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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780786889044
ISBN number: 0786889047
Label: Hyperion
Manufacturer: Hyperion
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: August 01, 1996
Publishing house: Hyperion
Release Date: July 08, 1996
Sale Popularity Level: 59159
Studio: Hyperion
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Product Description:
Helping the Fontenot family of sharecroppers from being forced away from their longtime home, detective Dave Robicheaux discovers a link between the eviction and the murder of a New Orleans fixer's girlfriend. Reprint. Tour. PW.
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Rated by buyers 
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This series is SOOOOOOO good! Remember to read the titles in order, however. It is definitely a progressive series. See my review of Crusader's Cross for a general view of the series.
Rated by buyers 
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Once again JLB has Dave dealing with people he knew back in New Orleans and Vietnam. Again it's some one who grew up around the Mafia in NO and he dealt with when he was in NOPD. Again it's a member of the local mafia and gentry that is behind a problem that doesn't ever seem to go away (a bad upbringing and abuse of them or their mother or both).
What makes this one different is the inclusion of drugs for guns in south america and the american government involvement with both. An old friend from 'Nam shows up and gives a 'diary' to Dave which is purported to have info that will tie people in souteastern Louisiana to war crimes committed in Nicaragua. At the same time, one of the local gentry who has fallen onto hardtimes because of his involvement with a 'woman of color' is looking for a way out and big score. The big score is over use of his ancestral land for environmentally damaging industry which is nothing new in the polluted swamp-lands and marshes of the area around New Iberia.
There is also the touch of the 'supernatural' when after his friend Sonny is killed; he seems to turn up all over the area, and is seen by Alafair, Clete and Batiste. A nudge from Sonny, saves Dave's life and determines that one of the bad guys will take his own life.
There's a nice piece about Dave and Alafair, and dealing with your baby girl becoming a teenager and all that that implies to a parent. I thought he handled it very forthrightly and with honesty. Dave's as confused as to what to do as the rest of us mortals.
For me, at least, it seemed that he walzed through this one, getting ready for something big in the next.
Rated by buyers -
The Dave Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke have always had a spiritual component --see IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD-- but in BURNING ANGEL the supernatural darn near takes center stage with the presence of a real, honest-to-gosh no-doubt-about-it ghost. I loved the series before...now I'm really hooked.
Rated by buyers 
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I thought "Black Cherry Blues" was bad, until I read this one. At least "Black Cherry Blues" has an ending.
I wanted to give it zero stars but it was not one of the choices. First of all, I think James Lee Burke is a horrible writer. He tried too hard in his description of things throughout the book. Here's an example in one of the last pages:
"...his GI haircut resembles a peeled onion under the sun....."
Why bother with such description? It serves no purpose. Besides it doesn't make sense!!
The above would have been tolerable if the story is good. There are too many subplots. In the end, all the subplots do not come together, like a good mystery is supposed to.
It is the very first book I have ever read (I read tons) where I did not know what happened in the end, not to mention the question to the following:
1. What is in Sonny's notebook?
2. Who is Charlie?
3. What is Moleen hiding?
4. What is the construction company trying to build, or dig up? Treasures?
5. And what is up with different people seeing Sonny alive after he has been killed?
I don't know if it's just me, but how can anybody give this book a 4 or 5-star, like some of the reviews I read. Maybe these same people can explain the book to me. Then again, I don't think I want to know. If James Lee Burke can be a best-selling author, then the standard of today's contemporary writers are dropping..........fast. Now that I am sufficiently depressed, maybe a good Agatha Cristie mystery will cheer me up.
j
Rated by buyers -
I love almost everything about James Lee Burke including his prose, his characters and especially, the locations he writes about. But Burning Angel is the second book in a row where I had a problem with the plot.
As usual, Dave Robicheaux (deputy with the New Iberia Sheriff's Department) has way too much going on. First, Robicheaux runs into a "friend" who grew up in New Iberia and ended up being a Canal Street fixer in New Orleans. Sonny Boy Marsallus has dabbled in almost everything including being a Latin American mercenary and an independent working for the DEA. Marsallus thinks his life is in danger and asks Robicheaux to hold a notebook with damaging information. A plantation owner is trying to gain possession of land that his grandfather deeded to the families of former slaves. Why he wants the land is a big mystery, but the mob also seems to be involved. It is also rumored that Jean Lafitte buried treasure there. Lots of bad guys hover on the edges and there always seems to be a hit out on Robicheaux.
There were too many things going on in Burning Angel, and I had a hard time keeping them all straight. I'm ok with the the local crimes, the mob plots, and even the Viet Nam angle. But Burke gets very murky when delving into the world of clandestine operations in Latin America. Usually Burke wraps things up at the end, but there were an awful lot of loose ends hanging here. Even the epilogue wasn't much help.
Despite the plot, there is still enough in Burning Angel to keep me reading. Burke regales us not just with the beauty of Louisiana, but also her ugliness (her racism, exploitation of the environment, the mob influence, poverty, the crime, etc.). Robicheaux's new partner, Helen Soileau, is also a good fit. She's unlike any woman he has teamed up with in the past. She's not always very politically correct and sometimes shows less restraint than Robicheaux. Clete Purcell and Helen loathe each other, but a grudging respect develops when they pull together to assist Robicheaux. It's rather comical.
Even though the plot of Burning Angel was not as polished as previous books, Burke is still a better writer than most mystery writers today. I'm still determined to read them all and I have five more to go.
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