Synopses & Reviews
In the waning days of summer, 2005, a storm with greater impact than the bomb that struck Hiroshima peels the face off southern Louisiana.
This is the gruesome reality Iberia Parish Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux discovers as he is deployed to New Orleans. As James Lee Burke's new novel, The Tin Roof Blowdown, begins, Hurricane Katrina has left the commercial district and residential neighborhoods awash with looters and predators of every stripe. The power grid of the city has been destroyed, New Orleans reduced to the level of a medieval society. There is no law, no order, no sanctuary for the infirm, the helpless, and the innocent. Bodies float in the streets and lie impaled on the branches of flooded trees. In the midst of an apocalyptical nightmare, Robicheaux must find two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest, and a vigilante who may be more dangerous than the criminals looting the city.
In a singular style that defies genre, James Lee Burke has created a hauntingly bleak picture of life in New Orleans after Katrina. Filled with complex characters and depictions of people at both their best and worst, The Tin Roof Blowdown is not only an action-packed crime thriller, but a poignant story of courage and sacrifice that critics are already calling Burke's best work.
Review
"Though some of James Lee Burke's recent thrillers have been uneven, The Tin Roof Blowdown is not only a top-notch mystery but a moving post-Katrina tribute to his beloved New Orleans....Burke's elegy is so raw, painful, and eloquent, it's almost hard to concentrate on the case. (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Burke writes about [Katrina's] aftermath as vividly and powerfully as any nonfiction chronicler....[T]he novel's power comes from the way it explores the tragedy of Katrina in a way that is perfectly in tune with the series, a kind of perfect storm brought together by the confluence of fictional and nonfictional realms." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"There's a great deal of pain in Burke's books, as well as a great deal of what some might view as preaching or philosophizing. Burke can do it with the zeal of the newly converted, but it never detracts from rollicking and heartfelt stories about one of the most beautiful and perhaps most permanently damaged parts of the nation." Rocky Mountain News
Review
"Burke's flair for concocting fictional evil has not been completely compromised by his sadness and anger over the Crescent City's fate....[An] extraordinarily satisfying reading experience." Los Angeles Times
Review
"The best Robicheaux novel of the past several years." Library Journal
Review
"Burke masterfully interweaves elements of violence, courage and regret with a deep sense of what makes us good or bad or both especially in times of crisis." Miami Herald
Review
"What's so brilliant about Burke, in the end, is how he manages to show the ways the legitimate and illicit worlds had a special relationship in New Orleans." Denver Post
Synopsis
Louisiana lawman Dave Robicheaux returns in an adventure as timely as real life. Detective Robicheaux, driven by a keen sense of right versus wrong in the fight against crime following Hurricane Katrina, has his own demons of alcoholism and rage to contend with as well.
About the Author
James Lee Burke is the author of nineteen books, including the bestsellers Heartwood, Sunset Limited, Cimarron Rose, Cadillac Jukebox, Burning Angel, and Dixie City Jam. He lives with his wife in Missoula, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana.