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Title: Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke, Freddy Michalski ISBN: 2-7436-0950-8 Publisher: Rivages Pub. Date: 31 January, 2002 Format: Paperback

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Average Customer Rating: 3.57 (44 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Not bad, but don't expect a happy ending
Comment: 'Sunset Limited' is pretty good - not great, but pretty good. Burke has moved even further than his previous novels into the realm of atmosphere and psychological context, sacrificing narrative coherence along the way (whether this is a worthwhile exchange depends on your point of view).

This is the sixteenth book centering on Burke's increasingly battered hero, Dave Robicheaux; he is still haunted by old demons, although generally he seems to have found a way to live with most of them. His sometime-friend, Clete Purcel, is still half-heroic, half-pathetic.

The plot centres around a series of decades-old crimes, particularly the grisly murder of a union activist. This leads the book into a series of narrative strands, but sometimes Burke seems to be straining to connect them: there are more than a few unlikely coincidences, and some incidents seem to go nowhere. It is characteristic of the book that the initial reason for Robicheaux's involvement - to locate and perhaps clear a petty crim called Cool Breeze Broussard (Burke has not lost his talent for wonderfully appropriate names) - fades away at the book's half-way point.

But there are villains aplenty: in fact, there are few sympathetic characters here. Some of the bad guys are rich and clever, some are poor and stupid, and some of the worst carry a badge. You can't trust anyone these days, and justice prevails only occasionally.

All this darkness of spirit would be somewhat suffocating, except that Burke has a knack of inserting passages of striking beauty. He has a remarkable feel for the social and physical texture of Louisiana, and a grasp of detail which is almost Chandleresque. Neither has he lost his ear for dialogue: each character has a noticeably different way of speaking, or even of being silent.

'Sunset Limited' - the title is symbolic of a journey into a painful past - is not as good as Burke's 'Black Cherry Blues', 'The Lost Get-Back Boogie' or even 'Heaven's Prisoners', but most readers will find the journey worth the pri! ce of the ticket.

Rating: 4
Summary: VINTAGE ROBICHEAUX....
Comment: I'm not saying I didn't enjoy Burke's newest Dave Robicheaux novel, but some of his early works were a little better. It seems to me that the characters have lacked growth in the last few novels, and there was much too little about Dave's relationships with Bootsie and Alafair in "Sunset Limited". I think it would be great to touch more upon Robicheaux's trying to cope with his daughter as she enters adolesence and maybe inject some events into his life which put his convictions to a stern test. The last few book's plots have been too much in the cookie cutter mold: I had a pretty good idea who was gonna be left standing at the end of the book. On a positive note, I was happy there wasn't alot of the metaphysical mumbojumbo like conversations with dead people or having the locations of missing bodies being pointed out in dreams. All in all mediocre Burke is better than about 99% of the stuff out there.

Rating: 1
Summary: Terrible at best
Comment: I read "Heaven's Prisoners" and liked it, a lot. I was expecting this one to be good as well, but alas, no. It is one of those books with a plot so contrived and meandering that if someone were to ask me to summarize the book, I'd just shrug and shake my head.

I was also very disappointed with the character. I like detective stories. REAL detective stories, stories where the main character does actualy investigative work. Dave Robicheaux doesn't investigate--he stumbles around from place to place, threatening and making harsh accusations without any evidence of wrongdoing. The only time he ever really learns new information is when suspects come to him for some reason and give him info, without him really making an effort to figure out more.

This novel's only saving grace is the author's beautiful and vivid description of southern Louisiana. However, even this gets old, as the reader is treated to a constant reminder of the climate and temperature every time the main character so much as steps outside to walk to his car. And I really don't like novels that waste time with mundane details like what the protagonist has for lunch every day, and a step-by-step update on how he prepares his Po' boy sandwich.