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Title details for Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke - Available

Crusader's Cross

#14 in series

by James Lee Burke
Will Patton
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available
Critically acclaimed and bestselling crime writer James Lee Burke returns to Louisiana where his ever-popular hero, Dave Robicheaux, sleuths his way through a hotbed of sin and uncertainty.
For Dave Robicheaux, life in Louisiana is filled with haunting memories of the past—images from Vietnam, the violent streets of New Orleans, and his own troubled youth. In Crusader's Cross, a deathbed confession from an old schoolmate resurrects a story of injustice, the murder of a young woman, and a time in Robicheaux's life he has tried to forget.

Her name may or may not have been Ida Durbin. It was back in the innocent days of the 1950s when Robicheaux and his brother, Jimmie, met her on a Galveston beach. She was pretty and Jimmie fell for her hard—not knowing she was a prostitute on infamous Post Office Street, with ties to the mob. Then Ida was abducted and never seen again.

Now, decades later, Robicheaux is asking questions about Ida Durbin, and a couple of redneck deputy sheriffs make it clear that asking questions is a dangerous game. With a series of horrifying murders and the sudden appearance of Valentine Chalons and his sister, Honoria, a disturbed and deeply alluring woman, Robicheaux is soon involved not only with the Chalons family but with the murderous energies of the New Orleans underworld. Also, he meets and finds himself drawn into a scandalous relationship with a remarkable Catholic nun.

Brilliant, brooding, and filled with the author's signature lyricism, Jim Burke's latest novel is a darkly suspenseful work of literature.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Dave Robicheaux

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    July 12, 2005

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780743551625
      • File size: 164315 KB
      • Duration: 05:42:19

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      A serial killer's loose in Baton Rouge, someone's trying to kill Dave Robicheaux, and Dave is the prime suspect in a murder. James Lee Burke's characters blend light and shadow, good and evil, and Will Patton's shaded delivery makes them all believable. Patton's dreamy Louisiana drawl draws listeners into a complex story winding back into Robicheaux's past. When Dave, a recovering alcoholic, ruins years of sobriety, Patton's performance captures the guilt and remorse of a good, if flawed, man. The abridgment sacrifices the sultry bayou atmosphere that comes from Burke's graceful lyricism, but the story is intriguing, the characters are unique, and the no-frills narration offers an appealing performance by Patton. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      It's easy to see why Will Patton's voice is synonymous with the Dave Robicheaux series. There is a soft, soothing sound in Patton's Louisiana accent that's perfect for the atmospheric imagery and poetic details. There's also a darker timbre in Patton's voice that reveals the weight placed on our hero's shoulders and, when required, describes the evil that the characters mete out to each other. This riveting tale, built around ancient memories--a 1950s romance with a New Orleans prostitute and a dying cop's memory of a blood-stained hotel room--is a study in revisionism, how and why we romanticize, sanitize, or destroy the past in order to survive in the present. R.W.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 6, 2005
      Superb writing and a throbbing pace lift two-time Edgar-winner Burke's powerful, many-layered 14th Dave Robicheaux novel (after 2003's Last Car to Elysian Fields
      ), which involves venal and arrogant members of a wealthy family that can trace its lineage to fifth-century France as well as the machinations of the New Orleans mafia. A conversation between Robicheaux and a dying childhood friend about Ida Durbin, a young prostitute that Robicheaux's half-brother, Jimmie, loved and lost in the late 1950s, sets the ex-homicide detective on a path that eventually leads to several gruesome killings and his near downfall. Unemployed, his wife dead, his daughter in college, Robicheaux rejoins the New Iberia, La., sheriff's department at the urging of Sheriff Helen Soileau, who needs an extra hand as the murders mount. While the tendrils of the sometimes rambling plot unfold, Robicheaux and his impulsive former police partner, PI Clete Purcell, seek retribution for injustices caused by a wide range of corrupt villains. Burke masterfully combines landscape and memory in a violent, complex story peopled by sharply defined characters who inhabit a lush, sensual, almost mythological world. Agent, Philip G. Spitzer.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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