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www.recordedbooks.com This audio version of James Lee Burke's 12th Dave Robichaux novel, starts off with Burke explaining the meaning of the title, and playing an excerpt of the recording that gives it's name to the book. The rough voice of narrator, Mark Hammer, brings the complicated story to life. Many years before, young Dave and his half brother, Jimmy, had been running free in the summer's evening when they come across two couples copulating in a car in a parking lot. Frightened by a man one of the woman calls "Legion" the youngsters run to the ice house of their father's best friend Ciro Shanahan and hide. Ciro and the boys' father had been smuggling whiskey for Julian LaSalle, owner of the Poinciana Island and the plantation thereon. Ciro had been caught and sent to jail. Now Dave, a recovering alcoholic, is a policeman in New Iberia, Louisiana, near New Orleans, and owner of a Bait and Tackle shop. The body of 16 year old honor student, Amanda Boudreau, has been found. She was raped and beaten. Robichaux and his partner, Helen Soileau, find evidence that leads to the arrest of Tee Bobby Hulin, a fine musician and a petty criminal. Dave's not convinced of his guilt. A drug addicted prostitute, related to Joe Zeroski, a minor league button man for the mob, is beaten to death. And Dave's old partner from the New Orleans Police Department, now bounty hunter Clete Purcell, turns up, staying in the same trailer park as Joe Zeroski. If that isn't complicated enough, Perry LaSalle, the current owner of Poinciana Island, and possibly Tee Bobby's relative, takes on Hulin's case while Assistant DA Barbara Shanahan is assigned to the prosecution. And Legion Guidry, who at 74 is still a menacing figure, the former overseer of the LaSalle plantation, gives Dave a severe beating. Then there's the homeless man who claims to be the medic who saved Dave in Vietnam, and the bible salesman who wheels his case of bibles around town, when not ogling the young girls. There's a touch of the supernatural about this entry in the series. Someone recently told me that they couldn't get into the book because it was too weird. It's not weird. It's Louisiana. If you plan on going on a long trip, this 11 hour version is available for rental or purchase at www.recordedbooks.com
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, June 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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