Review by Booklist Review
When New Orleans police lieutenant Dave Robicheaux learns there's a contract out on his life, the search for his would-be assassins pits him against low-life drug runners, a vicious Mafia chieftain, and an honorable but misguided ex-general. The brassy lieutenant starts putting the squeeze on all the wrong people and is subsequently kidnapped, badly beaten, and left for dead in a burning car. Put off by Robicheaux' theatrical tactics, his superiors suspend him from the force. Undeterred, the detective pursues the investigation, which soon escalates into a bloody one-man war. Apart from a few missteps in detailing Robicheaux' relationship with his insipid girlfriend, Burke has penned a fast-paced mystery with colorful dialogue and a rich, finely detailed portrait of New Orleans. JW. [CIP] 86-15222
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Burke's sixth novel pits New Orleans homicide detective Dave Robichaux against the mob, the contras, the Feds and just about all the other cops. The trouble starts when Robichaux insists on investigating the murder of a young prostitute and discovers that it isn't only the crooks who don't want the truth to come out: the police don't want it revealed, either. The underworld and the authorities combine to cobble up a frame against Robichaux, and suddenly he's on the run. Burke's maverick detective and his gritty, realistic dialogue and convoluted plotting are reminiscent of Elmore Leonardwhose latest novel, Bandits, has a contra angle, too. The matter of subterranean government policy running amok suits the world of suspense fiction well, serving it in the 1980s the way Cold War themes fed the genre in earlier decades. With its fine local color and driving action, this novel is both chilling and first-rate entertainment. (March 27) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
New Orleans homicide cop Dave Robicheaux has a passion for fishing. While pursuing his hobby on a back country bayou, Robicheaux finds a body. His discovery pulls him into a network of small-time Mafiosi, Nicaraguan drug dealers, federal Treasury agents and retired two-star generalsall involved in a plot to ship arms to the Nicaraguan contras. More interesting than the unraveling of this plot is Robicheaux himselfCajun, recovering alcoholic, practicing Catholicand his efforts to preserve his integrity in the face of provocation. Better still are Burke's evocative descriptions of New Orleans life both high and low. The book is marred slightly by a resemblance to the Travis McGee seriesRobicheaux lives on a houseboat and has a penchant for color-laden metaphor. But Neon Rain is a well-crafted novel with a likable hero. Louise A. Merriam, L.E. Phillips Memorial P.L., Eau Claire, Wis. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A New Orleans homicide cop confronts arms-smugglers, the Mafia and his own private demons in this bloody, ripsnorting suspenser, the latest offering from Burke (The Convict, The Lost Get-Back Boogie). On a fishing trip in Gataouatche Parish, Lieutenant Dave Robicheaux discovers the floating body of a young black woman. The trail leads to Julio Segura, a Nicaraguan vice king in exile, who is funding the Contras with dope money, and has put out a contract on Dave's lite. Segura is soon blown away by Dave's partner--one of a series of violent spasms that fail to mask the lack of a storyline. The other hoods involved in the arms-smuggling force alcohol down Dave's throat and leave him to die in a burning car. He survives the fire nicely, but doesn't do so well with the police higher-ups, who suspend him without pay, figuring he's boozing again: Dave is an arrested alcoholic, with a tidied marriage and combat service in Vietnam behind him. What prevents his return to an alcoholic hell is Annie Ballard, the sweet, stand-by-your-man Kansas blonde he's collected along the way. Dave still has vigilante work to do, dispatching one of the hoods and (in a development unrelated to the arms-smuggling) taking on the local Mafia chief. But not to worry: invisible hands tidy away the hood's body, the remaining arms-smugglers are brought to justice, and Dave is reinstated. Burke stumbles away from the ramifications of his arms-smuggling story to concentrate on the odyssey of one cop, producing a wildly uneven work in which all that counts, ultimately, is the excitement of the kill (eight characters meet violent ends). But while there is much garish overwriting here, there are also some fine scenes that fairly crackle with menace. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
