THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508210166
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
BURNING ANGEL
JAMES LEE BURKE
Hyperion. 340 pp. $22.95.
FOR NEARLY 10 YEARS now, the release of a new James Lee Burke novel has been a calendar event for a growing knot of fans. Not quite Christmas or New Year's, but at least as memorable as Memorial Day.
Burke built a following for his Dave Robicheaux detective series with such fine early works as The Neon Rain and Black Cherry Blues. He broke through to best-sellerdom with last year's Dixie City Jam.
Now comes Burning Angel, the eighth in the series. It may prove to be a fork in the road for longtime Burke followers.
Stylistically a cut above most detective scribblers, Burke laces his stories with languid descriptions of life in the Louisiana delta country, from steamy and vice-soaked New Orleans to the intricate social structures of small fishing villages across the bayou.
His protagonist, Robicheaux, is suitably complex and contemplative. But at the core he is, in many ways, the prototypical pulp-fiction cop: a troubled middle-aged guy haunted by a history of difficulties with booze, relationships and authority figures.
And therein lies the difficulty with Burning Angel.
While Burke's writing is as fine as ever, his plots are suffering from an echo effect. Robicheaux gets bounced from the force again for bending the rules. Ho-hum. Robicheaux faces a cast of ambiguous bad guys whose motives are never quite clear, even when they've played the final card in their hands. Ho-hum. And the bad guys finally cross the line by threatening Robicheaux's family. Ho-ho-hum.
Even the peripherals - dreamy descriptions of the sun setting over the bayou, or guilty recognitions of the region's 250 years of numbing racism - are reprises from earlier works. Attempts at freshness - for example, the rapid aging through the series of his adopted daughter, Alafair, who is now 14 and on the verge of womanhood - are left disappointingly undeveloped.
Fans of Burke's style can take heart that six of his early, non-Robicheaux novels are to be re-released this fall. Finally, we'll be able to get a copy of The Lost Get-Back Boogie and learn why it was rejected by 100 publishers, by Burke's count, but went on to earn a Pulitzer Prize nomination.
None of this should deter a reader who is new to Burke's work. The Robicheaux series is a must-visit for those who believe that crime fiction can be intelligent, even literary. They need not be read in order, and Burning Angel is as good a place as any to start.
But readers who have done five or six tours of duty with Dave Robicheaux may feel they've supped from this bowl of gumbo before. MEMO: Dave Addis is a staff writer. by CNB