| |  | Author: James Lee Burke
Publisher: Wheeler Publishing
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  58 reviews
Format: Large Print
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 517
ISBN: 0754093980
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780754093985
ASIN: 0754093980
Publication Date: June 2004
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| Customer Reviews:
 Hard to read -- easy to sum up February 28, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Here is the Reader's Digest version of "Last Car to Elysian Fields":
Dave Robicheaux -- reformed drunk, broken man, and bourgeois-hating cop -- wanders around Louisiana in a funk, obsessing about a tragic blues artist from a bygone era, doing inexplicable things that sometimes seem to be related to police work, annoying everyone he encounters, getting people killed, and nearly getting himself killed. Finally, after most of the characters in the book kill each other off, it ends and he spends Christmas in the Florida Keys with his grown daughter who comes home from college.
Burke's prose is atmospheric and well-done and everyone seems to be enamored of it. Sadly, thats not enough to save this ponderous foot-dragger. No one seemed to notice that it was a dull story that plodded on in spite of almost everything its main character did -- which wasn't much. Sorry, but I can't recommend it.
 Great writer, another great book November 24, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
One of the common traits with mystery series is that the lead character is typically an outsider. This goes back to the early days of the modern, hard-boiled mystery. Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer or Sam Spade were drawn into the soap operas of other people's lives. While James Lee Burke's stories about Dave Robicheaux definitely fit in this type of genre, Robicheaux is not an outsider. Instead, his stories always seem to involve people he knows and places he's been.
As Last Car to the Elysian Fields (around book 15 in the series) opens, Robicheaux is at another crossroads in his life. His wife Bootsie has died, having finally lost her long battle with Lupus. He has a new boss as his former partner Helen Soileau has been elevated to the post of sheriff. In addition, his house has burnt down due to some bad wiring and his adopted daughter Alafair is off at college. For Robicheaux, the stress is enough to make the former alcoholic want to re-hit the bottle, and things are about to get worse.
Local priest Jimmie Dolan has been aggravating the wrong people, first getting beaten up by a local thug and then getting targeted for assassination. The killer, Max Coll, is an ex-IRA guy who's a bit nuts; he also has just enough of a conscience to not kill Dolan, although this gets him targeted himself. He's still a hit man, however, and he will leave a few more dead by the end of the book, even as he forms a bond with both Dolan and Robicheaux.
Meanwhile, Robicheaux suspects Castille LeJune of the long-ago murder of a jazz musician named Junior Crudup. There are additional entanglements: LeJune owns a liquor store that served alcohol to a teenage girl who later died in an accident; LeJune's son-in-law owns what was once Crudup's land and is now dumping waste there; and LeJune's daughter Theodosia is struggling with her demons and is trying to draw her one-time brief lover Robicheaux into her private hell.
Robicheaux is a man with rage that is barely under control most of the time, and at times he lets loose, causing additional problems. His hatred for certain types of people, especially the wealthy establishment sorts like LeJune, taints his judgment. Only his friend Clete Purcel, who has no inhibitions at all about causing trouble, is somehow able to make Robicheaux sane, at least by comparison.
The plotting and characters are all well-written, but, as always, the thing that makes James Lee Burke really stand out is his descriptive abilities. The images he evokes of Louisiana (in particular, New Iberia and New Orleans) make the place come alive. In certain ways, there may be better authors, but no mystery writer is as good with his imagery as Burke. Last Car to the Elysian Fields is another great novel by one of the best mystery writers - actually one of the best writers, period - around.
Strange happenings in bayou country March 29, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
James Lee Burke's "Last Car to Elysian Fields" featuring New Iberia, Louisiana homicide detective Dave Robicheaux is a provocative book with a rapidly paced multi tiered storyline.
Robicheaux learns that a friend of his, activist priest Father Jimmie Dolan has been mercilessly assaulted. He and his ex- N.O.P.D. partner the immense and belligerent Clete Purcell, now a private investigator, go to New Orleans looking for porn star Gunner Ardoin, the alleged perpetrator to exact revenge on Father Dolan's behalf.
Upon returning to New Iberia a wave of violence appears to follow in Robicheaux's wake. Three inebriated underaged high school girls foolishly get incinerated in a fiery crash caused by their intoxication. Investigation points to the illegal selling of daquiris at a drive through stand. Within short order the owner of the daquiri stand is found shot to death. Soon after Dr. Parks, father of the driver of the vehicle is also shot. Robicheaux has reason to suspect the patrician upper crust Castille Lejeune, a modern day plantation master has a hand in the crimes. Lejeunes daughter Theodosha, a past love interest of Robicheaux and her husband Merchie Flannigan also draw his ire and might be complicit as well.
Robicheaux soon learns that ex-IRA terrorist and now moralistic and elusive hit man Max Coll has arrived from Florida to assassinate Father Jimmie. Coll has inhibitions about the hit and eventually aids Robicheaux is his inquest of the other local crimes.
Robicheaux is also intrigued by the story concerning the whereabouts of all but forgotten blues man Junior Crudup, a contemporary and friend of the legendary blue artist Leadbelly, It seems that Junior who was on a chain gang in the infamous Angola penitentiary disappeared without a trace. Junior and the Red Hat gang toiled in the cane fields surrounding the mansion of Lejeune in the 1950's. Lejeune's wife Andrea took a liking to Crudup's music and invited him often up to the mansion, escorted by a prison guard to play for her. This created great embarrassment for Castille Lejeune. Junior's disappearance led Robicheaux to believe that Lejeune was also responsible for Junior's fate.
Wading through this morass of events, Robicheaux fighting the urge to start drinking again, tries his best to make things right. Burke in his descriptive eloquent style brilliantly navigates us through this fascinating crime drama that unveils both past and present secrets in this picturesque and mysterious deep Southern setting.
 Loved the book, hated the reading February 8, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This review refers to the Audio-book. I'm a huge James Lee Burke fan, but I found the reading of this book to be unbearable. I have listened to Mark Hammer read before and have enjoyed his renditions of other authors like Elmore Leonard, but here he just sounds tired, sloppy and unconvincing as a Cajun reader. His performance is unidimensional and lacks any variety. When he attempts to mimic a southern accent it sounds like someone from Detroit imitating Gomer Pyle. Towards the end of the reading, it sounded like he needed to clear his throat. If you want to hear a stellar reading, try another James Lee Burke work "Purple Cane Road" read by Will Patton.
Still Burke February 7, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Still Robicheaux, and therefore, still fantastic. Not a stand-out in the series, though.
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