 2010
J. R. Abbey (Norcal)
I have read all books in this series and must agree that this one of up in the top 5 (or 3!)
Hated to finish it...it was terrific and I will look forward to another Robicheaux soon...I hope!
Burke at his best September 2, 2010
Richard Brawer
I loved this book. It was Burke at his best. End was shocking.
Richard Brawer, author of Beyond Guilty and Silk Legacy
 Solid Burke September 2, 2010
Stephen E. Adams (Lopez Island, WA USA)
While Burke, in "The Glass Rainbow," tends to play the same two strings that he's been playing in his last few novels, he plays them well and he remains a true champion of the poor, the disenfranchised, the un-beautiful people. On top of that, he can write a fine and solid sentence.
"Inside the fence or outside the fence, we all stack the same time." September 2, 2010
Luan Gaines (Dana Point, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Burke has an uncanny ability to expose the failures of society, his Detective Dave Robicheaux novels set in Iberia Parish,, Louisiana, and neighboring places, where the old world still battles with the new and the mythology lays claim on daily existence. As the years go by, Dave Robicheaux remains a dedicated cop, bedeviled by his own history, sober after years of violence and grief, as tied to his past and love of place as Burke. As one of Burke's iconic characters, Robicheaux embodies the modern man's struggle for nobility when surrounded by temptation, the burdens of southern culture a cause of conflict for this particular protagonist. Dave's shadow, PI and ex-Vietnam vet Clete Purcel, evokes memories of the dark side, a man with a good heart assaulted by images of war and years of self-abuse, alcohol never really obliterating the reality. This time Clete is too near the edge, unable to assuage his appetite for oblivion or justice, too easily tempted by a local man who feeds of the troubles of the neighborhood, cloaking his ill-intentions in the façade of charity and aid for the poor.
Clete's contretemps with Herman Stanga is just the tip of the iceberg, albeit key to the plot, the ex-vet's rage unleashed by the murder of a young black woman in another parish, anonymous even in death. Like it or not, the moral compasses of the two men are inextricably bound, their fates tied together. In any case, Robicheaux has his own worries, his adopted daughter Alafair being courted by a wealthy local writer, Kermit Abelard, scion of a powerful family, his literary success as seductive as his southern charm. More troublesome is Abelard's friendship with an ex-con turned writer, Robert Weingart, riding the crest of his best-selling book about incarceration. The quandary remains the same for Robicheaux and Purcel, with a diverse cast of familiar characters, ex-cons, unhappy wives, power brokers who have little tolerance for the likes of Dave and Clete. This is Burke's home ground, the murky landscape of the human condition. That his protagonists are deeply flawed makes them all the more fascinating, Dave and Clete's personal demons as out of control as the felon who stalks Alafair without breaking the law. Pushed to the edge of his personal boundaries, Dave teeters dangerously, clinging to Purcel.
Burke has a way of cracking the world open, exposing its evil and slamming it shut before the mind can grasp what it has just seen, the sun breaking out from the dark and filling the sky with the miracle of creation. It is this juxtaposition of good and evil that makes Robicheaux novels as intellectually enlightening as they are entertaining. Dave Robicheaux has seen it all, his brain whirling with comprehension and a profound respect for the lessons his life has bestowed: "For me, unslaked bloodlust was no easier to deal with than a thirst for whiskey... that was so great I would swallow a razor blade to satisfy it." In perhaps his best effort yet, Burke delivers a stunning blow to sophisticated notions of good and evil in the modern world, stripping humanity of its facade, as the good dance a manic jig with the damned and innocents demand an accounting. Luan Gaines/2010.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 85
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