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Title: Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
ISBN: 1416548521
Author:
James Lee Burke
Publicate Date: 2008-07-08
Publish: 2008-07-08
List Price: $25.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $13.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $12.99
Amazon Merchant Price: $17.13
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Audio version
We listened to the audio version while traveling cross country. The reader was talented but the story was so raw and brutal it was hard to take. I have never read this author before and probably won't again. If stark brutality is your thing you may like it but be warned it is not for the faint of heart. The only thing we really enjoyed was the outlandishly descriptive language which was sometimes so over the top we had to laugh. The author must write with a text book of over blown adjectives with the object of using as many as he can cram onto the page.
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2: Engaging With Caveats
My wife and I have been reading James Lee Burke since he started being published. His descriptions of his surroundings, and his prose in general have become increasingly impressive and delightful, suggesting he may be studying the Masters. Indeed, in this book, if prose can be rated on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best, this book should be rated a 10! Further, I suggest that readers beware: if you have other pressing "gotta-do's" on your agenda, don't start this book because you likely will not put it down until you have read the last sentence.
I rated this book a 3.5 vs a 5.0 because, along with being more prosaic, Burke seems to me to be increasingly base, ugly and disgusting in some of his characters who have barely graduated from animals to humans. The details of one man raping another could not bave been more repugnant, and, I believe is a first for Burke. A backhoe operator digging deep graves in which he intends to deposit newly created human corpses is also a first. As Burke has said, in this and previous books, worms and snakes crawl through his mind in all phases of daily living & sleeping --- lonliness, fear, exhilarations and on and on. There are just more pages of this kind of repugnances than I care to read.
In summary, this is a book that is well worth reading keeping in mind these caveats.
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3: Tangled Web
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dave Robicheaux, his wife, Molly, and sidekick, Clete Purcell, leave ravaged New Orleans for some R&R, peace and quiet and some fishing in Montana. But where Dave and Clete are, tranquility is rarely, if ever, present. No sooner do they get there then trouble finds them--in spades.
While fishing, Clete is accosted by two men telling him he is trespassing on the land of a wealthy Texas oil family, the Wellstones. Soon, Dave and Clete are in the middle of not one, but two, double murders. Clete's past association with a mafia don comes home to haunt him. Then Clete finds himself amorously involved with the wife of one of the Wellstone brothers, among other entanglements. Meanwhile there are subplots involving other characters, and it all becomes very complicated.
Written with the accustomed smoothness of a Robicheaux novel---this is the 17th in the series---the setting enables the author to pay tribute to one of his two homes--Montana--where he lives in addition to the one in New Iberia, LA, Dave's normal domicile. It all comes down to an astounding finish. Don't miss this one!
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4: High country murder
Fans of James Lee Burke will love this latest book about murder in Montana and the foibles of sidekick Clet Purcell.
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5: Seat of your pants thriller
The New Orlean detective hopes for some R&R in the Bitter Root Valley of Western Montana, but finds trouble follows him north. A gripping tale, but not for the faint of heart.
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