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    The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
    The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
    The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
    Audiobook15 hours

    The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

    Written by James Lee Burke

    Narrated by Will Patton

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A 2020 Audie Award Finalist

    Named one of the best crime novels of 2019 by The New York Times Book Review.

    The shocking death of a young woman leads Detective Dave Robicheaux into the dark corners of Hollywood, the mafia, and the backwoods of Louisiana in this New York Times bestselling mystery from “modern master” (Publishers Weekly) James Lee Burke.

    Detective Dave Robicheaux’s world isn’t filled with too many happy stories, but Desmond Cormier’s rags-to-riches tale is certainly one of them. Robicheaux first met Cormier on the streets of New Orleans, when the young, undersized boy had foolish dreams of becoming a Hollywood director.

    Twenty-five years later, when Robicheaux knocks on Cormier’s door, it isn’t to congratulate him on his Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Robicheaux has discovered the body of a young woman who’s been crucified, wearing only a small chain on her ankle. She disappeared near Cormier’s Cyrpemort Point estate, and Robicheaux, along with young deputy, Sean McClain, is looking for answers. Neither Cormier nor his enigmatic actor friend Antoine Butterworth are saying much, but Robicheaux knows better.

    As always, Clete Purcel and Davie’s daughter, Alafair, have Robicheaux’s back. Clete witnesses the escape of Texas inmate, Hugo Tillinger, who may hold the key to Robicheaux’s case. As they wade further into the investigation, they end up in the crosshairs of the mob, the deranged Chester Wimple, and the dark ghosts Robicheaux has been running from for years. Ultimately, it’s up to Robicheaux to stop them all, but he’ll have to summon a light he’s never seen or felt to save himself, and those he loves.

    Stephen King hailed New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke “as good as he ever was.” With The New Iberia Blues, Burke proves that he “just keeps getting better” (Booklist, starred review), and is “one of a small handful of elite suspense writers whose work transcends the genre, making the leap into capital-L Literature” (BookPage).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 8, 2019
    ISBN9781508266693
    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 New Iberia Blues

    4.5/5

    196 ratings20 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Intensity, provocative painting of the scenes, this heroic tale of the classic everyman drives the read. Portrayal of flawed but painfully honest men gives hope in an otherwise hopeless world that Burke creates. it ended. too bad.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I LOVE the narration. The accents and tones of voices. I could listen all day long. The character development is rich as is the plot.
    • 5/5
      Great book! Excellent writing and characters. I’m starting another Dave R book right now!
    • 5/5
      Worth waiting for. Thanks JLB awesome as always.
      Party on!
    • 4/5
      Again author vividly captures the culture of Louisiana utilizing new and exit characters to develop a great story rich in culture
    • 2/5
      To paraphrase an old TV commercial, I can’t believe I read the whole thing. After slogging my way through this long and gritty novel, all I feel is relief I’m done with it. If it hadn’t been a book club selection, it would have been a DNF book. Too graphic, too much prison slang, too many unnecessary details, too many side story threads, and did I mention too graphic? There is a plot, but it is overshadowed by the wandering thoughts of the characters and many detailed acts of violence and murders. If you enjoy rambling stories with graphic and gratuitous violence, you may like this novel. It’s just not my cup of tea.
    • 5/5
      Detective Dave Robicheaux’s world isn’t filled with too many happy stories, but Desmond Cormier’s rags-to-riches tale is certainly one of them. Robicheaux first met Cormier on the streets of New Orleans, when the young, undersized boy had foolish dreams of becoming a Hollywood director.Twenty-five years later, when Robicheaux knocks on Cormier’s door, it isn’t to congratulate him on his Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Robicheaux has discovered the body of a young woman who’s been crucified, wearing only a small chain on her ankle. She disappeared near Cormier’s Cyrpemort Point estate, and Robicheaux, along with young deputy, Sean McClain, are looking for answers. Neither Cormier nor his enigmatic actor friend Antoine Butterworth are saying much, but Robicheaux knows better.As always, Clete Purcel and Dave’s daughter, Alafair, have Robicheaux’s back. Clete witnesses the escape of Texas inmate, Hugo Tillinger, who may hold the key to Robicheaux’s case. As they wade further into the investigation, they end up in the crosshairs of the mob, the deranged Chester Wimple, and the dark ghosts Robicheaux has been running from for years. Ultimately, it’s up to Robicheaux to stop them all, but he’ll have to summon a light he’s never seen or felt to save himself, and those he loves.
    • 4/5
      James Lee Burke is an extraordinarily gifted writer. I loved his prose, his memory for details, and his elegant writing.
    • 4/5
      In "The New Iberia Blues", the latest of the Dave Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke, we find much that is familiar for long-time followers of the fictional Cajun detective and his loyal comrade in arms, Clete Purcel. But readers of Burke, who have made an unsigned but tacit agreement with the author to suspend disbelief in the matter of the protagonists' age, are pushed to the limit, and perhaps beyond it, in this melancholy tale. Burke himself, while he has Robicheaux and Purcel defy time itself, seems more obsessed than ever with mortality in this novel, and the pervasive tone is apocalyptic.James Lee Burke is 80 years old and his alter ego, Dave Robicheaux, is about the same age, and yet the detective is still employed, apparently full time, by the New Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department. Clete Purcel, who, like Robicheaux, is a Vietnam War vet, pursues a physically demanding occupation as a private investigator and bounty hunter, although he must be at least 75 years old- and an alcoholic. Now age is not what it used to be, so Burke can presume that his readers will indulge him in keeping Robicheaux and Purcel in the good fight when, realistically, they should have retired two or three novels ago. But when he has Robicheaux have an affair with a beautiful young woman for whom he is old enough to be her grandfather, it comes across as an old man's sexual fantasy and is a disturbing element marring the character of the hero, if not the author. We have always known the noble knight errant Robicheaux is a flawed man, but never before have we had reason to think him a lttle creepy.This is the most grim of Burke's novels so far, a reaction to the degraded times in which we live and the descent into depravity that he sees governing the powers that be in our nation and world. The Robicheaux novels have always revolved around character, with plot as secondary, but in "The New Iberia Blues", the plot is incidental at best. Degenerate Hollywood people come to Louisiana to make a film, a mysterious series of cult-like murders follows, a bizarre freelance hitman gets involved for no apparent reason, as does an escaped Texas Death Row convict, Mafia goons from Jersey and Florida, Arabs, Russians, etc. There's more mystical stuff than usual and the result brings sadness and disappointment to admirers of James Lee Burke's past excellence as a writer of crime fiction.
    • 4/5
      The first part of the book seemed to break new ground. No overwhelming bad guy but it soon broke down into the usual doahgter in trouble. But none the less a good and enjoyable read w visions of south Louisiana.
    • 5/5
      Dave Robicheaux is a Cajun from South Louisiana. He's a cop, and a good one. He's a father and a widower. He's also an alcoholic who sees and talks to dead people on occasion, often to taking advice and guidance from them. And he's my favorite fictional detective of all time. "The New Iberia Blues" is James Lee Burke's twenty-second Dave Robicheaux novel, and despite the way these things usually work, it may be his best one yet. If not the best, it is most certainly right up there in the top two or three. I've been reading Dave Robicheaux novels for over thirty years now (Dave made his debut in 1987's "The Neon Rain") and I'm still learning things about Dave, his blood brother Cletus, his daughter Alifair, and the wonderfully atmospheric setting of South Louisiana in which most of the books are set. This time around Dave is battling his instincts, instincts that tell him that Desmond Cormier, a man he first met twenty-five years earlier when Cormier was a homeless boy, might just be torturing and killing black women in and around New Iberia. It is only when Dave's and the department's best efforts fail to solve the murders, that the killer finally makes a mistake by making it all personal. As Robicheaux fans well know, it is not smart to threaten a member of the man's family. That can, and usually is, the last mistake that kind of fool will ever make."New Iberia Blues" is my book of the year to this point. Don't be scared away from it if you have not read any of the earlier books because, as always, Burke writes a great standalone novel that can only possibly be better if you already know the characters. Read this one, guys.
    • 5/5
      There was no place to take a break. His vocabulary and his reacts of places I've never done seen keep me yearning for his gripping novels. Thank you for another wonderful book.
    • 4/5
      I admit I'm comparing James Lee Burke to himself, which is a very high standard indeed. The book is good, I polished it off with as few interruptions as possible, and I'd recommend it. But Dave's love interest never felt real, Alafair seems to have changed for the worse, and I'm getting impatient with Dave himself. Clete remains his robust, alarming, lovable self. The plot itself doesn't work as well as it should. I'm a huge Burke fan. His novels are always interesting, usually lyrical, sometimes brilliant. This one is pretty good.
    • 4/5
      How do you review a James Lee Burke book? The man is clearly a master and head and shoulders above his contemporaries. All that's left is to compare himself against himself. In this light, The New Iberia Blues holds it's own.Featuring the long-running character of police detective Dave Robicheux the book treads the familiar ground of exploring the impact of history and violence on society's collective conscious. As Burke and his iconic character have aged, Burke has begun to explore the additional theme of aging and mortality. Both are welcome additions to the cannon.One never reads a Burke book solely for the narrative but in this case, the tale is quite good, Mobsters, film people, murders for hire, prostitutes, and politicians all come together in a crazy stew that only Robicheux can decipher. Read him while you can because someday there won't be any new tales. And that'll be a sad day for all of us.
    • 3/5
      I like the way James Lee Burke writes, but the old saying "Too much of a good thing..." applies here. At 445 pages, The New Iberia Blues is 100 pages too long. After having devoured James Lee Burke books for many years, I took a long sabbatical and now I know why.As with the tags above, the book is about movies and murder. But y ou don't read Burke books for the plot, you read them for his turn of phrase, his reminiscences, his pondering. As Burke has aged, so has his protagonist, Dave Robicheaux. He's pondering mortality, love, and his legacy, to some extent. And while that is interesting to me as I've aged, again, it was too drawn out.I'm finishing the book just because. If it was a different author, I might have bagged the book sooner. I think I need another extended sabbatical.
    • 4/5
      SMILEY IS BACK! As those of us who have followed the Robicheaux novels know, whenever Smiley appears, bloodshed occurs. One of the creepiest, original, multifaceted characters in fiction, it is so much better if he considers you his friend. Or if you're a child, he loves children and ice cream.For that matter Dave himself is a complicated character. A man who as s police officer has seen the worst of humanity, but who is also loyal, protective and at times noble. He carries his past around like a ball and chain, in fact at times he actually can see, or believes he can see people from the past. One never reads these novels expecting a straight line that goes from A to B. No, these novels like Dave's thoughts take many twists, turns and side roads as the reader is a sounding board for many of his ruminations. "I wondered if human nature and our susceptibility to evil would ever change, or if we would continue in our war against the earth until we disolved all our landmass and our structures and ourselves and returned the planet to the watery blue orb it once was."Now, I haven't told you much about this particular storys plot, and I don't intend to reveal much. There are bad people, dead bodies, tarot cards, a man convicted wrongly of arson, prostitutes, bad cops on the take, and a few mafia guys thrown in. Yet,it all pulls together, in one way or another. In fact I can't or won't ever rate a novel this author writes anything less than four stars, I am too in awe of his talent. So this is without apology a very biased review.
    • 3/5
      Dave Robucheaux is feeling his age. He feels it in his muscles and bones and in his soul, which is spinning itself out toward – well, what? His parents and wives call out to him from the valley of death, and the recurring glory of the earth suggests that perhaps humans are a blight.A series of brutal and ritualistic killings in New Iberia are the pivot of this book, but they do not seem to be the center."The New Iberia Blues" is beautifully written but it long and the murder investigation does not go anywhere. The cast of possible murderers is so small I kept looking at the page count to see if we were getting toward the wrap-up. The insertion of a subplot about Smiley the hit man, while interesting enough I supposed, seemed more like padding.Dave's not at the end of his road yet, but his world is dissolving and the music of the spheres is getting louder.I received a review copy of "The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel" by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster) through NetGalley.com.
    • 3/5
      The New Iberia Blues by James Lee Burke shines with beautiful prose. This is a tale about a search for a possible serial killer in the bayous of Louisiana. Dave Robicheaux is the detective leading the investigation of people from the backwoods, Hollywood types, the mafia etc. This novel did not do it for me. I have quit after 200 pages, which is something I have a lot of trouble doing. The author has written many books about Detective Dave Robicheaux and this was only my second. I found that there were too many characters, which slowed down the action considerably. This is only my opinion. James Lee Burke is a much praised and popular author. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.
    • 4/5
      Hollywood director, Desmond Cormier, has chosen Iberia Parish to film his latest opus. Dave Robichaux knew him from when he was a young man in New Orleans with big dreams of becoming a director in Hollywood. On a visit to Cormier's house, he spots the body of a young woman tied to a cross float by. When both Desmond and a house guest deny seeing the body, Robichaux is convinced that at least one of them is somehow linked to the crime especially when he learns of the sordid past of the guest. But without more substantive evidence, his investigation is stymied. To make matters worse, his daughter, Alafaire, is working with the company and is convinced Dave is wrong.At the same time, Dave's best friend, Clete, spots a man jumping from a train.When it is reported that a convicted killer has escaped prison and may be headed for the area, they suspect that it might be the man Clete saw. As the body count rises, all staged in grotesque poses that seem to represent Tarot cards, Dave learns that Chester 'Smiley' Wimple, the killer who targets anyone he suspects of hurting children, is also in the area. With this surfeit of suspects, finding the real killer won't be easy for Dave especially with a young beautiful new partner to distract him. The New Iberia Blues is the twenty-second in James Lee Burke's Dave Robichaux series. The mystery genre is often seen as a lesser form to literary fiction - Burke proves once again the error of this view. His books, including this one, are as much an exploration of the human condition as they are cracking good mysteries. His prose is always pitch-perfect, often almost lyrical; his characters aren't just one-dimensional but complex and flawed and almost always sympathetic with back stories that, if not justifying their actions, explain them; the story is well-plotted and, if sometimes it seems to ramble away from the main plotline, it always returns. There is also a sense in the books that killers like Smiley aren't always the worst of the bad guys - sometimes, it's overly ambitious politicians or, in this case, a rich producer with an over-inflated sense of entitlement. For anyone who is a fan of Burke or just enjoys intelligent mysteries, this one's for you.Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
    • 5/5
      private-investigators, thriller, suspense, mystery, crime-fiction The present is the product of the past. Nowhere is this more clearly apparent than in the stories centered on Dave Robicheaux in the bayou. If you've never read any of these you should prepare yourself for the dark side of life and the calling to investigate and work for justice whether as law enforcement or private. That being said, I loved this one at least as much as any of the others and hope that he continues to write more. Can't call this an unbiased endorsement as I confess to being a Dave Robicheaux addict. I requested and received a free ebook copy from Simon and Schuster Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!