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| Author: James Lee Burke
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $5.58
You Save: $20.37 (78%)
New (6) Used (10) from $4.54
Avg. Customer Rating:  104 reviews
Sales Rank: 192454
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
ASIN: B000TVIVVK
Publication Date: July 12, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Best by JLB December 19, 2007
I have read most of James Lee Burke's books and this is by far and away the best plotted and written. Gone are most of those made up "folksy" sayings that no one from New Orleans to Lake Charles has ever heard uttered, except by the characters in these books. That is good.
Also, a realistic look into the twisted mind of a recovering alcoholic.
 Stop Me if You've Read this One Before December 2, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It seems like every other book is about someone who is rich and was bad to Dave before he went off to 'Nam. This one is a little more of a story because the bad guy didn't know he was being bad to Dave, it was his half- brother Jimmie who was involved. But like a lot of stories, it comes down to Dave versus and old-monied family and their son (and daughter who of course has the hots for Dave). In this one, Dave gets a fourth wife who happens to be a vowless nun.
Anyway the story is pretty straight forward for a JLB story and the quirks are just him having fun. Whose the actual child of who and how is everyone related and who is the toughest guy around (usually Clete). But the bottom line is that Dave is a damaged human being and therefore we have to give him as much slack as he needs to get the 'bad' guys.
Hey, JLB, how many guys in their 60's can get beat up with a two-by-four and be at work the next day? By the way, how old exactly is Dave. He was around for WW2 and an officer in 'Nam. So lets say he was born in 1940, in 1958 he was 18, in 'Nam he was 24-26, that would make him 64. Isn't he about time for mandatory retirement? And wouldn't that make Clete a little old to be making a living tracking down bail jumpers?
OK, a couple of other issues... at one point JLB has a guy taking a boat from Louisiana to Florida by heading southwest which would mean he would have to sail through the Panama Canal and go around the world to get there, Florida is SouthEAST of Louisiana. What's with the product placements? He mentions a book by Michael Connelly which sounds like a commercial, and then has Dave drinking 'Talking Rain' which is a 'fancy' water company in the Pacific Northwest which I don't think even sells in the Louisiana area, much less in New Iberia Parish. What's the story????
Lastly, even though she goes to school in Portland, Oregon, doesn't Alafair ever come home or at least call on the phone?? When is Dave going to tell her about her new step-mom. Who by the way is the most understanding human being who ever lived, and per Dave is now inhabited by the soul of Bootsie!! Ok, I got it now.
 Wonderful!! October 4, 2007
This was my first JLB novel and I really enjoyed it. The writing was very smooth and the story was interesting and engaging the whole time. No slow spots. Which I appreciate big time. I'm off to read another.
Jimmy Burke You Are A Damn Fine Writer! September 20, 2007
So, I started reading James Lee Burke when I was a sales rep for a publisher and another rep recommended the first "Dave Robicheaux" novel "Neon Rain". Good God! That book gave me the chills and I read each new installment, as they came out. At some point I kept buying the books, but my reading pile got too big and they got buried and I missed a chunk of Dave's life while mine was going on. This summer I got some lake time and brought up "Crusader's Cross" (although I'd missed reading a few prior to to this one) and, like your favorite pair of shoes, just slid right into it, just opened it up and couldn't put it down. Dave and Cletus have aged a bit and are still taking their licks, and handing out their fair share, but Burke has not lost anything over the years, in fact, he just keeps getting better. Get it, read it and pass it on to a friend. Burke is a treasure!
A Master Crime Novel September 17, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In CRUSADER'S CROSS James Lee Burke's protagonist Dave Robicheaux, along with his brother Jimmy, is saved from a potential shark attack by a mysterious woman named Ida Durbin in 1958. Jimmy falls for her; then she disappears-- perhaps violently, may even be murdered. Burke spends the next 300 or so pages unraveling that mystery with a plot that has more twists and turns than a two-lane mountain highway and is peopled with prostitutes, televangelists, a nun, pimps, hired killers (button men), crooked police officers and bail bondsmen.
Dave is of course an alcoholic-- goes to AA meetings on occasion-- is a little bit crazy--his friend Clete describes him as having "polka dot giraffes running around in his head"-- has read THE GREAT GATSBY, is excited by violence, but has the mind of a poet. It is fascinating to see all the ways he describes the sky: "marbled with yellow and gold clouds," "yellow with rust," "pink with sunrise," "a chemical green," etc. And he has a dozen different ways to describe taking someone out: "boil you in your own grease," "blown out of his socks," you'll be made into a "speed bump," you'll get your ticket punched or your doors blown out. His definition of God-- via Dave's father-- as someone who has a sense of humor and always keeps his word. He, in addition to being a sure shot, is also a philosopher. His description of a visit to a Wal-Mart is right on the money. "The sweeping breadth of the store's interior was crowded with people for whom a Wal-Mart is a gift from God. In my hometown, most of these are poor and uneducated, and assume that the low-paying jobs that define their lives are commonplace throughout the country. The fact that the goods they buy are often shoddily made, the clothes sewn in Third World sweatshops by people not unlike themselves, is an abstraction that seems to have no application to the low price on the item." Mr. Burke strews kernels like this throughout the book.
CRUSADER'S CROSS is a novel you miss when you are not reading it. It you are not careful it will eat up your day.
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