You can read the publisher's summary to get a feel for the story, but even if Burke was writing about the recipe for a fish stew, I'd read it and it would be wonderful. But yet, the depth of Burke's anger at what happened in New Orleans, the failures and abandoment, certainly is well-grounded.

Burke's politics is more evident here than in other books, with Bush bashing, gratuitous remarks about Fox News, etc., all which jarringly interrupt the story's magic. evil that is the cross on which Burke hangs his stories. The story is vintage Burke with a little bit of 'is it mystical magic or not' thrown in amongst the good vs. The lush description of the beauty of New Orleans and Louisiana bayou country is gone, replaced by 'bodies wrapped tight like mummies in the gray and brown detritus left by the receding waters.' There were parts I had to close my eyes to listen to because the sense of place was so vivid and I couldn't stand what I was seeing. This is the most horrifying description of post Katrina that I've read to date. Filled with complex characters and vivid descriptions of the destruction and death that gripped the Big Easy, The Tin Roof Blowdown is an action-packed crime thriller as well as a poignant story of what disaster and desperation can do to people. In his singular style, which defies genre, James Lee Burke has created a haunting picture of life in New Orleans after Katrina. This promises to be the most taxing and emotional case Robicheaux has had to work. In the midst of it all is Robicheaux, doing his best to help regulate the post-Katrina madness, all the while on a dogged search for a pair of dangerous fugitives, a dope-addicted, fallen priest, and a vigilante insurance salesman who takes his family's protection too far. Police are shooting randomly at innocent people, prison guards have abandoned their posts, bodies float through the streets and hang from trees, and every drug dealer, murderer, and rapist is out taking advantage of the desperate lawlessness that holds the city captive. Hurricane Katrina has ravaged New Orleans, leaving the streets and buildings flooded and the city awash with opportunists, looters, and vicious criminals. Winner of the 2008 Audie Award for Mysteryĭave Robicheaux returns in another Bayou adventure, this one more gruesome and gut-wrenching than any that have come before.

The tin roof blowdown james lee burke