{"id":1267,"date":"2013-11-14T09:17:40","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T16:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=1267"},"modified":"2013-11-14T09:22:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T16:22:18","slug":"from-the-bayous-to-big-sky-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=1267","title":{"rendered":"From the bayous to Big Sky country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer has enjoyed James Lee Burke’s Davie Robicheaux \u00a0novels for quite a while now. His enjoyment continues with the latest entry in the series.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer<\/p>\n

LIGHT OF THE WORLD. By\u00a0James Lee Burke.\u00a0Simon and Schuster. 548 pages. $27.99.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Everywhere\u00a0he goes, there it is \u2013 the human condition. Whether he\u2019s in his beloved bayous of Louisiana, or under the big sky of Montana, Deputy Sheriff Dave\u00a0Robicheaux encounters evil, \u201c\u2026the tiger William Blake wrote about, burning brightly in the forests of the night, his brain dipped from a furnace and forged with a hammer and a chain. \u2026 the bane of us all, the trees lighting when he padded through the undergrowth, his guttural sounds a prelude of things to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after Dave and his retinue \u2013 his wife, his daughter Alafair; his best friend, Clete Boyer; and Clete\u2019s daughter, Gretchen \u2013 reach Montana, someone shoots an arrow that just misses Alafair. What\u2019s supposed to be a vacation turns violent quickly. The tiger in this tale takes a little time to show himself, however. A profile in a pickup, a shadow around a corner, a rancid scent left in a room, scribblings on a cave wall – all these signs add up to a villain as evil as Alafair says he would be, and as evil as Dave feared.<\/p>\n

As the antagonist prowls through the scenery, Dave and company get a lot of threats and little help. The sheriff shows little interest in helping the outlanders, and his deputies show up on a local billionaire\u2019s payroll. The billionaire is the subject of a critical documentary being made by Gretchen; his minions make life miserable for her.<\/p>\n

Matters get complicated when Gretchen also replaces Alafair as the target of the\u00a0villain\u2019s perverted affection. The narrative also gets complicated (and longer) because\u00a0the author has added a second generation Robicheaux\/Boyer Duo \u2013 Alafair, a recently graduated lawyer, and Gretchen, a reformed hit woman, have turned into an effective team. Of course, this creates another level of fear for Dave and Clete, as well as a whole new set of complications for\u00a0the plot.<\/p>\n

Gretchen adds her destructive demons to a list of Dave\u2019s and Clete\u2019s. She hasn\u2019t exorcised her murderous instincts, just as Dave still sees \u201cthe dead of the world\u201d when it rains, and Clete can\u2019t keep away from damsels in distress, especially one whose smile is the Light of The World<\/em>.<\/p>\n

None of them can keep out of trouble. All of the plot complications coalesce lakeside, with a cadre of the billionaire\u2019s cohorts and the fiend from Dave\u2019s hell coming down on the two-generation crew. As usual, the voyage to the conclusion cruises through the evocative landscape of Montana and Dave\u2019s mind; author Burke stays good at what he does so well with each new book in this venerable series.<\/p>\n

Nobody does it better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer has enjoyed James Lee Burke’s Davie Robicheaux \u00a0novels for quite a while now. His enjoyment continues with the latest entry in the series. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer LIGHT OF THE WORLD. By\u00a0James Lee Burke.\u00a0Simon and Schuster. 548 pages. $27.99. Everywhere\u00a0he goes, there it is \u2013 the human condition. Whether he\u2019s in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[338,191,208],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries","category-thriller-suspense","tag-dave-robicheaux","tag-james-lee-burke","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1270,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions\/1270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}