Last Car to Elysian Fields

A difficult read, but fascinating to follow Dave’s disintegration. The violence both he and Clete inflict was over the top. Made the bad guys victims. They were cardboard characters for the two to take out their warped sense of justice on. The priest and repentant hit man were vibrant and very much alive. Their roles made me want to read more. Dave may have begun introspection in the end. Clete, no idea.

Last car begins with Dave trying to bring closure to the death of singer-convict Junior Crudup but sadly it just slogged along in the muddied swamps of flashbacks, bland characters and a convoluted plot. While Clete was at his entertaining best, Father Jimmie Dolan was useless filler. Max Coll kept things lively, but Junior simply remained a lingering refrain. This is essentially a transition novel that promotes Helen Soileau to Sheriff and has Dave grieving for Bootsie. After reading Jolie Blons Bounce this was such a boring disappointment.

In “Last Car to Elysian Fields” fans of the Robicheaux series find their beloved but flawed hero moving into a new stage of his life. With wife Bootsie having died and daughter Alafair away at college, and his childhood home burned to the charred ground Robicheaux is presented with the opportunity to reboot his life. True to the dark beauty that is JLB’s writing, it only takes a few pages to realize that Robicheaux, at least for the time being, is an emotional recidivist for whom such change is unobtainable.

Shackled by his dislike for the powerful and the greedy, sparked by his deep well of anger, and enabled by his friend Clete Purcell, Robicheaux lurches forward in yet another misadventure. Even in the search of truth and justice, Robicheaux manages to leave loss and despair in his wake.

For the JLB fan, this novel may not plow new territory; the writing is as strong as ever though, and this is Robicheaux just the way we know and love him.

James Lee Burke is a masterful storyteller. His descriptive narratives are wonderful, and I like them better than his stories, sometimes. This book had too many characters, and I kept wishing I were reading a print book so I could flip back and reread to keep them straight. Ill read the next one, and I hope it is a better story.

This is a sad and hard read and plays on the guilt of those of us who have lived in the South and know about the terrors of county prisons, roadgangs, leased labor, hopeless time stackers, and heartless outriders.

This book takes brutality to extremes and inhumanly grinds the bodies of black prisoners into memories and ghosts.

Crime, money, sex, power, loveless relationships, and knuckle busting testosteronic encounters among the law and lawless flow unchecked throughout this action packed novel. The stuff of songs, the foundation of legends, the lies of the entertainment industry, and the harshness of wealth versus poverty are quite interesting.

Faces and voices of the dead haunt the pages. Alcoholics Anonymous, the Catholic Church, and a host of other organizations provide input to worthy concepts and ideas that can help or hinder lost souls.

A good, sobering, hard to settle read awaits the brave reader.

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