James Lee Burke at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 04/02/2008

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James Lee Burke - Page 2

White Doves at Morning

The Lost Get-Back Boogie

Lay Down My Sword And Shield

Jolie Blon's Bounce

Bitterroot

Paperback - Orion (2003)

White Doves at Morning
A novel of the Civil War

`The late sun was molten and red in the west, and down below he could see dark shapes, like the backs of terrapins, floating in the water ... Except they were not terrapins. They were men’

This passionate novel of men, women and war is peopled with the most memorable characters James Lee Burke has ever created: Confederate soldier Willie Burke, who refuses to let go of his ideals; Mulatto Flower Jamison, a victim of terrible abuse, but determined to better herself; the cruel and unfeeling Colonel Ira Jamison; and Abigail Dowling, whose Unionist sympathies put her in constant danger ...
`An epic tale of love, hate and survival set against the backdrop of the Civil War’ Herald
`In White Doves at Morning Burke demonstrates again his bravura skill at memorable characterisation, acute dialogue and wonderfully evocative descriptions’ Observer
`Moving ... In White Doves at Morning Burke demonstrates again his bravura skill at memorable characterisation, acute dialogue and wonderfully evocative descriptions’ Observer
`He writes like an angel. His prose is deceptively fluent, his pacing unbeatable and the subject of White Doves at Morning is close to his heart ... Brilliant. Its sense of place, of a world recreated, is unerring. The story, as we would expect of Burke, is enthralling’ Bernard Cornwell, Daily Mail
`As well as a fascinating examination of the ethical chasm at the heart of battle, White Doves at Morning is also a beautifully written book. Clearly a novel the author wanted to write, it’s not just a return to form - it’s terrific’ Uncut
`The hallucinatory clarity and the delights and terrors of Burke’s settings have remained undimmed. In White Doves at Morning, he brings this gift to bear on the experience of battle in the Civil War. These passages are among the best things Burke has ever written . . . Fear, horror, exhaustion, thirst, confusion and comradeship are all superbly rendered’ TLS
`James Lee Burke spreads his wings to fine effect in this stirring tale of the American Civil War ... White Doves at Morning makes a worthy addition to the canon. It captures the roller-coaster excitements of fast-changing times’ Sunday Telegraph

British Pbk Original - Orion (2003)

The Lost Get-Back Boogie
See Review by Christopher West - creator of Inspector Wang of the Beijing CID
Frank Riordan is waging a one-man war. He wants to shut down the local pulp mill that is polluting the air and damaging the environment. As the tension grows, so the levels of power he’s up against become more complex.
The one man who can help him is running away from his own criminal past and wants nothing to do with another man’s fight. When Iry Paret arrives at Frank’s ranch he is looking to start over. But as he begins to fall in love with the estranged wife of Frank’s son his loyalties and passion are soon tested to the limit.

British Pbk Original - Orion (2003)

Lay Down My Sword And Shield
The future looks bright for Hack Holland as he makes a bid for a congressional seat. A wealthy and progressive politician with a burgeoning law practice and an ex-POW, he’s created a persona that the party will certainly back.
But the past has a habit of sneaking up on him, especially as he gets closer to the bottom of a whiskey bottle. Standing in the long shadow cast by his ancestors, whose politics were moulded as much by their wilfulness as by their beliefs, Hack’s candidacy brings him increasingly into conflict with the Texas powerbrokers as well as some of his closest allies.
When he becomes unwittingly involved in a violent civil rights case, Hack is forced to reassess his past and his ambitions for power.
Critical acclaim for James Lee Burke
`Among the best American writers working today’ Daily Telegraph
`At times Burke’s writing and atmosphere remind one of William Faulkner; at other moments Raymond Carver. I cannot think of much higher praise that can be accorded a novel’ Marcel Berlins, The Times Metro
`Although the novel’s tone is elegiac and aches with an excruciating sense of despair, it’s Robicheaux’s humanity which shines a light through the room and invests the book with a life-affirming quality. Purple Cane Road is undoubtedly Burke’s best novel yet, an ambitious work which blurs the boundaries between so-called ‘serious’ literature and crime fiction’ Crime Time
`This is prose that cuts straight to the heart, summoning a wonderful parade of damaged humanity in its wake’ Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian
`I can think of no other writer today who captures the American South with such eloquence and sympathy’ Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
`James Lee Burke is a writer to be remembered’ USA Today
`James Lee Burke has a sophisticated and brilliantly expressed vision of humanity and one can see, smell and taste the America of which he writes’ Times Literary Supplement
`The book makes straight for the heart of American darkness, and the fact that it achieves a kind of redemption ... marks it out as a triumph’ Mail on Sunday
‘Burke writes prose that has a pronounced streak of poetry in it’ New York Times

First British Edition Orion (2002)

Jolie Blon's Bounce
Winner of the CWA/Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction 1998 for Sunset Limited

`That night I listened to his CD down at the baitshop. The rendition of his new composition ‘Jolie Blon’s Bounce’ was the best Acadian rhythm and blues I had ever heard. But I had a feeling the larger world would never come to know the tormented musical talent of Tee Bobby Hulin.’

Small-time black hustler Tee Bobby Hulin is partly redeemed, in Robicheaux’s eyes, by a rare musical gift. But when Amanda Boudreau is raped and murdered, Tee Bobby’s prints are found at the crime scene. Dave reckons he’s innocent, and Tee Bobby pleads so, then attempts suicide in his holding cell. Why? Soon after, hooker and junkie Linda Zeroski is beaten to death by a man wearing leather gloves who, with great care and precision, crushes every bone in her face.
Louisiana’s murky history casts a long shadow in the work of James Lee Burke. The LaSalle family settled there before the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and built their wealth upon the backs of slave labour. When lawyer Perry LaSalle takes on the defence of Tee Bobby Hulin, Dave knows that his motives are fuelled by guilt. Two generations back, Tee Bobby’s grandmother was seduced by Perry’s grandfather: Amanda Boudreau’s death is linked to events that happened long before Tee Bobby was born . . .
In this rich and compelling novel James Lee Burke weaves a web of plots and subplots around perfectly observed characters. Dense with passion and compassion, Burke’s novels get better and better.

Paperback - Orion (2002)

First British Edition Orion (2001)

Bitterroot

’John Steinbeck once said Montana is a love affair. If a person was going to make his troth with any particular place on earth, l don’t think he could find a better one than this stretch of road. Every bridge crossed a postcard stream, every mountain tumbled into one higher and a deeper green than itself.’

But in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana, the love affair has a chilling side, as ex-Texas Ranger, now lawyer, Billy Bob Holland discovers on a visit to his friend, the chivalric and troubled Vietnam veteran, Doc Voss.
Doc’s daughter Maisey is brutally gang-raped by bikers and ring leader Lamar Ellison walks free when the DNA samples `get lost’. Billy Bob wonders whose side the sheriff is on? Soon after, Ellison is burned alive and Doc is arrested. So much for Billy Bob’s vacation - Doc needs a lawyer, and fast. Not only that: newly released killer, the grotesque Wyatt Dixon has tracked Billy Bob to Montana, bent on avenging the death of his sister for which he holds Billy Bob responsible. As the corpses of the guilty and innocent pile up, Billy Bob stands alone, still haunted by his dead friend L.Q. Navarro, determined that the centre will hold, no matter what evil threatens it.
In this follow-up to Heartwood and the Edgar-Award-winning Cimarron Rose, America’s finest crime writer sets the breathtaking Montana landscape in direct counterpoint to the savage darkness that exists there.
‘Burke is the master of his material. Bitterroot is never less than gripping ... It is fine writing, that is far above the crime fiction norm and it manages to stand in comparison with the very best contemporary novels’ Sunday Express
`It’s powerful stuff and confirms Burke’s place at the forefront of contemporary American crime fiction’ Sunday Telegraph
`Bitterroot is beautifully written… stands head and shoulders above the rest’ Observer
`A mighty pleasure’ Guardian
`Tense, moody, dark, unhurried - Lee Burke teases out his story like the old pro he is’ Daily Mirror
‘Burke can whip most of his rivals to a frazzle even with one hand tied behind his back’ Evening Standard
`Still the greatest, bar none. His ambitions, like his achievements, remain unequalled. When he reaches for the top he shows every reader what’s possible. Good gets better. The best is yet to come’ Literary Review
`Gripping stuff’ OK
‘Burke’s talent for weaving a compelling yarn will have readers glued to the pages’ FHM
`American writing at its most idiomatic and powerful’ Crime Time
‘No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists, and not just crime novelists… Burke’s control of character and pace is so precise that the reader is drawn, as if by magic, into turning the pages as the author sinuously ushers his readers into a world they will never have imagined. Raymond Chandler did the same, and the comparison is entirely apt. I can think of no higher praise’ Daily Mail