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    The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robichauex Novel
    The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robichauex Novel
    The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robichauex Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robichauex Novel

    Written by James Lee Burke

    Narrated by Will Patton

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Winner of the 2008 Audie Award for Mystery

    Dave Robicheaux returns in an adventure as timely as real life: the fight against crime, and the fight for life in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

    In the waning days of summer 2005, a storm with greater impact than the bomb that struck Hiroshima peels the face off southern Louisiana. This is the gruesome reality Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Detective Dave Robicheaux discovers as he is deployed to New Orleans. As The Tin Roof Blowdown begins, Hurricane Katrina has left the commercial district and residential neighborhoods awash with looters and predators of every stripe. The power grid of the city has been destroyed; New Orleans reduced to the level of a medieval society. There is no law, no order, no sanctuary for the infirm, the helpless, and the innocent. Bodies float in the streets and lie impaled on the branches of flooded trees. In the midst of an apocalyptical nightmare, Robicheaux must find two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest, and a vigilante who may be more dangerous than the criminals looting the city.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 17, 2007
    ISBN9780743567527
    The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robichauex Novel
    Author

    James Lee Burke

    James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author, two-time winner of the Edgar Award, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. He has authored forty novels and two short story collections. He lives in Missoula, Montana.

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    Reviews for The Tin Roof Blowdown

    4.5/5

    90 ratings35 reviews

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    • 3/5
      August, 2007:This was a tough one to finish. It's Burke at his brutal best, but the story line didn't grab me, and the author was too much in evidence, although I'm fairly sure Burke knew he was doing that and just didn't care. It is only incidentally a novel--it's mainly about the destruction of Burke's beloved New Orleans, and not just by the forces of nature. I do wish he'd stop putting Robicheuax's loved ones in mortal peril over and over--that gets a bit old.I was reading it at a difficult time, too, and I probably shouldn't have done that. If you like Burke, you'll have to read it. Otherwise, pass.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      more multi dimensional than the other books I have read by him...enjoyed but didn't love...

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      While this book is is the mystery genre, it is also a poetic love letter to New Orleans, LA. James Lee Burke has crafted a whodunit that occurs during Hurricane Katrina. This was the first Dave Robicheaux novel that I read and I truly enjoyed it. The mystery blends with the tragedy of the storm and the outrages that were comitted by criminals and the disinterested federal government. Burke shares the pain and anger that a localmust have felt. (He lives in New Iberia, LA so he writes from personal experience and knowledge of the area.) In the midst of the hurricane, two African-American looters are shot in a wealthy neighborhood. A local insurance man is accused of the crime. His daughter was recently gang-raped by three black men and it is assumed that he was acting out of vengance. But the tale is further complicated by the fact that these looters are serial rapists and that they recently robbed a local mobster. This crime hits upon issues of race, class, and Southern culture. Local law enforcement officials are overextended during this time with disaster recovery, criminal activity, and searching for survivors. To further complicate matters, once the federal government shows up another level of buracracy must be dealt with. Burke is at his best when writing about the soul of New Orleans and the host of unsavory characters that inhabit the area. The twist and turns of the mystery, along with the interpersonal conflicts of the characters, makes an enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      This is James Lee Burke's eulogy for the city of New Orleans destroyed by hurricane Katrina aided by the sloth,greed and corruption of many people from George W. Bush on down. The human tragedy of Katrina is a significant part of the story. It appears everywhere in the book and provides a scene that recurs throughout the story. Jude LeBlanc, a priest who is afraid to give communion because his hands shake from heroin addiction, is killed on the roof of a church attempting to rescue people trapped inside. Everyone connected with the scene reports glimmering lights in the water that is rising inside the church. LeBlanc's fate and the glimmering lights haunt the story in ways true to Burke's style.. What I really enjoyed in this serving of the Dave Robicheaux saga were the characters. The characters in this book go against the grain of stereotype. The most tormented character in the book is Bernard Melancon a young black man who has participated in two violent gang rapes. A portion of the story comes from his voice telling of his constant inner torture firsthand. His reading of a handwritten apology for his wrongs to the stepmother of one of his victims is the ultimate cry for help rejected by a shallow evil women completely lacking in Bernard's honesty. The women are some of the strongest characters. We meet the adult Alafair who hates being called "Alf". Her ongoing struggle with the villain was for me the emotional center of the book. Molly breaks new boundaries insisting on a fuller identity than Dave Robicheaux's wife. Burke through Robicheaux shows a refreshing ability to accept the fact that women are persons in their own right. The star of the book is the villain. He speaks in a soft voice and is courteous to a fault, a sexual psychopath who early in the book picks Alafair for a victim. He frustrates all attempts at identification until a reference librarian lifts the veil he hides behind. The final confrontation between Alafair and Ronald Bledsoe is worth the price of the book. Behind Bledsoe are the representatives of money and power using him to seek more.The end of the book finds New Orleans permanently diminished, no longer the Big Sleazy. Power and money are still in the saddle unharmed by the slings and arrows of that which is good. Bernard Melanconon makes his own ending finding the glimmering lights in the water.
    • 3/5
      2.5 starsThis was set in New Orleans just after Katrina. I can only do a partial summary, as there was only one storyline that interested me, though there were other storylines in addition. Otis' daughter was raped a few years ago. Her rapists are still out there. Well, just the one storyline was interesting to me, and that storyline mostly ended early on, so I skimmed most of the rest of it, as I just wasn't interested. The book got the ? star for that one storyline. There was also an odd PI in the story that was somewhat interesting, as well.
    • 2/5
      I hate to say that I was totally bored by this book. Looking at the stars, I am obviously in the extreme minority. It was disjointed. It was part inner city crime story, part devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Somehow, I felt the two themes did not blend well. None of the characters seemed appealing. I thought the ending was somewhat predictable.
    • 4/5
      Will keep you Involved till the conclusion. I thought that this book was a real page turner. The story was also a chronicle of what Katrina did to New Orleans, South Louisiana, and the suffering brought on to the people who experienced that terrible storm. It was especially real in describing how it changed their lives dramatically. This is a well written story and Mr. Burke opinions of the handling of the storm's impact are obvious; both in the narrative and in the prologue. Familiar characters and their personalities, and Dave's family are deeply involved in this fast action novel.Overall, this story will keep you involved right up to its surprising climax.
    • 4/5
      This may be the definitivge story abgout New Orleans aftger Katrina, but the reason it earns just four tars is that Burke leaves sooooooo much unresolvfed. What is the change that Cleat made at the end of the book? What were those glowing lights under the water seen by so many people? What happened to the "blood diamonds" at the end? Who has them? Was the Taliban involved and, if so, who was working for (or with) them? The whole bad-guy scenario is messed uj; fo tghe reader, and there is no lear definitions on who works for who, who was after what? Finally, the total reversion of street scum Randolph to a choir boy making amends forf a elxceedingly violent rape and beating just doesn't wash. At best, it's ujnlikely behavior, and at worst,x it's simplyh unbelievable. I didn't behieve it.
    • 4/5
      Another good story about the aging detective Robicheaux. Al little slow at the beginning and a little forced at the end but a good read as usual.
    • 3/5
      Interesting book set in the aftermath of Katrina. Kind of dark and depressing given the surroundings and the characters.
    • 4/5
      I love Clete Purcell.
    • 5/5
      Set in and around New Orleans during and following destructive hurricane Katrina, the Tin Roof Blowdown is a complex piece of crime fiction. Graphic descriptions of the terror and destruction wrought by Katrina, and frequent reminders of the ineptitude of the authorities in handling the tragedy, form the backdrop as the drama unfolds. Drama involving the disappearance of a young priest, the murder of a young black rapist and an innocent black teenager with the father of the rapist's victim being accused, and somehow the involvement of organised crime.With the NOPD overwhelmed, Detective Dave Robicheaux is called in to investigate. As he works in the company of his old friend and ex-cop Clete Purcel, Robicheaux finds his own family comes under attack form a deranged .Soaked in atmosphere and full of detailed description, and not fearing to make political comment, this is a thoroughly involving story. Part narrated by Robicheaux, and part related in the third person, a devise which while providing the full picture of events also provides a personal view on matters, we get a clear picture of the intricacies of the plot; and such is the skill of the writer that we not only see inside Robicheaux's mind, but we can actually hear his voice when he speaks.
    • 3/5
      Set in the aftermath of 2005?s Hurricanes Katrina and Rita which devastated New Orleans and highlighted the many years of neglect which preceded the storms, The Tin Roof Blowdown is a big story. Burke?s hero, detective Dave Robicheaux, tries to track down who shot two people, one of whom was killed and the other paralysed, in the days of anarchy following Katrina. The people who were shot may have been responsible for the rape of a teenage girl some months earlier and were apparently looting the house of one of New Orleans? most dangerous criminals on the night they were shot. There are loads more twists in the mix but to reveal any more would be spoiling things.

      I?ll admit it: I lost the plots, literally, on several occasions. Between the multiple story threads, the continual jumping between first and third person point of view and the seemingly endless string of connections between people bent on revenge or consumed with guilt I got lost. There are whole threads I never found the end of despite re-reading several long passages of the book. It was as if the storms and the neglect of the city and its people before and after them weren?t quite enough for Burke to rail against and he had to throw in Vietnam flashbacks, systemic corruption, an ugly sociopath, Al Qaeda (am I allowed an exclamation point after that?) and a half-dozen other sub plots for good measure. In a debut novel I can forgive the writer including every idea they?ve ever had but from a seasoned professional I expect something more (or less as the case may be).

      To round out the confusion, the book required a more detailed knowledge of local geography than I can recall needing in 41 years of reading. I?ve visited New Orleans several times and spent a month touring through Louisiana only a couple of years before this book was set but I had to read with a map at my side just to make sense of some of the events. That?s not a normal thing for me to have to do even with books set in places that exist only in someone else?s imagination.

      There?s a lot of Burke?s anger and heartache wrapped up in the fiction here and I found it tiresome. I?m not suggesting Burke?s fury isn?t genuine, I?m positive it is. I?m not saying it isn?t well-directed because I?m sure at least some of it is deserved. Neither am I saying it failed to move me: I cried more than once, at least at the beginning. All I am saying is that Burke?s version of the facts surrounding the storms and their aftermath were jammed into the narrative so often and so loudly that it felt at times like the story was an inconvenient interruption to a rant. Nothing I read here has changed my long held opinion: regardless of the worthiness of the message, fiction should entertain first and the political or social themes the author wants to explore should be part of the narrative not the written equivalent of Vegas-style neon signs flashing ?insert empathy here?.

      There were elements of the book I did enjoy. Burke?s writing, especially his dialogue, is at times beautiful. The kind of beautiful that make you read it out loud just to hear what the words sound like. And there are several interesting themes weaved expertly throughout the book. For example I?ve spent a lot of time contemplating the different ways a person?s past can influence their present as this story has unfolded. Having never read any books by this author before I also enjoyed meeting loyal, persistent Dave Robicheaux and his extended family. There are other parts of the book that I think I might have enjoyed more, such as the strange journey of Bertrand Melancon, if I hadn?t been quite so annoyed by being preached at so consistently.

      Overall though, possibly due to over-hype syndrome (my copy proclaimed it?s ?the novel Burke was born to write? among other superlative statements), it was a somewhat disappointing read. It seemed to try a little too hard to do a bit too much and managed to push nearly all of the reading buttons that lead to me grinding my teeth and muttering under my breath. I can appreciate that the author wanted to tell a big story about something he felt very deeply but, for me anyway, it was a hard slog that didn?t have the reward I would have liked.
    • 2/5
      Just a good old detective story. This one is based in post-Katrina New Orleans and vicinity and uses the aftermath of that catastrophe and the government's ineptitude almost as additional characters. This book, as all of Burke's books carries a strong regional flavor and a very unique and engaging voice.
    • 4/5
      Robicheaux is assigned to New Orleans duty after Katrina, and becomes embroiled in a network of crimes involving rape, murder, theft, international smuggling, counterfeit bills, torture,and stalking of his own family. Between the absolutely grim scenes of Katrina's aftermath, the grisly violence of the crimes committed, and pervasive man's inhumanity to ma--this was not an easy listen. As a matter of fact, it made the daily news seem sanitized.
    • 3/5
      Listened as an audiobook. Set in New Orleans before and after Katrina. A pretty intricate plot. But I enjoyed the story.
    • 5/5
      Excellent addition to the Dave Robicheaux series
    • 5/5
      Hurricane Katrina smashes into New Orleans with the "...explosive force several times greater than that of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945."The tidal surge explodes the levee system and devastates much of New Orleans. Hardest hit of all is the Ninth Ward, an area occupied by many of the poor members of the city.People filled the roads in their automobiles to escape the storm and authorities told those left behind to come to the Convention Center. However, there were no services there. Bodies were left outside, toilets didn't work, there was little food or water and the suffering was extreme.Looting began and one group of looters included four black men who broke into a number of homes that had withstood the storm. One of homes belonged to one of New Orleans most notorious gangsters, Sidney Kovick. The looters took money, drugs, a gun and diamonds that had been hidden behind the walls.Three of these looters were meth dealers and rapists. While they were looting, other men formed vigilante groups to protect their homes. Outside Otis Baylor's home, his daughter recognized two of the looters as the men who had raped her.When one of the looters lights a flame, a shot comes from the dark, killing one of the looters and crippling another.This tremendous novel details the heartakes and demolishing of New Orleans after Katrina and a second hurricane that struck shortly after Katrina. The reader experiences the feeling of the residents about their desolation and frustration as we follow the hunt for the other two thieves by the people who want to regain what had been stolen.Dave Robicheaux becomes involved and shares our sorrow about the circumstances. The action includes his daughter, Alafair and his friend, Clete Purcell.This is a can't put down book whose story will enthrall and haunt the reader.
    • 5/5
      Nobody but James Lee Burke could have made me feel sorry for a rapist, murderer, looter and all around bad guy. But he did and that is the talent of this writer. To start at the beginning, Hurricane Katrina rampages through New Orleans with all the resultant devastation that we know so well. Some people rise to the occasion, such as Father Jude Leblanc who goes to a church in the poorest neighbourhood to help people, and some people use the occasion as an excuse to commit crimes, such as Bertrand Melancon who steals a boat and starts looting houses with his brother and friends. Then, as Melancon and his friends are leaving one house after finding a fortune hidden in its walls, his brother and one of his friends are shot. The friend is killed instantly but the brother lives albeit as a paraplegic. Bertrand takes his brother to the hospital stashing the loot along the way. Then his problems really start. The house he looted belongs to a crime boss named Sidney Kovick. It appears unlikely that Bertrand or his brother will live long enough to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. Dave Robicheaux of the New Iberia Police Department ends up investigating the shooting because the NOPD needs all the help they can get and the New Iberia personnel are called into the city after Katrina hit. Since Kovick and his wife were out of the city during the storm they can't be the guilty party. Suspicion quickly comes to rest on a neighbour, Otis Baylor, who had his own reasons for hating the Melancons. Just as Dave is getting his teeth into the investigation the FBI takes over and Dave should be free to pursue other cases. However, the case keeps popping up and a very scuzzy guy named Ronald Bledsoe turns up in New Iberia. Dave believes he was hired by Kovick to retrieve the money and other items the looters took. Bledsoe also starts pestering Alafair, Dave's daughter. Getting Bledsoe becomes a very personal matter for Dave. Burke can make you feel the humidity in the air and smell the decaying plant matter. He can also paint the sunset and give voice to a jazz band in the French Quarter. He obviously loves Louisiana but he knows the seamy underbelly of the state too. I was riveted to this book from start to finish. With each succeeding Dave Robicheaux mystery I feel I get to know this man a little bit better. But he is a complex guy and I'm sure I'll never learn everything. I'm willing to keep trying though.
    • 4/5
      There is a lot of violence and heartbreak in this novel. The characters rise and fall in the churn of the deep waters of the soul as well as of the hurricane's aftermath. There is also a good bit of Theology; the whole book is about spiritual warfare expressed through human viole heroism, and endurance.
    • 2/5
      This is the first book I've read by James Lee Burke and it will most likely be the last. This book is part of his series featuring Detective Robicheaux, however it is set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.Hailed as one of 'America's greatest living novelists' I was sucked in by reviews that Burke's descriptions of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were 'tremendously powerful', and 'more vivid and powerful than any piece of reportage'. Sadly I disagree.I found the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina dwarfed the plot and I wanted to read more about the devastation caused by Mother Nature rather than a couple of criminals and their evil deeds.The plot was a little confusing in parts and I didn't find Burke to be a terribly good crime writer. If anything, I'm glad to have had the opportunity to read his most critically acclaimed novel, now I don't need to read anything else by this author.
    • 4/5
      Fantastic novel by Burke, clearly one of his best. The backdrop of Horricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans added a passion to his prose. Dave Robicheaux continues to be one of the most interesting and enigmatic protagonists in detective fiction.
    • 4/5
      New Iberia, the home of both author James Lee Burke, and his detective Dave Robicheaux, is just 200 km west of New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans at the end of August 2005, then people from lesser affected New Iberia were amongst the first on the scene.Burke obviously feels very strongly about what happened to New Orleans both as a consequence of the hurricane, but also the human and physical degradation that he witnessed. He says New Orleans was a song that went under the waves... Category 5 hurricanes don't take prisoners... New Orleans was systematically destroyed and that destruction begin in the early 1980s.. one of the most beautiful cities in the Western Hemisphere was killed three times, and not just by the forces of nature.It is against the background of what happened during and after hurricane Katrina that Burke sets THE TIN ROOF BLOW DOWN. The opening chapters introduce characters who run like threads through the rest of the book: Catholic priest Jude LeBlanc dying from cancer and a drug addict; Otis Baylor an insurance agent who loves his job and whose daughter Thelma has been raped by some black youths; Tom Claggart, Otis' neighbour, an export-import man; Clete Purcel, Dave Robicheaux's partner hunting for bail skips and drug pushers; the Melancon brothers and Andre Rochon, low life flotsam of New Orleans, connected to and symbolic of an underworld that thrives.As Hurricane Katrina advances on New Orleans, those who can take heed official warnings and evacuate or move into public buildings such as churches, the Convention Center and the Superdome. Those who can't are at the mercy of the rising waters from the tidal surge. And the low life turn to looting. The streets in every town in south west Louisiana become clogged with evacuation traffic seeking temporary shelter. No-one is prepared for the destructive force, five times greater than the bomb that hit Hiroshima, that strikes New Orleans.Dave Robicheaux begins to search for his friend Jude Le Blanc who appears to have disappeared while assisting people trapped in the attic of St. Mary Magdalene in the Lower Nine. Otis Baylor lives in uptown New Orleans and although his street is flooded, his house is on higher ground and is powered by its own generators. Four young black men in a boat are systematically working their way up his street entering the unoccupied houses and looting them. The looters leave and the crisis seems averted. The next day the boat comes back and someone is killed. The Otis Baylor case becomes just one of a number of investigations that Dave and Clete pursue.I did have a problem early in my reading of THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN with the amount of information that Burke was pumping out. Even as the plot developed it did make it difficult to distinguish what is now historical fact from crime fiction. The dilemma diminished as I read on, but for the first 100 pages or so I kept thinking of Truman Capote's "fictionalised facts" - hence yesterday's blog posting.My main problem probably stemmed from the fact that I haven't read all the Dave Robicheaux series, in fact very few, so this novel was almost a stand-alone read. While the plot is complete in itself, there is back-story I have missed. A second problem was the consequence of my poor knowledge of US geography: that I didn't have a vision of where New Iberia is in relation to New Orleans.However James Lee Burke has a pretty good job of bridging the story of what he wanted to say about Hurricane Katrina with elements of a thriller. I think perhaps the thriller bit didn't work as well as he wanted, but followers of Dave Robicheaux will no doubt have read of his role in the re-establishment of law and order in post-hurricane New Orleans with interest.I visited New Orleans over 35 years ago and it's sad to think that what I saw then has gone.
    • 5/5
      My favorite book of the Robicheaux series so far. Great reader
    • 4/5
      James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux is one of , if not the best sustained crime fiction series in American literature. This is a very satisfying tribute to New Orleans, post-Katrina. Burke's attitude towards the criminal element in society avoids (for the most part) the Manichean dualisms that some other very good series express. Not to mention, that Burke, in Robicheaux's voice, says some of the most complimentary things I have read in literature about reference librarians.
    • 5/5
      Listened to this book on audio. Will Patton was the reader. Wonderful.The story is told with such vitality and right on descriptions, that it made me cry.It didn't hurt that the plot was a definite "pull you in until the end" one. My husband and I would find reasons to go somewhere in the car so we could listen to this wonderful tale of Katrina ravaged NO.
    • 3/5
      READ IN DUTCH

      This book deals with New Orleans just after hurricane Katrina; the society has been destroyed, it seems an easy target for crime.



      It was the first book I read by James Lee Burke, but when I encountered this novel in a book sale I wanted to read this book, so I bought it. The story was OK, and as I'd never read of his other books, I didn't know any of the characters, but it didn't feel as a problem. I could feel the author's anger reading this book, because of the way authorities dealt with Katrina. The book is raw and tough, so I don't think it's a book for everyone, but if this is what you like, I think this is quite a good book.

    • 5/5
      James Lee Burke at his grim, gritty and poetic best. But this time he is angry!
    • 2/5
      Well-written but not my kind of mystery. Far too gritty and the vivid descriptions of filth, both literal and metaphorical, were upsetting.

      Will Patton did a decent job narrating and I loved the accent. Patton did a straightforward narration, little to no 'voices' for the different characters. Some people prefer that but I would have appreciated some clearer vocal cues as to who was speaking...
    • 4/5
      What makes Mr Burkes absolutely wonderful is Will Patton's voice and capture of the characters that Burke has created. This book is the first I have read and listened to in the series and I look forward to reading others in the series.