Jolie Blon's Bounce: Summary and book reviews of Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke, plus links to an excerpt from Jolie Blon's Bounce and a biography of James Lee Burke.
Jolie Blon's Bounce A Dave Robicheaux Novel
by James Lee Burke
Hardcover: Jun 2002,
352 pages.
Paperback: Oct 2003,
352 pages.
James Lee Burke, acclaimed by critics as "America's best novelist," "the Graham Greene of the bayou," and "a poet of the mystery novel," returns with his popular character, Dave Robicheaux, in a novel rich with atmosphere, ripe with menace, and filled with the kind of crackling dialogue that has made Burke a consistent New York Times best-selling author.
When a beautiful teenage girl is killed, the victim of a particularly savage rape, New Iberia, Louisiana, police detective Dave Robicheaux senses from the very start of the investigation that the most likely suspect, Tee Bobby Hulin, is not the actual killer. Though a drug addict and general ne'er-do-well, Hulin just doesn't fit the profile for this kind of brutal crime.
But when another murder occurs -- this victim a drugged-out prostitute who happens to be the daughter of one of the local mafia bigwigs -- all clues once again point to Tee Bobby Hulin, and the cries for arrest become too loud to ignore. The dead girl's father, however, prefers to take matters in his own hands and sets out to find -- and punish -- the killer himself.
But before Robicheaux can solve these crimes and bring the killer or killers to justice, he is forced to battle his own inner demons, including a painkiller addiction, a habit that begins as the result of a brutal and humiliating beating he suffers at the hands of the mysterious and diabolical character known as Legion. A fixture in the area for years, Legion was once the overseer on a local sugarcane plantation and now gets by doing odd jobs. In temperament, however, he's still the malicious and malevolent bully he always was, a man defined by evil and seemingly possessed with supernatural skills of survival.
Added to the mix, and on the good guy side of the balance sheet, is Clete Purcel, a longtime buddy of Robicheaux's and a confirmed boozer and womanizer. Clete comes to New Iberia for a visit and is quickly drawn into the struggle between the various forces of evil in the town, including Jimmy Dean Styles, a black man intent on maintaining his empire of corruption; Joe Zeroski, a trailer park mafioso with palatial aspirations -- and of course, Legion Guidry, the devil incarnate, in whom Robicheaux finds himself facing a challenge and an enemy unlike any he has ever known. And soon, what began as a duel of wits has turned into a dance of death.
Gothic, dense, brutal, touching, and always compelling, Jolie Blon's Bounce is classic storytelling from a writer who has been dubbed "the Faulkner of crime fiction."
Book Magazine -Randy Michael Signor
Burke really needs to spice up this series, which is getting bland and all-too predictable.
Kirkus Reviews
The volcanic types Dave's saga (Purple Cane Road) has made familiar are muffled this time out, and the plotting is even more darkly tangled than usual. Yet Burke succeeds over and over again in writing harshly lacerating scenes nobody's ever written before--not even him.
Booklist - Bill Ott
Burke does terrific bad guys...An atypical entry in the series, then, but a compelling one.
Library Journal - Patrick Wall
This is Burke at his best.
Publishers Weekly
This is the stunningly talented Burke's 21st book and his best until the next one.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Bill For It is obvious Dan Z has no imagination... bless him.
Maybe he should go back and read Bambi....
Rated of 5
by Dan Z. It should be called Jolie Blon’s Blunder I just stopped reading James Lee Burke’s Jolie Blon’s Bounce. I didn’t finish, I stopped. Mr. Burke’s books receive several positive reviews from several sources, so I feel I must be missing something. Jolie Blon’s Bounce is the first book of Mr.... Read More
Rated of 5
by Jeanine Gruetze
Jolie Blon's Bounce is one of James Lee Burke's best books. He has written it so you can visualize the waves in the water and the dew on the leaves and the crickets chirping on the bayou. He makes his characters come alive and you hate for the... Read More
The worldliness, relentlessness, and passion of Easy Rawlins have been sorely missed from the world of fiction. This thriller is proof that Walter Mosley is one of the masters of crime fiction, and as original a voice as any writing in America today.
The nephew of the wealthiest woman in L.A. is missing and wanted for murder. Fearless Jones and Paris Minton are tricked into picking up the case and find themselves inside the world of the black bourgeoisie.
These are 2 of the 4 readalike suggestions for Jolie Blon's Bounce. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.
Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world.
The story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way but one. But that exception is the beating heart of this extraordinary novel.
First time novelist Vaddey Ratner captured my heart and senses in this novel based on her childhood in Cambodia. Her story transcends any news story...
read more
From the first page, I was drawn in by the lyrical writing of the author and mesmerized as the narrator, eight year old Raami, remembered the years...
read more
Trite but true, all good things must come to an end. I so wanted to keep reading the wonderful prose, the settings that let one think they are part...
read more
Kenn Nesbitt is new Children's Poet Laureate(Jun 12 2013) Kenn Nesbitt has been named the new Children's Poet Laureate: Consultant in Children's Poetry to the Poetry Foundation, which noted that the two-year position...
Full Story
Book Magazine -Randy Michael Signor
Publishers Weekly
of 5
by Bill
of 5
by Dan Z.
Write your own review!
