Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
Book Review: "The world respect(s) brute force and brute force alone, no matter what people claim."
Summary: 4 Stars
(3.5 stars) Following the decimation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, described in James Lee Burke's last novel, The Tin Roof Blowdown (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries), long-time New Iberia Parish detective Dave Robicheaux has accepted an invitation to recover emotionally on a ranch in western Montana. Robicheaux's long-time buddy Clete Purcell, who accompanies him, has not even started to recover. For Purcell, "the booze he drank and the weed he smoked and the pills he dropped didn't work anymore," and Robicheaux is desperately afraid for his friend.
Within days of their arrival in Montana, the past catches up with them. Clete Purcell runs afoul of two thugs, one of whom once worked for a Nevada gangster who was killed with his entourage when their small plane crashed in the mountains. Purcell has long been suspected of having been involved in the crash. These two thugs now work for wealthy Ridley Wellstone, who is financing a charismatic ministry operated by his young wife. Running parallel to these two plot threads is the story of Jimmy Dale Greenwood, a young man horribly abused by a "gunbull" during a two-year prison sentence. His abuser is now in the same area of Montana, near Missoula and Flathead Lake, as Jimmy Dale. In yet additional plot lines, two young college students are found tortured and murdered in the hills behind the ranch where Robicheaux and Purcell are staying, and a Hollywood producer making a film nearby, and his companion, are shot and burned at a highway rest stop. As these disparate plot threads begin to overlap and explode in violence, Robicheaux and Purcel are up to their eyeballs in the action.
Author James Lee Burke's vaunted ability to create vibrant characters and convey atmosphere through stunning descriptions is on full display here in Big Sky Country, with its fiercely independent residents and its spectacular natural resources. Despite the setting, however, the novel is extremely dark, filled with tormented, if not tortured, characters, all of whom are at the mercy of forces they cannot control. Extreme coincidence guides much of the action here, and though there are a few hints that one or two characters may, in time, set their lives in order, most "want their enemies hosed down with a flamethrower." Long biographies of the many individual characters provide their unfortunate backgrounds and suggest reasons for their violent behavior, though they do not do not explain the rare glimpses of empathy we see in some characters.
A climactic scene of non-stop action, killing, and near death experiences attempts to show the ultimate connections among the characters and the plot lines, but the author never explains how some of the characters actually extricate themselves from the critical scene. Even Dave Robicheaux, the narrator, admits, "In truth, I cannot tell you with any exactitude what happened [that night]." Somehow, after following so many damaged characters and complex plot lines for four hundred pages, I expected a little more. Mary Whipple
Book Review: Evil's Gravity
Summary: 5 Stars
James Lee Burke's latest novel, Swan Peak, is another chapter in the life of his troubled character Dave Robicheaux. It is set in the wilds of Montana rather than the lush lands of Louisiana. An early novel, Black Cherry Blues was similarly set against the Montana backdrop of mountains and grazing land.
This time Dave and his friend Cletus Purcell are ostensibly taking a well earned break from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. At one point Dave reflects, in a beautifully constructed paragraph, of how the intersections in his life seem practically predetermined as is the attraction of iron filings for a magnet. There is a sense of evil in the first few pages as Clete is bullied by some unpleasant characters who move him off the territory of a rich landowner. It is surely a craft of very few authors to write so infectiously and to create such a sense of bad things to come as does James Lee Burke.
The story is set around the rich landowner and some gruesome killings in the same area. It has, rather like an airliner, a smooth and progressive glide slope to a climax rather than a landing. As a reader one is drawn and even captivated by each turn of the screw.
Woven into this story are some old and some new characters along with just a hint of romance. One or two descriptions of the Montana environment are reminiscent of early Lee Burke writing about Louisiana and I have to say I wish there were more of these.
Quite where Lee Burke gets his material from is a mystery but how he creates such an art from whatever the source is very impressive. It is, yet again, a great read and I'm glad to say the author still retains those qualities of writing that attracted me to the Robicheaux novels all those years ago.
Book Review: One Thing Leads to Another: Karma Creates Connections
Summary: 4 Stars
Consider Swan Peak a taut Dave Robicheaux thriller about bringing down the bad guys transferred from Katrina-depleted Louisiana to sparking Montana. Since Louisiana is usually the major character in this series' books, that shift cuts down the local color by one star.
Are there sleazy people in Montana? They seem to be everywhere that Dave and Clete Purcell look.
Dave and Molly have left Louisiana to recover from Katrina, and Clete has joined them. Naturally, it doesn't take much for Clete to begin stirring things up. In this case, a choice of campground begins an escalating conflict that no one seems to be able to or wants to avoid.
Pretty soon bodies are piling up around Dave and Clete, but it's not clear what the motives are. Both with and without encouragement, Dave begins investigating. That search draws them both into the business of the local, reclusive rich who want to drill for oil and gas and make lots of money through evangelism. It's an odd group of people, and the closer you look . . . the odder it gets.
In a related story line, a convict looks to do his time and get out . . . but a gun bull has other ideas.
The book's main weakness is that James Lee Burke often tells rather than shows what's going on. At times, you'll feel like you are in a lecture hall rather than reading an engrossing book.
As usual, the story has more slime in it than ten usual murder mysteries. But overcoming the slime is part of the appeal of this series so I'm sure you know what to expect.