Purple Cane Road

In James Lee Burke's Purple Cane Road, the 11th installment in the Dave Robicheaux serial mystery series, this dark mystery will leave you chilled from start to finish. For Dave Robicheaux, all his life he wondered about what happened to his mother when she mysteriously died years ago. When a pimp had came to him and asked him if he was Mae Guillory's boy, he revealed a bombshell to Dave on what he knew about her strange death. And that had brought him back to the past when he revisited memories on Purple Cane Road where he lived there as a young boy. Now, while he searched for the truth for his mother's killer, he had dealt with the upcoming execution of Letty Labouche, someone who had killed a lawyer in cold blood, and how he attempted to get her off the hook to no avail. He also dealt with a former con stalking his daughter, crooked cops and politicians, and his partner's running into his fair share of trouble with the law. It was now up to Dave to set things right and pick up those stray pieces in his life to get some closure and justice with a shocking ending.

This was a real good mystery that's dark as noir fiction can be. I did care for Dave and how he dealt with a lot of things going at once for him. I did feel for Alafair for trying to get along for him and dealing with Johnny who's nothing about scum. I think Clete needs to clean up his act a tiny bit.  I loved the central New Orleans locations for the storyline and to the vivid settings that liven up the scenery. This would make you want to shake your head and whistle a few times with non-stop action, drama, suspense and a bucket load of mystery.

Will you go back to Purple Cane Road?