Thu 15 Apr 2021
An Archived Mystery Review by Barry Gardner: JAMES LEE BURKE – Burning Angel.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
JAMES LEE BURKE – Burning Angel. Dave Robicheaux #8. Hyperion, hardcover, 1995. Hachette Books, paperback, 1996.
Well, Burke’s one of the big-timers in terms of sales. He’s also ne of the best pure prose stylists around regardless of genre, and he’s created some great characters in Dave Robicheaux his family, and Cletus So what’s not to like? Well, occasionally in the past he’s had a few plot problems …
There was a small-time grifter named Sonny Boy in New Orleans who ran afoul of the big-timers and went away. Then years later he came back, and passed a black notebook to Dave. After that, people started dying in bloody ways. Mysterious folks wanted to kill Sonny Boy, and they wanted his little black book, and Dave didn’t understand any of it, That didn’t keep more people from dying, though.
The thing about Burke is that he can write. That’s not a given with bestselling authors, but if you’ve never read him before you know a very few pages into your first one that you’ve picked a winner for people and prose. He is just a very, very good stylist.
He’s also someone who seems to care less and less about plot and a coherent story, and who is more and more inclined toward angst, deep thoughts, and the quasi-supernatural, and who is beginning almost to parody himself. This is all about sin, redemption and all sorts of other stuff; truth to tell, I’m not sure what all Burke was trying to tell me. I am sure it didn’t make much sense, and that I finished it with a feeling of dissatisfaction. But he sure can write.
April 15th, 2021 at 7:37 pm
Burke sometimes goes too far into Chandler territory where mood and voice overwhelm plot, but damn he can create mood and atmosphere with the best of them. He’s not a writer I read every book by for some reason I can’t or won’t bother to articulate, but I am seldom disappointed when I do read him.
The whole Southern thing can get a bit much for me, but Burke does it about as well as it is done.
I don’t disagree with Barry though that he isn’t always as satisfying as his skill as a writer should make him. Once in a while I just feel like something is missing, and whatever he was trying to say got a little lost in the cleverness of how he says it.
April 15th, 2021 at 7:57 pm
With some reservations, I really enjoyed watching the movie version of IN THE ELECTRIC MIST
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=68023
But as I said in the comments following that review, I’ve never been able to read more than a few pages of any of the books themselves. Burke has done well with his writing, and good for him, but they’re not the kind of books I care to read.
I would say that’s because I like books with solid plots, but that can’t be the reason, can it, if all I ever read is just a few pages? Is that far enough to know?
April 15th, 2021 at 8:52 pm
Couldn’t agree more with your review. Burke was like this back then – he’s even worse now.
April 16th, 2021 at 6:50 am
I agree, as I most often did, with Barry. One Burke was it for me. As Steve so accurately put it, just “not the kind of books I care to read.”
April 16th, 2021 at 11:13 am
Have just finished reading ‘The Neon Rain’ having decided that I wanted to read the Robicheaux novels in order, having read a few at random. Absolutely loved this novel. Have to agree with David Vineyard, Burke is a master of creating mood and atmosphere.
April 16th, 2021 at 3:38 pm
Thanks for speaking up for Burke’s books, Steve. Although I’ve decided to pass on them, I know a lot of people really like them.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:00 pm
In ELECTRIC MIST and others Burke strays into the te rritory of South American Magic Realism, which I’m sure throws some readers. About the only other writer in the genre to regularly do that is Pablo Taibo in his Hector Shayne Mexican Private Eye series.
For readers used to more linear storytelling it can be something of a shock. To some extent even before MIST Burke was writing about the ghosts in his hero’s past and those in his world, insubstantial figures in the mist on the bayou.
But by any standard his writing is anything but plot centered standard mystery. Personally I find his Texas based mysteries about an ex Ranger turned defense attorney a bit more accessible.