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Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: James Lee Burke
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 7450
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Simon & Schuster Hardcover Ed
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416548521
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781416548522
ASIN: 1416548521
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ex-library copy. Normal wear. Binding good. Page surfaces clean. Jacket glued on and has labels.
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Product Description
Trouble follows Dave Robicheaux. James Lee Burke's new novel, Swan Peak, finds Detective Robicheaux far from his New Iberia roots, attempting to relax in the untouched wilderness of rural Montana. He, his wife, and his buddy Clete Purcell have retreated to stay at an old friend's ranch, hoping to spend their days fishing and enjoying their distance from the harsh, gritty landscape of Louisiana post-Katrina. But the serenity is soon shattered when two college students are found brutally murdered in the hills behind where the Robicheauxs and Purcell are staying. They quickly find themselves involved in a twisted and dangerous mystery involving a wealthy, vicious oil tycoon, his deformed brother and beautiful wife, a sexually deviant minister, an escaped con and former country music star, and a vigilante Texas gunbull out for blood. At the center of the storm is Clete, who cannot shake the feeling that he is being haunted by the ghosts from his past -- namely Sally Dio, the mob boss he'd sabotaged and killed years before. In this expertly drawn, gripping story, Burke deftly weaves intricate, engaging plotlines and original, compelling characters with his uniquely graceful prose. He transcends genre yet again in the latest thrilling addition to his New York Times bestselling series.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...
 Too heavy on the Southern Gothic musings this time around July 14, 2008
Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA)
27 out of 31 found this review helpful
I've been a fan of Burke and Robicheaux from the jump, and part of the the draw is the stylistic approach Burke uses to flesh out his characters and settings.
In this novel, the setting is changed to Montana, where Robicheaux and his wife, accompanied by long-time buddy Clete Purcell, find themselves once again embroiled in murder, mayhem, and twisted familial psychopathy, this time revolving around the Wellstone family, a duo of physically and emotionally crippled brothers who are power brokers in the small area around Swan Peak; as well as the wife of one of the brothers, who brings her own checkered past into the equation.
There are other players in the story, leading to a complex brew: the former prison guard with a background of sexual perversity pursuing the escapee who shanked him and left him for dead; the aimlessly wandering woman who captures his heart; various thugs who work for the Wellstones; a religious charlatan; innocent kids trying to follow their faith who end up as victims.
These characters are all on courses that lead to intersection in the rugged Montana scenery, and Burke plots it very well.
Unfortunately, this time around the story bogs down in the endless and repetitive musings about each of the characters' pasts, as well as Robicheaux's history and demons.
In previous books, we've always had this aspect to the stories, and it's been handled deftly and creatively, adding to the depth of the characterizations and atmospheres of the tales. This time, I think Burke's gone overboard, and it really needlessly slows things down. Some of the charcters have overlapping or similar backgrounds, so the musings in these cases become repetitive. Others deal with similar demons -- most obviously Clete and Robicheaux -- so again there's a great deal of repetition.
There's one other aspect that's starting to become very obvious and problematic for the Robicheaux character: his age. In his musings, we read about his background in the Vietnam War, and times he spent with his Dad "in the 1940s" when he was growing up.
Well... I spent those kinds of times with MY Dad in the 1950s, and am also a Vietnam veteran, and my next birthday is my 60th. Which means Robicheaux has to be nearing 70. It's getting pretty hard to believe a character that old can be carrying on the way Robicheax and Purcell do.
Anyway, it was still an enjoyable read, if not quite up to Burke's earlier works, so I give it 3.5 stars.
 "The world respect(s) brute force and brute force alone, no matter what people claim." July 8, 2008
Mary Whipple (New England)
19 out of 25 found this review helpful
(3.5 stars) Following the decimation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, described in James Lee Burke's last novel, The Tin Roof Blowdown (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries), long-time New Iberia Parish detective Dave Robicheaux has accepted an invitation to recover emotionally on a ranch in western Montana. Robicheaux's long-time buddy Clete Purcell, who accompanies him, has not even started to recover. For Purcell, "the booze he drank and the weed he smoked and the pills he dropped didn't work anymore," and Robicheaux is desperately afraid for his friend.
Within days of their arrival in Montana, the past catches up with them. Clete Purcell runs afoul of two thugs, one of whom once worked for a Nevada gangster who was killed with his entourage when their small plane crashed in the mountains. Purcell has long been suspected of having been involved in the crash. These two thugs now work for wealthy Ridley Wellstone, who is financing a charismatic ministry operated by his young wife. Running parallel to these two plot threads is the story of Jimmy Dale Greenwood, a young man horribly abused by a "gunbull" during a two-year prison sentence. His abuser is now in the same area of Montana, near Missoula and Flathead Lake, as Jimmy Dale. In yet additional plot lines, two young college students are found tortured and murdered in the hills behind the ranch where Robicheaux and Purcell are staying, and a Hollywood producer making a film nearby, and his companion, are shot and burned at a highway rest stop. As these disparate plot threads begin to overlap and explode in violence, Robicheaux and Purcel are up to their eyeballs in the action.
Author James Lee Burke's vaunted ability to create vibrant characters and convey atmosphere through stunning descriptions is on full display here in Big Sky Country, with its fiercely independent residents and its spectacular natural resources. Despite the setting, however, the novel is extremely dark, filled with tormented, if not tortured, characters, all of whom are at the mercy of forces they cannot control. Extreme coincidence guides much of the action here, and though there are a few hints that one or two characters may, in time, set their lives in order, most "want their enemies hosed down with a flamethrower." Long biographies of the many individual characters provide their unfortunate backgrounds and suggest reasons for their violent behavior, though they do not explain the rare glimpses of empathy we see in some characters.
A climactic scene of non-stop action, killing, and near death experiences attempts to show the ultimate connections among the characters and the plot lines, but the author never explains how some of the characters actually extricate themselves from the critical scene. Even Dave Robicheaux, the narrator, admits, "In truth, I cannot tell you with any exactitude what happened [that night]." Somehow, after following so many damaged characters and complex plot lines for four hundred pages, I expected a little more. n Mary Whipple
Pegasus Descending: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux)
Heaven's Prisoners
The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
A Morning for Flamingos
 Evil, Dark and Masterful... July 29, 2008
Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Swan Peak by James Lee Burke is the 16th book in his Dave Robicheaux series, and this novel is dark, evil and wonderfully written.
Detective Dave Robicheaux hails from New Iberia, Louisiana. He's spending the summer in Montana with his wife Molly, and best friend Clete Purcell. Robicheaux plans on spending his days fishing and enjoying the Bitterroots. Events conspire against him, and as usual with Dave and Clete, trouble seems to follow them where ever they go.
Two college co-eds are brutally murdered, and one is found near where Robicheaux is staying. Two tourists are also found murdered at a rest stop. Robicheaux feels that the Wellstone brothers, Ridley and Leslie are somehow behind the evil things happening in this small town of Missoula. The Wellstones made their money in Texas, and are now operating a local ministry. Leslie Wellstone, a monster of a man with burn scars all over his face, is married to the pretty country singer, Jamie Sue Stapleton. At the same time, Jamie Sue's true love, Jimmy Dale Greenwood, escapes from a Texas jail after being brutalized by a jail gunbull, Troyce Nix. Nix knows that Greenwod will try to find Jamie Sue and follows Greenwood to Montana. And as if this isn't enough darkness going on, Purcell and Robicheaux are both dealing with demons caused by their childhoods, their Viet Nam experiences and in Robicheaux's case, his battle to stay sober. How these people all converge in this small town and the end results are as surprising as they are masterful.
In terms of writing, James Lee Burke it not just a mystery writer, but an author who writes mysteries. His books are written in a style that can be found in good literature. In fact, in addition to two different mystery series, Burke is the author of eight novels. When Clete became frustrated with the happenings in Missoula, "He closed his cell phone and flipped it over his shoulder onto the bed. If ever reincarnated, he vowed, he would live in a stone hut on top of a mountain in Tibet, thousands of miles away from people whose lives were modeled on the lyrics of country-and-western songs."
James Lee Burke has been publishing a new Robicheaux every July, and it's one of the things I most look forward to during the summer.
Burke at the Peak of his powers July 8, 2008
NoGoodDeed
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
Swan Peak is a "pseudo-sequel" to Black Cherry Blues, the Edgar Award-winning third Dave Robicheaux novel. Like that previous book, it takes place in Montana, where Robicheaux, his wife Molly and longtime friend Clete Purcel go for a fishing trip partly meant to help them escape the devastation of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina (which was powerfully and sadly evoked in The Tin Roof Blowdown.) The fishing party are the guests of Albert Hollister, one of wealthy oil man Ridley Wellstone's many enemies, with whom Dave and Clete must soon contend after inadvertantly trespassing on his property. After being warned away by two thugs Clete is recognized by one of the men - a former associate of Mob Boss Sally Dio - as the man who engineered Dio's demise in a Montana plane crash (see Black Cherry Blues.) Things get more complicated when two college students are found murdered near Hollister's land; the emnity between Hollister and Wellstone makes the oil tycoon a possible suspect and Dave is recruited by the local authorities to help with the investigation. Meanwhile Clete becomes dangerously infatuated with Wellstone's sister-in-law, a beautiful country singer who's being stalked by a former lover who is himself on the run; he escaped from a Texas prison after nearly killing a brutally violent guard named Troyce Nix. When Nix comes to Montana in pursuit, Robicheaux first sees him at a revival meeting put on by the shady Rev. Sonny Click (who may have Wellstone connections) and immediately pegs him as a menace despite being unaware of the ex-military man's disgraceful involvement at Abu Graib. All of this might sound confusing here, but Burke combines his intertwining storylines so smoothly that it's easy to appreciate his masterfully graceful prose, as well as his poetic eye for detail in both landscape and character. Nobody writes crime novels like James Lee Burke, and Swan Peak shows he is at the peak of his considerable powers.
Also recommended: A Stranger Lies There - winner of the Malice Domestic Award for best first mystery, it features a vividly rendered desert backdrop that should please fans of James Lee Burke's colorful Montana and Louisiana settings.
An American Dostoyevsky, Powerful book July 10, 2008
George Sands (Albuquerque, NM USA)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
Where to begin to review a magnificent literary achievement. How about his perception of America is dead on. I am trying to read this slowly as he is our favorite writer. I have 80 pages to go and I am milking it, rereading passages and pages. I stand in awe of James Lee Burke's power of prose and how the intersection of characters create their fate, as one of his characters, Candace says. I feel like I have grown a more compassionate heart with each Burke book. It is amazing how a reader such as myself, may deem a character despicable, only to find compassion for them later in his books. He always encompasses the scale of good and evil. The truly good, the truly evil and those caught in between due to life and the events thrown at them. As always, the power of forgiveness runs as a red thread throughout his books. His characters and plot in this book are complex and how he manages to juggle all successfully, is beyond me. That is what makes him a great writer. His words always hit the bone.
After I finish, I am rereading "Tin Roof Blowdown" as I can't let go of his writing just yet. Every year, I reread a Burke book after finishing the new one. On the eve of this release, it felt like Christmas eve, waiting in anticipation of a new Burke book. James Lee Burke is a national treasure of our country and I feel blessed to have him in our life. I love reading his philosophy of life in every book which is always spot on. His books are the true barometer of our country's health or dysfunction and it's people, our environment and our politics.
I want to add that James Lee Burke is a man of faith. As Christ redeemed us through love, I love it when his characters become redeemed through love. As above, so below. Love and forgiveness, ever present threads in his books.
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