Must be something in the genetic makeup of a cop. They can peg a creep in an instant. Dave Robicheaux's daughter Alafair has taken up with the son of and old money Louisiana family who happens to be a good deal older. This guy, Kermit Abelard, has a friend named Robert Weingart, an ex-con/author who has written a book on his prison experience and gained some notoriety. Dave doesn't care for either, especially Weingart. Our boy Dave thinks Weingart "could steal the stink off shit and not get the smell on his hands." Quite the image.Domestic issues aside, Dave has a cop problem. A number of young girls have been snatched and end up buried in the bayou, but most are found out of his jurisdiction. A meeting with a con on a work crew out of Mississippi gives him a clue to a pimp near his base. So he and his PI buddy Clete Purcell go check him out. But Clete can't help himself and ends up beating the tar out of this sleazeball who, later in the book, ends up dead putting Clete in the sheriff's crosshairs.
But more importantly, somehow the disappearance of these girls and Weingart must be connected.
Clete drinks and smokes too much, but he and Dave will go to hell and back with what is probably his only friend. Clete also has a tendency to attract the wrong kind of woman - this time it's a deputy who has a tie to the lesbian-dominatrix underground in New Orleans that also has a member who is the wife of a guy who is under investigation for running a ponzi scheme. And all this is tied to old man Abelard and his grandson Kermit (the Abelard family history plays a HUGE role here), Weigart, the dead pimp, Alafair, and most importantly, the dead girls.
And the thought of what these poor girls endured (just what will make your jaw drop) Dave is wrestling with his own mortality, seeing not a bright light, but a sternwheeler steamboat on the bayou whose passengers are all people from Dave's past.
Dave struggles to make the connections and gets the needed help of old man Abelard's nurse to close the loop. He and Clete, the Bobbsie Twins of Homicide (from their days on the NOPD), arm themselves to the teeth to confront Weingart when an attempt is made on Alafair and Dave's wife.
Only to start walking up the gangway to that bayou steamboat.
East Coast Don
I read this book recently and liked it a lot however it didn't stand on the top of my list. Burke has done better work previously with Dave. It would have been better if he could start the mystery piece a bit earlier (we get a lot of familiar context till page 250 and then the mystery starts). Shorter novels also suit his stories more. My full review here: http://www.mysterytribune.com/2011/12/27/review-glass-rainbow-james-lee-burke/
ReplyDeleteBurke presents such a remarkable juxtaposition of good plot and character development, great vocabulary which is not overdone but which keeps me checking my dictionary, pithy and blunt dialogue, and some surprising philosophy about aging and our society. East Coast Don already reviewed this one, so see the blog for that more complete report.
ReplyDeleteThe philosophy and comment: “What is the proper way for a father to talk to his daughter when she has reached adulthood but is determined to trust men who will only bring her injury? Do you lecture here? Do you indicate that she has no judgment and is not capable of conducting her own life? It’s not unlike telling a drunkard that he is weak and morally deficient because he drinks, then expecting him to stop. How do you tell your daughter that all your years of protecting and caring for her can be stolen in the blink by a man like Robert Weingarten? The answer is you cannot.”
Or, Burke speaking through old man Timothy Ableard: “Age is an insatiable thief. It steals the pleasures of your youth, then locks you inside your own body with your desires glowing. Worse, it makes you dependent upon people who are a half century younger than you. Don’t let anyone tell you that it brings you peace, either, because that’s the biggest lie of all.”
An example of the pithy and blunt language occurs when lesbian sheriff Helen Soileau speaks to her deputy regarding a female suspect with whom she has a long and antagonistic history: “What you can do is get on the phone and tell Ms. Blanchet we’re on our way to her house and her prissy twat had better be there when we arrive.”
This may not be his best effort, but Burke remains one of my favorites.