The Glass Rainbow: A Dave Robicheaux Novel Mass Market Paperback – July 26, 2011

I know this book is nearly a decade old, but what I love about James Lee Burke is that his writing transcends time. Don't believe me? Grab a copy of Heaven's Prisoners and start reading. It is every bit as seductive and compelling as it was when it was published decades ago. JOB's writing has only gotten better with age. The Glass Rainbow is Burke 's 19th novel to feature the world weary Dave Robicheaux. This book can be picked up by someone who is not familiar with the characters and the setting, and be enjoyed thoroughly. I would encourage the new reader to go back at least a few books and get a sense of Burke's style and cadence. His prose is dense, full of sensual anchors; his dialogue is earthy and sharp. When you read Burke you can see the characters and the setting, you feel the dense hot humid air of the bayou, you can smell the fetid decay of the swamp, you can hear the rain on the tin roofs and you can feel the hot sweat as if it were sliding down between your own shoulder blades. Add the mix a very sharp and personal integration of local history and current conditions and you have the basic ingredients of a James Lee Burke novel. Here, JLB tells the story of the perverse, hateful and exploitative behavior by men who, concurrently are exploiting the land. This may be the darkest of the Robicheaux novels to date. The darkness is countered, nearly completely driven back by the transcendent moral goodness of Robicheaux and his family and friends. These characters drive the story; we care more about them than the story. Burke's skill creates people so real you will feel that you know them. They stay with you like few others do. Read this book, especially if you love great storytelling and real, complex characters. Burke's endings are not neat, they are too real. No happily ever after for him; he leaves the story the way life does. Not in a neatly tied bundle, just time to get on with things.

I have quite a few favorite characters that I follow in a series, and Dave Robicheaux is very close to the top of my list. I had picked up a copy at the library years ago that was somewhere in the middle of the series and I enjoyed it so much I got a list of the whole series and started from the beginning. After reading them all it had been so many years I went back and started all over again and enjoyed them just as much. The only other literary character I have done that with is F. Paul Wilson's "Repairman Jack" novels. Burke's "Heaven's Prisoners" and "In the Electric Mist" have been made into movies but I haven't seen them. When I love a literary character so much I am usually very disappointed in the movie versions. If I tried to imagine Dave portrayed by the two actors in these movies - Alec Baldwin in the first and Tommy Lee Jones in the second - I guess I would try Jones first. (He is the only one I could think of who may have been able to pull off portraying John Sandford's Lucas Davenport, another character I love and have read all of the books.) John Goodman is in the one with Jones, so I guess he plays Clete Purcell, Dave's best friend and partner. Clete is another awesome character. The two together are incredible.Burke's books are exciting, interesting and very unusual - and one thing that makes his writing such a work of art is his ability to describe things like backgrounds and nature. Some authors try to do this and just get bogged down in details making it a bit boring. Not so with Burke. He makes you feel like you are right there with him wherever he is and his depiction of local characters, accents and all - such as Cajuns - is perfect. This book, like all the rest of Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels, is a riveting page turner. One of those books that you speed through to see what happens next - but then when you finish that last page you are disappointed that the experience is over. That makes me get on line looking to see if there is another I haven't read yet.If you love a good read and haven't discovered the world of Dave Robicheaux do yourself a favor and jump in anywhere. If you're like me though, get a list in order and start at the beginning.

Its difficult for me to find a book that I really like. Novels are like food, they are subjective according to each individual. I like this character a great deal so I guess that means that the author is doing his job well. I'm an older guy in my '70's just so you know where I'm coming from. I like the gritty detective novels and Dave Robicheaux fills the bill. Never fails to make his stories enjoyable for me. Keep on doing what you're doing Mr Burke. You are a literary success in my book.

One of my favorite book group members chose this book so I felt obligated to read it. I hated it from the beginning and hated it through the end.I don't like the genre and disliked the tone in which it was written, macho gun-slinging lawman.Our book group meeting is tomorrow. I can't wait to hear what the woman who chose this book liked about it.(Sorry Suzanne if you read this but I hope this review makes Amazon stop recommending more books by this author).

In fiction and entertainment, there have been some great double acts: Laurel and Hardy, Holmes and Watson, Morecombe and Wise, Morse and Lewis, Keith Harris and Orville. Add to this list Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell. They have partnered each other across all of the James Lee Burke novels about crime in New Iberia, Louisianna, where the ghosts of the Confederate militia roam the swamp lands and Dave's booze-damaged brain, seeking redemption through a bit of the old ultra-violence. The partnership looms large in this novel. I notice it's the 18th in the Dave Robicheaux series, and the man really needs to widen his social circle. He keeps running up against what seems to be the most degenerate bunch of killers and sadists to have walked through the pages of American crime. Fortunately he has his partner, Clete Purcell, along for the ride, watching his back and dealing out the kind of law enforcement that Dave only philosophises over.I think I've read all 18 in this series, and I return to James Lee Burke as an author that won't really let me down. I don't think his style will be everyone's cup of tea, the plots don't always hang together and it's all a bit macho and old fashioned. But clearly I like it. I think this is one of his better novels, although I would admit that all of them now kind of merge together in my memory, with only the first one I read, " A Morning For Flamingos " really standing out. I read that one in the course of one rainy Bank Holiday Monday years ago, and never looked back.No doubt I'll continue to read any more that the author writes as none of his novels have disappointed me. So here's to the next instalment.... A Morning For Flamingos

No thriller writer alive can match the superb literary genius of James Lee Burke, that his Dave Robicheaux series of books are a continuum of the authors escalating talent is a miracle in the making. Modern classics, and brilliant stories too.

While the formula of Dave Robicheaux fighting evil goes on, it still works and better than ever.The author's prose never fails to strike a chord when he writes about the human condition. He has a keen perception of a world where human lives are tossed around like so much flotsam, they are the victims of evil doers. Often these evildoers are people whose own lives have been marred by the accident of birth or maltreatment as children. Others seem to be the devil's children, taking delight in the torture and destruction of the innocent; people with no redeeming features.You feel that his own experiences be they in Vietnam or Louisiana have bitten deeply into his soul and he takes you into, albeit biefly, the dark places of the human soul.Some the passages are so moving and perceptive that I have to pause, put down the book and draw breath while I take in what he has said.Surely there is not a another crime thriller writer as able to communicate the same degree of perception into the human condition as James Lee Burke. Long may he continue to write.Forget whether you usually like crime writing, read this book for a great experience.

Yet again James Lee Burke excels in his plot lines and the pictures he paints with words. This was a gripping book with so many twists and turns. I missed something along the line though as Dave no longer rents out boats and am unsure when that stopped and what happened to Batiste. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. I found this a wistful book in so many places, with the usual spiritual element which this time gave a feeling of foreboding. Clete is a huge figure, in every way, and I keep wishing he would slow down a bit. The relationship between he and Dave is wonderful and so touching, frustrating and mutually protective. Not that Clete takes a lot of notice of Dave or vice versa. The end is deeply moving, but inconclusive to me although more cynical people say the end is clear. I admit to re-reading the end several times, so will just have to wait ! I love it that clearly James Lee Burke has a wonderfully spiritual imagination and probably writes from his own experiences. My only criticism of the author is his propensity for many unnecessary "I's" and the constant inappropriate use of "he said, she said" when in fact a question has been asked. This seems to be typical of many male writers and I wonder why they do it. It is only recently I have noticed this and it does distract me from time to time. However, he never disappoints.

I read this immediately after Swan Peak as I am now just reading my way through this superb series. You feel as if you are on a roller coaster rise with Dave and Clete and its a ride towards Hell. Again you fear for Alf and Molly - quite rightly. In this novel Dave has premonitions of his own death. He sees this as inevitable like Clete going into bar half drunk and drinking Jack with beer backs. A superb series about these two pals and of course about the lowlife they seem to come up against on a daily basis.