Dave Robicheaux, the Louisiana cop who's easily one of the most complex and compelling protagonists in mystery fiction, confronts his own demons as well as a brutal adversary who might be the devil himself in this dark thriller. This is classic James Lee Burke, the master stylist, writing at the top of his game: "I wanted to drive deep into the Atchafalaya Swamp, past the confines of reason, into the past... on the tree-flooded alluvial rim of the world, where the tides and the course of the sun were the only measures of time (and) all you had to do was release yourself from the prison of restraint, just snip loose the stitches that sewed your skin to the hairshirt of normalcy." The plot hinges on a pair of murders that don't seem to be connected--a mobbed-up prostitute and a pretty young teenage girl--and the Cajun blues singer accused of both crimes. Robicheaux believes that Tee Bobby Hulin, the gifted musician whose original composition provides the title for this brilliantly realized Gothic crime novel, is innocent. Proving it puts him in the sights of a vicious old overseer named Legion, whose almost supernatural powers nearly drown Robicheaux in the swamp of his own addictions. The narrative proceeds slowly, but Burke's dedicated fans won't begrudge him one beautifully turned phrase, gloriously limned description, or insightful characterization: they just don't get any better than this one. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
To read a Burke novel is to enter a timeless, parallel universe of violent emotions and lush, brooding landscapes, where class and racial distinctions and family histories mold society. This is the stunningly talented Burke's 21st book and his best until the next one. Dave Robicheaux, the psychologically scarred detective for the New Iberia, La., sheriff's department, investigates two brutal murders, one of a na‹ve teenage girl, the other of a feckless drug-addled prostitute. The author provides a dense, richly imagined background for his characters, especially the sinister ones: malevolent Legion Guidry, a nightmarish figure from Robicheaux's boyhood; a power-hungry tavern owner; an arrogant lawyer; a combative female PI; the prostitute's Mafioso father; and Marvin Oates, an enigmatic Bible salesman who floats ominously through the narrative. Robicheaux doesn't believe the obvious suspect Tee Bobby Hulin, a drug-addicted musical genius is the murderer. Aided and disrupted by his obstreperous pal, Clete Purcel, Robicheaux runs into the usual trouble. Legion gives Robicheaux such a ferocious beating that he reverts to drinking and addictive painkillers. Though the search for the murderer moves the story, the novel is really an examination of the savage relationships of the characters and the palpable presence of the past. Burke offers a vivid social history of an inbred, corrupt place. As Clete so aptly tells his friend, "This is Louisiana, Dave. Guatemala North. Quit pretending it's the United States." Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this story, Dave Robicheaux faces some of his darkest nightmares and the most evil of his antagonists, a man who will cause him to forsake family and friends, put aside his years of sobriety, and step outside the law that he has worked for so many years to uphold. Burke is at his best as he describes the lost Louisiana of Robicheaux's childhood and its attendant evils. Will Patton's slow Southern drawl captures the varied Louisiana accents in the abridged version of Burke's novel, which boasts a longer and more detailed introduction as the author explains some of the allegories that he is trying to convey. From the Cajun accent of the native New Iberians to the hard-bitten and cruel voice of evil that is Legion Guidry, Patton slips from one to the other with skill. Mark Hammer doesn't capture the colorful accents, but he does narrate the unabridged program skillfully. Burke's greatest writing talent is in his ability to weave words into places, feelings, and characters. Bounce will, perhaps, bring him a deserved third Edgar Award. Highly recommended for all libraries.Theresa Connors, Arkansas Tech Univ., Russellville Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Will Patton gives an edge to Burke's writing that suggests he knows the evil about which he speaks. The story of detective Dave Robicheaux and his ne'er-do-well sidekick, Clete Purcel, is at once thrilling and profoundly honest as they set out to confront the Mob, the exploitation of Southern blacks, the addictive personality of a young blues singer, as well as Robicheaux's own battle with booze and pills. Patton's easy drawl draws the listener completely into Burke's world. As one listens, one can almost hear the song of Cajun fiddles and smell the catfish on the griddle. Burke's brilliantly human storytelling and Patton's strong performance make this a top-notch book with a top-notch reading. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Burke does terrific bad guys, spiritual descendants of Max Cady, as played by Robert Mitchum in the 1962 version of Cape Fear. Dave Robicheaux, Burke's Cajun detective and the hero of 10 previous installments in this much-acclaimed series, has tackled an impressively evil crew of sociopaths over the years, many of whom have been fat cats with well-hidden bent streaks. This time, though, Burke looks to the lower depths to find his villain, and the creature that emerges, as if from some primordial swamp, strikes a new kind of fear in everyone he encounters. The mysterious, seemingly indestructible Legion Guidry, once the overseer on a Louisiana plantation, where he raped numerous field hands, has resurfaced near New Iberia and may be linked to the murder of a teenager and a prostitute. Convinced that the drug-addicted blues singer under arrest for the first killing is innocent, Robicheaux goes after Guidry and winds up taking the most humiliating beating of his life at the hands of a man purported to be 75 years old. The particulars of who killed who are eventually sorted out, but the real drama this time comes in Robicheaux's chilling encounter with evil and his recognition of his own fear. The satanic Guidry--hints of otherworldliness are sprinkled throughout the text--is as compelling a bad guy as any in literature; like Mitchum as Cady, he reminds us in the most visceral of ways that the world can be an utterly alien place. The sights, sounds, and tastes of Cajun country, which provide the familiar ambience in the Robicheaux series, are not absent this time, but they are overwhelmed by the subhuman stench of pure malevolence. An atypical entry in the series, then, but a compelling one. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
New Iberia, Louisiana, is reeling from a one-two punch of brutal rape-homicides, and drug-addicted blues singer Tee Bobby Hulin has been tagged as the prime suspect. No stranger to bucking popular opinion, police detective Dave Robicheaux senses it's not Hulin behind the atrocities. But while placating a town on fire for swift revenge, Robicheaux must face his own demons -- an ultimate reckoning with Legion Guidry, a diabolical figure whose hardcore brand of violence left Robicheaux humiliated and addicted to painkillers. With his longtime friend, the boozing and womanizing Clete Purcel, Robicheaux treads among land mines of injustice, mob payoffs, and deadly secrets, all the while guessing: whom can he trust -- and whom should he fear? James Lee Burke brings back his acclaimed hero Dave Robicheaux in this powerful New York Times bestseller packed with suspense and menace.


Download Description
"James Lee Burke, acclaimed by critics as "America's best novelist," "the Graham Greene of the bayou,"and "a poet of the mystery novel,"" returns with his popular character, Dave Robicheaux, in a novel rich with atmosphere, ripe with menace, and filled with the kind of crackling dialogue that has made Burke a consistent New York Times best-selling author. When a beautiful teenage girl is killed, the victim of a particularly savage rape, New Iberia, Louisiana, police detective Dave Robicheaux senses from the very start of the investigation that the most likely suspect, Tee Bobby Hulin, is not the actual killer. Though a drug addict and general ne'er-do-well, Hulin just doesn't fit the profile for this kind of brutal crime. But when another murder occurs -- this victim a drugged-out prostitute who happens to be the daughter of one of the local mafia bigwigs -- all clues once again point to Tee Bobby Hulin, and the cries for arrest become too loud to ignore. The dead girl's father, however, prefers to take matters in his own hands and sets out to find -- and punish -- the killer himself. But before Robicheaux can solve these crimes and bring the killer or killers to justice, he is forced to battle his own inner demons, including a painkiller addiction, a habit that begins as the result of a brutal and humiliating beating he suffers at the hands of the mysterious and diabolical character known as Legion. A fixture in the area for years, Legion was once the overseer on a local sugarcane plantation and now gets by doing odd jobs. In temperament, however, he's still the malicious and malevolent bully he always was, a man defined by evil and seemingly possessed with supernatural skills of survival. Gothic, dense, brutal, touching, and always compelling, Jolie Blon's Bounce is classic storytelling from a writer who has been dubbed "the Faulkner of crime fiction."


About the Author
James Lee Burke, a rare winner of two Edgar Awards, is the author of twenty-two previous novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Bitterroot, Sunset Limited, Cimarron Rose, Cadillac Jukebox, Burning Angel, Dixie City Jam, and Purple Cane Road. He lives with his wife in Missoula, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
James Lee Burke's fiction is haunted, sometimes quite literally, by the ghosts of history, and by a bone-deep apprehension of the human capacity for violence and cruelty. A case in point is the author's latest Dave Robichaux novel, Jolie Blon's Bounce, a contemporary account of murder and madness whose plot reflects the lingering aftereffects of the antebellum South.

The story begins with the shotgun murder of 16-year-old Amanda Boudreau and the subsequent arrest of Tee Bobby Hulin, a musically gifted young black man with a spiraling drug habit and a checkered criminal past. This initial murder is quickly followed by a second, the bludgeoning death of a prostitute with ties to the world of organized crime. The dual investigation that ensues leads Robichaux -- together with his current partner, Helen Soileau, and his former partner in the New Orleans PD, Clete Purcell -- into the complex, interrelated histories of several New Iberia families, some rich, white, and powerful, some poor, black, and chronically underprivileged. The investigation puts Robichaux in touch with the most vicious elements of Louisiana society, and with the darkest aspects of his own divided soul.

Like most of Burke's fiction, Jolie Blon's Bounce is a rambling, loosely plotted affair notable for its powerful set pieces, its precise, sensual evocation of the Louisiana bayou country, and its flamboyant sense of character. Among the novel's most vivid creations are a sexually voracious defense attorney descended from a wealthy slaveholding family, a traveling Bible salesman with a penchant for violence, a former Mafia hit man with a tragic personal history, and a predatory, not-quite-human killer who goes by the name of Legion. Legion, a deliberate, over-the-top embodiment of absolute evil, is one of Burke's most remarkable creations. His presence, together with the corollary presence of a mad, possibly angelic figure known as Sal Angelo, lends this novel the faint, unmistakable aura of the supernatural that has characterized so much of Burke's recent fiction.

As always, though, it is Dave Robichaux himself -- a decent, violent, angry, loving, and deeply conflicted man -- who dominates the narrative. Robichaux's distinctive character and his voice -- with its mournful power, its clean, rolling cadences, and its frequent flights of unforced poetry -- elevate this novel at every turn. Like the best of its predecessors (The Neon Rain, A Morning for Flamingos, Purple Cane Road), Jolie Blon's Bounce is bruising, moving, and beautifully composed -- an example of American crime fiction at its best and most highly evolved. (Bill Sheehan)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

New Iberia, Louisiana, is reeling from a one-two punch of brutal rape-homicides, and drug-addicted blues singer Tee Bobby Hulin has been tagged as the prime suspect. No stranger to bucking popular opinion, police detective Dave Robicheaux senses it's not Hulin behind the atrocities. But while placating a town on fire for swift revenge, Robicheaux must face his own demons -- an ultimate reckoning with Legion Guidry, a diabolical figure whose hardcore brand of violence left Robicheaux humiliated and addicted to painkillers. With his longtime friend, the boozing and womanizing Clete Purcel, Robicheaux treads among land mines of injustice, mob payoffs, and deadly secrets, all the while guessing: whom can he trust -- and whom should he fear?

James Lee Burke brings back his acclaimed hero Dave Robicheaux in this powerful New York Times bestseller packed with suspense and menace.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal