A Morning for Flamingos

In this 4th Dave Robicheaux installment, Dave is approached by a DEA agent and asked to go undercover back in New Orleans for a sting operation to help catch drug lord Tony Cardo. He'll be presented as a disgraced and dismissed cop who's trying to make some money selling drugs. In the process, Dave hopes to locate and take revenge on a prisoner, an assassin named Boggs, who shot his partner and left Dave for dead in a muddy coulee. Therefore Dave agrees but wants to speed up the process and is soon in the good graces of Cardo himself. What no one predicted is that Dave would come to have some sympathy for Cardo who is the sole caretaker of a disabled son. Here is how Kirkus addresses this conflict: "Dave takes to him and his crippled son Paul much more deeply than to no-good guys like bullying, treacherous Vice Lt. Nate Baxter, who threatens to blow Dave's cover if he doesn't play the game his way. Multiple betrayals force Dave to choose between ... bagging and protecting Tony, between playing by the rules and going all out for Boggs. Another robust study of powerfully shifting motives disguised as an action yarn—thick and strong as southern gumbo."

Here are excerpts from the favorable review by Publishers Weekly: "...proceeds to balance the ... self-doubts of his tough, sympathetic hero with a complex, credible plot in his latest Cajun mystery. Robicheaux, a widower, leaves his small town for New Orleans, where he used to be a cop, to run a sting operation for the DEA. He engineers drug buys aimed at incriminating the local drug lord, an ex-Marine with nightmares and a habit from Vietnam, while trying to ferret out Jimmie Lee Boggs, the killer responsible for the coulee incident.... Attentive to language and atmosphere, Burke delivers action on churning Gulf waters, in city streets, in deserted fields and within the souls of his memorable characters--and a fully satisfying resolution." 

Booklist speaks to the strong sense of place created by Burke and it's meaning for the story and the characters. " James Lee Burke's interest in New Orleans...extends well beyond the travelogue surface. Burke's Cajun detective, Dave Robicheaux, is once again battling personal demons--questions of fear and bravery, violence and compassion, pleasure and pain--and as he stalks an escaped killer and infiltrates the world of a Mafia drug lord, he finds reflections of his own torment wherever he looks. What it means to be Cajun is at the heart of Robicheaux's dilemma: he treasures the easy-living side of his heritage, but with the po' boy sandwiches and the pulsing beat of Zydeco music come the lure of violence and an obsession with bravery and personal honor that consistently puts himself and his loved ones at risk. Can you enjoy beignets at the Cafe du Monde, or hum a chorus of "Jolie Blonde," or sip a Dixie beer without at the same time wanting to bash the head of anyone who smiles at your girl? And when you do bash a head, are you really doing it to protect the things you love or because the simple act of bashing something gives you such a kick? Robicheaux's ongoing attempt to resolve these questions brings new levels of meaning to the way we see New Orleans in particular and the pursuit of pleasure in general. Is the Big Easy really all that easy? Can any of us ever get free enough from our own demons to really experience the pleasures that New Orleans--or life--offers? "

The Neon Rain

I was looking for a good mystery series to recommend to my brother-in-law and went down a rabbit hole with author James Lee Burker, reading 3 of his 4 first novels while on a trip to Nevada for a wedding. This is the first in the "Dave Robicheaux" series. In this debut, Robicheaux is still a detective with the New Orleans Police Dept and partnered with Clete Purcell, a continuing character in the series.  Dave is constantly battling old memories from his VietNam days, his cravings for alcohol, as well as police bureaucracy that prioritizes expedience over justice, so it's not surprise that he wants to find the killer of a young prostitute whose body was dumped in the bayou even though his superiors want to write it off. Now Dave is facing off against organized crime and his hot-headed partner is not consistently supporting him in trying to solve the case. What saves Dave from a total relapse to his alcoholism days is the constant care of Annie Ballard, who he eventually marries. As usual the writing is atmospheric and gritty. Richly developed characters are not always likable but they are compelling. 

Kirkus calls it a "bloody, ripsnorting suspenser" and offers in their review that the book is weak on storyline, overdrawn in the violence but still offers "some fine scenes that fairly crackle with menace." 

Scorched Grace

This mystery from poet Margot Douaihy has an unusual protagonist. Sister Holiday is a former punk rocker (band), Lesbian (current), and outright trouble maker (still is). When her drugging and drinking lead to the death of her terminally ill mother, Holiday turns to her mother mother's faith and petitions to become a novitiate. Nobody will accept her except the tiny order of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood in New Orleans. The only condition in addition to the usual restrictions on the sisters is that she has to wear a neckerchief and gloves to hide her elaborate tatoos. She has turned her musical talents to teaching music  at the Order's San Sebastian School. She routinely confiscates her students non-allowed cigarette stashes to supply her own nicotine habit covertly in the alley behind the school. While so engaged one evening, she becomes the sole witness to the breakout of a fire in the classroom building and the flaming fall from the 2nd story window of her friend, the janitor. She runs into the building and rescues two trapped students, one who ends up in the hospital and one who thereafter drops out of school. The fire is declared to be arson by the fire officials. When her favorite sister is the victim of a so-called accidental fall down the stairs and another fire, which is fortunately put out very quickly, Sister Holiday takes it upon herself to find out who the arsonist is. There are several other small story lines that I won't elaborate here. Her characters are richly drawn and the heat and feel of place of New Orleans are evocative. If you can stand all the cursing and occasional descriptions of sex (in her previous life only, of course), I recommend this book.

Publishers Weekly says of the book, "This briskly plotted master class in character development makes the most of its New Orleans setting, "the crucible... of miracles and curses." Douaihy ... is off to a terrific start."  As The New York Times says about this "showstopper of a series debut," Sister Holiday is constantly struggling with making a new life and home that is so different from her past: “I worked so hard to let people into my new life. But when you don’t know or trust yourself. How can you give anyone else the benefit of the doubt?”  Library Journal reveals that the book has already been acquired for a TV adaptation.

A Confederacy of Dunces

This book, written by John Kennedy Toole and published posthumously after he killed himself at age 32, was awarded the Pulitzer and received lots of rave reviews. I chose it from the PBS's "The Great American Read" list of 100 books for my book group --we all selected one book we had always wanted to read-- but after two nights of trying, I gave up. Walker Percy, who was convinced to read the manuscript by Toole's mother, read it 3 times and calls it "A great rumbling farce of Falstaffian dimension..." and the Chicago Sun-Times says of the book "What a delight, what a roaring, rollicking, footstamping wonder this book is!" It did NOT make me laugh. I did not find the characters amusing or even pitiful. They just annoyed me, so I gave up. The Indepdendent calls it "the book of a lifetime" and goes on to say, "A Confederacy of Dunces is a story of loneliness amid crowds, a comedy that hurts. At the centre is an anti-hero named Ignatius J Reilly. If Don Quixote had been thrust into the underbelly of modern New Orleans, this is exactly who he would have become. Hypochondriac, melancholic, a walking catastrophe..."It is, indeed, set in New Orleans and they have even erected a statue of the main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, on Canal Street.
This review in The Guardian tells you more about the author and the book. Other rave reviews come from Kirkus, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

Parchment and Old Lace

I typically load up on lighter fare when I travel and my trip to New Mexico was no exception. I love immersing myself in the rich description of life in Charleston, South Carolina provided by Laura Childs in her "Tea Shop Mysteries" but this time I ventured into her "Scrapbook Mysteries," which are set in New Orleans. This is the 13th installment in the series featuring scrapbooking store owner Carmela Bertrand, who is also very good at solving mysteries. Carmela's romantic dinner with her beau, Det. Edgar Babcock, is interrupted by an acquaintance stopping by their table to remind Carmela of her upcoming wedding and to insist that Carmela come. When Carmela and Edgar are leaving the restaurant, they hear a scream coming from across the street in one of the famous New Orleans cemeteries and find the bride-to-be strangled to death with a piece of old lace. Trying to track down the lace is something Carmela can do to help, but she is beseeched by the victim's sister to investigate further to help find the killer. There is a long list of suspects: the fiancé, the fiancé's condescending mother, a somewhat shady real estate developer, a creepy co-worker--but surely not Carmela'a boss who is trying so hard to help. I'd never have guessed who REALLY did it!
Childs writes interesting characters, engaging plots and, as mentioned, richly detailed settings, so this was an easy and enjoyable read.

Infamous

I really hate coming in at the middle of a series ("The Chronicles of Nick") but I would have to put in some concerted effort to start at the beginning with the set of characters in this book by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Apparently there are multiple series, each with multiple books that share overlapping characters. Even so-- being constantly reminded that there was a lot I didn't know about the history of Nick Gautier, 15-year old New Orleans teenager and potential destroyer or savior of humankind--this was an enjoyable read because Nick is in many ways a wise-cracking teen with all the usual angsts (parents, girls, bullying) but also trying to survive a whole lot of evil creatures (and some not so evil) who want him dead. He is the son of the Malachai, which is the penultimate evil creature and if he matures, his father will die and humanity will suffer. Protectors have been sent to look after him, one being his girlfriend who is also not what she seems. Raised by a poor single mom who was disowned by her own parents when she became pregnant from a violent rape, Nick fights more mundane persecution as well, labelled "white trash" by other kids at school. But now someone is posting horrible claims and pictures about the kids at school on the internet--Nick is getting a fair share of the blame and the fallout. Is this a plot concocted by those seeking to destroy Nick, or just garden variety human evil.  The action is non-stop, characters are complex as well as mostly supernatural. Intriguing enough that I would seek out additional books in this specific series (preceded by Infinity and Invincible) as well as other series by this author.