This is a unique perspective from James Lee Burke. Clete Purcell is a familiar character to Burke fans; he's been Dave Robicheaux's sidekick since inception, but this is the first time (to my knowledge) that Clete gets an entire novel narrated from his perspective.
I'm happy that Burke takes us back to New Iberia and all the familiar haunts like Victor's Cafeteria, Clete's New Orleans settings, and the mysterious, lovely Bayou Teche in New Iberia. We encounter a cast of terrible, evil bad guys and of course we still have Dave Robicheaux, Helen Soileau, and all our other familiars.
Burke never seems to run out of ideas or troubles for Dave and Clete to get into.
Highly recommend!

You can write anything you want when you’re an 87-year-old acclaimed writer who’s won almost every award imaginable for mystery authors. And that’s what James Lee Burke seems to have done. Through 23 novels, Clete Purcel has served as the dedicated sidekick to Burke’s series hero, Dave Robicheaux. Burke has finally gotten around to telling a story from Purcel’s point of view. The resulting novel, “Clete,” still features Burke’s marvelous descriptive language and colorful characters, and Robicheaux is on hand as Clete’s wingman. But this story gives readers a hitherto unknown insight into Clete’s often troubled mind. The result is a plot that’s sometimes confusing (or confused in Clete’s narrative mind) and a bit hard to follow. However, the book will be a welcome addition to Burke’s fans’ libraries.

“Clete” is set in the late 1990s, when Purcel is a New Orleans private investigator, and Robicheaux is a detective in Iberia Parish. Clete had just taken his prized Cadillac El Dorado to an ex-con’s car wash as a favor. The next day, he discovers three goons stripping the car, looking for something. The thugs get away, but Clete suspects the car wash owner had stashed some drugs in Clete’s car. Clete hates fentanyl because his grandniece OD’d and died. He also hates anti-Semites, and one thug had an offensive anti-Semitic slur on his T-shirt. So, he goes looking for the drugs that weren’t in his car and the thugs who were.

The case and the book’s plot get much more complicated rather quickly. Several characters are murdered in gruesome fashions. Clete befriends a bail-jumping stripper who assaulted her sleazeball bail bondsman. He also rescues a young Chinese woman who was being trafficked and hooked on heroin by that same bondsman. To round out the trio of new women in his life, Clete takes on a would-be actress named Clara Bow (seriously) as a client. She’s being abused by her soon-to-be ex-husband, an even sleazier billionaire whose fortune built on a Ponzi scheme is coming apart at the hands of the IRS.

Clete has one other new woman in his life, and she’s the strangest of them all. Throughout the book, Dave is visited by Joan of Arc several times. Yes, that Joan of Arc, who appears to converse in modern-day English. She even shows up during a dinner Clete is sharing with Dave Robicheaux. Dave isn’t surprised to learn Joan is at the table, even though he can’t see her. (He’s had his own experiences with spirits.) Joan also provides Clete with clues that help him solve the case.

James Lee Burke has inserted paranormal elements in his other novels. Here, however, the genius of his narrative is that readers are never sure whether Joan actually appears or is only a figment of Clete’s imagination. It’s understandable if Clete isn’t sure of himself at times. Besides his past traumas, some of which the author describes here, Clete suffers a lot of physical abuse in this story. He’s beaten up three times, tased twice, shot once, and given a ham sandwich laced with LSD.

By having Clete narrate his story, the author gives readers an insight into how he regards Dave and the differences between the two men. They came from similar backgrounds and started out similarly, but Clete’s values and actions were slightly darker than Dave’s. In the first 23 books of the series, readers have seen this dichotomy through Dave’s eyes. Now, it’s from Clete’s point of view, and the difference makes “Clete” an intriguing variation on the earlier books. It also might explain why the author chose to write this book at this time in his career. “Clete” gives readers a fuller understanding of Clete Purcel and Dave Robicheaux.

Any Robicheaux novel is full of wonderfully descriptive writing, and readers can open “Clete” to any page at random and get an enjoyable sentence or two. I could fill this review with examples, but I’ll settle for the author’s description of the French Quarter (in the ARC I reviewed): “The Quarter smells like medieval Europe probably did, always dank, and, except for high noon, it’s always in shadow. It smells like storm sewers and night damp and lichen on stone and kegs of wine stored in a cellar and smoked fish hanging in the open-air market.”

“Clete” does not have the strongest storyline of the Robicheaux novels. All the elements are there: Clete and Dave, mysterious women, crooked cops, and slimy bad guys. But by the end of the book, readers aren’t sure how all the characters are connected or even what the mysterious contents the villains hoped to find in Clete’s car are. The last encounter takes place in a suburban bowling alley and its environs on a stormy night, and the fate of several characters is unclear.

The novel’s loose plotting and possible anachronisms bothered me somewhat. (Both fentanyl and Ponzi schemes were around in 1999, obviously, but they wouldn’t have been as prevalent as the book implies.) Also, some characters’ actions seem to differ in various parts of the book to fit the storyline. But, overall, I enjoyed “Clete” as I’ve enjoyed James Lee Burke’s other work. Supposedly, the author already has three other books completed. I hope we’ll see more of Clete, Dave, and James Lee Burke’s other memorable characters deep in the Louisiana bayous.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.

The 24th book in the Dave Robicheaux series is once again filled with the atmospheric beauty of Southern Louisiana that is filled with brutal low-lifes and fed with great food. But this one is told from the perspective of Dave’s best friend and erstwhile sidekick Cletus Purcel.

From the low-key start of Clete walking out one day to find his Eldorado being torn apart by three local hoods. It had just come back from a local car wash and they were supposedly looking for drugs that had been stashed somewhere in the car. He embarks on a personal odyssey to clean up his part of Louisiana.

The idea of a new lethal drug being introduced into his neck of the woods doesn’t sit well with Clete, so stopping the three would-be drug runners becomes front of mind for the Vietnam veteran turned private investigator.

Along the way he rescues Chen, a heroin addict who has fallen under the control of another evil so-and-so. And then a woman named Clara Bow drops in wanting to hire him to help her escape from her abusive husband.

It’s a full plate for Clete who routinely suffers little setbacks from the PTSD carried over from his days in Vietnam. The most notable of these are the visits he gets from Joan of Arc, who seems to materialize at the direst of moments to take a hand in saving his life. Dave helps, by the way.

The high points stem from the easygoing friendship between Clete and Dave as they stoically take every adversary head on and with full force. These moments of repartee are usually accompanied by some classic Cajun or Creole dishes and are set in the most vividly described locations that essentially plonks you down in the middle with them. Great action and (usually) violence ensues.

Where it gets a bit difficult is the inner turmoil that Clete battles with inside his own mind. He’s constantly trying to work out what’s real and what’s drug, alcohol or imagination fueled. Sometimes there’s no explanation about real and imaginary with many long rambling accounts that lead nowhere and are related apropos of nothing relevant. I found these pieces difficult to follow and tended to start skimming my way over them for fear of getting interminably bogged down.

But the moments of deep thinking, drug-infused rambling nonsense aside, time spent with Dave and Clete in Southern Louisiana is good time as far as I’m concerned. With Dave and Clete around to greet people with “What’s the haps” there will always be knights errant around to stick up for the weak and vulnerable and they do it with a certain style.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for supplying a copy of this digital ARC to allow me to read, enjoy and write this review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

I have loved Dave Robicheaux since I first picked up one of his stories 20 years ago or so. But this one is different. Clete Purcel, Dave's long-time friend and running buddy is the main character here and the story is told in his voice, with Dave as the sidekick.

It begins when Clete picks up his car after leaving it for a detailing job at a carwash run by a childhood friend. Unfortunately, there was another Cadillac there at the same time, and something was put in his car that was intended for the other one. Next thing he knows, there are three guys tearing up his car, literally dismantling it searching for something. But they don't know for sure what they are looking for, and conclude that he found it before them. But Clete has no idea what they are looking for, either, and has no idea why they have targeted his car. He runs them off, but knows that is not the end of his problems with these guys, and a couple of them look to be real trouble. When he finds out they are connected to a drug gang, he takes it personally, because of his niece who recently died from a fentanyl overdose and he blames them for her death.

But Clete has started a new life as a private investigator, which brings a woman to his office named Clara Bow, named for the "It girl" from the silent movies and bearing a resemblance, at least to Clete, to the movie star. She wants Clete to help her divorce from her abusive rich husband who has treated her badly, but who she stayed with for fifteen years. But there is something off about her, and when he meets her ex, there is something off about him, too.

In typical James Lee Burke fashion, things just get stranger, and the characters more bizarre and unpredictable. His problems bring in Dave Robicheaux, Robicheaux's boss Helen Soileau, and an FBI agent who has a fixation with this drug case. Clete also rounds up some lost women and interacts with Joan of Arc, just to keep everything interesting. You can't read a Robicheaux book without expecting a LOT of violence, and this one certainly fills that order!

Recently, the great author SA Cosby, one of a newer generation who could take the baton from James Lee Burke as the crime genre’s best, posed a question on social media about the toughest characters in crime fiction. Interestingly, many prime contenders were sidekicks, such as Mouse from Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins books or Joe Pike from Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole tales. And Clete Purcel, long-time friend and ‘podner’ of aging Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux. Or as Burke has described him over the years, an ‘albino ape’ in a porkpie hat, a trickster of folklore, a quasi-psychotic jarhead who came back from Vietnam with a chest full of medals and memories he never shared.

In Clete, Burke takes us inside the viewpoint of this ‘archangel in disguise with strings of dirty smoke rising from his wings’.

After his car is ransacked by thugs tied to a Mexican cartel, Clete decides to trail the culprits; meanwhile he’s hired to investigate a slippery ex-husband and deaths that seem linked to a heavily tattooed man. A hallucinating Clete and Robicheaux hear rumours of a lethal new drug perhaps tied to the thugs who destroyed his car. While Clete centres the sidekick, like with Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch crossovers, Burke’s terrific change-up gives readers a new perspective on Clete and Dave both. Vivid and violent, Clete skitters along on Burke’s masterful prose, soaks us in its Louisiana setting, and gives readers long-time and new a haymaker of a read.

[This is an extract from a review written for the New Zealand Listener magazine]

Clete: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke takes readers back to the late 90s and events that Clete Purcell and Dave Robicheaux experienced. Told primarily from the point of view of Clete, the read features all the classic elements of a Dave Robicheaux novel. Southern Louisiana setting and vivid descriptions, references to faith and societal decay, and apparitions that are symbolic of history and the great wrongs that have happened before and will happen again.

Both Clete and Dave served in Vietnam, had horrible experiences, and came back home. Coping with their military service has been a struggle for both of them. While Dave is still a cop, Clete no longer is thanks to some of the things he did. He is now a private investigator and is struggle to hang on in every way possible. He drives a 1959 El Dorado and loves that car.

He entrusts it to Eddy Durbin, owner and operator of the car wash, Eddy’s Car Wash, over in Algiers. Eddy did all his time in Angola and has made a name for himself in the years since. Clete was late in picking up the car as he was in New Orleans for a bondsman chasing down a dancer. He got back, got the car, and takes it back home to where he lives in the Garden District.

Couple of days later one morning, he hears noises, and discovers three guys pulling the leather off the seats and pulling damn near everything else out of the car. The three guys are sure there was something of theirs in the car. If not there, maybe it made its way into the house. When confronted about what they are doing to his car in his driveway, they get the idea in their heads that they want to come inside and check. Clete wasn’t going to have that.

Clete was holding his own until one of the three hit him in the head with a crowbar. Down and out, the guys got away, and New Orleans police were of no help. That means Clete is going to have to hunt these guys on his own,.

Obviously, the first stop is the carwash. Eddy Durbin sees him coming and jumps into an available car. He takes off with Clete chasing him. He finally stops and explains that there was another El Dorado and that his little brother is involved. The stuff, whatever it was, was supposed to go into that car and got put in Clete’s car by mistake. He has no idea where his brother, is but thinks the Dixie Mafia is involved. He also thinks that the stuff was probably fentanyl.

The same horrible drug that recently killed Clete’s grandniece. That makes it double personally for Clete. One way or another, Clete is going to see everyone involved dead or locked up in cage for forever. He would be fine with killing them all.

What follows is a highly atmospheric story as Clete explains what happened in the case long ago as well as shares observations on faith, morality, politics, environmental issues, and the slow destruction of Eden (Louisiana). Many of the observations fit the time period of decades ago as well as are accurately reflect the times we are in today. There have always been those among us that seek to profit off of others and just don’t care how they do it.

As often happens in Dave Robicheaux series, knowing that a person is evil and doing crimes, is one thing. Proving it for a court of law takes a lot of work with numerous detours.

Such as the case here in Clete: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke. A book where the evil one sees is just the tip of a rotten iceberg that could destroy everything.


My reading copy came from the publisher, Atlantic Monthly Press, by way of Net Galley.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2024

From the Podna

James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux stories have everything– drama, action, humor, violence, evil, justice, the beauty of Louisiana painted with such eloquence– but the most potent treasures they possess are the characters of Dave Robicheaux and his “podna” Clete Purcel. Clete is now a private investigator, having previously been run off the New Orleans PD. Dave had served with him and is currently a sheriff’s detective in New Iberia. Through two dozen books we see these two face down the worst in humanity without compromise, all the time struggling with their own personal demons.

This is the first in the series told in Clete’s words. Although Dave has had his episodes of explosive violence (often during blackouts he does not fully remember), Clete has always been portrayed as the enforcer, much quicker to get physical no matter what the consequences.

As the story opens, Clete discovers three thugs tearing his Cadillac Eldorado apart. The car had just spent a few days at a friend's car wash and the suspicion is something, maybe fentanyl, had been stashed. Clete confronts these guys, takes a beating, and launches his own investigation into why he is being targeted. Whatever was hidden away has not been found and people around Clete are suffering the consequences. One recurring trait of his is the tendency to dive blindly into saving the damsel in distress… and it is a big part of what happens here.

Both Dave and Clete live with PTSD from their time in the Vietnam War. In addition to flashbacks, Dave has seen and heard manifestations of the ghosts of the Civil War action in the area. Now Clete is visited by an apparition, a historical figure now here to guide him. Is she a figment of his imagination? Is she a result of blunt force trauma? And if she is not real, how did she appear to shoot his attacker with a sniper rifle?

As the plot revs up to include more at stake than just a failed drug transaction, we are treated to the brilliance of James Lee Burke’s prose. Louisiana becomes a very real character in all this series, and we dissolve into its landscape.

“The rumbling in the clouds and the waterspouts on the horizon make you tremble. The sun does not go down; it dies, and its fire takes its red smoke with it.”

The plot is always a judgment of good versus evil, seeing how it plays out in society. Clete is called a protector, “like (an) angel with big wings.” He carries around an old photo of a mother walking her children at a concentration camp, a reminder of an unavenged atrocity. These guys cannot stand by and let the powerful prey on the weak, to let hate groups go unchecked.

“In my lifetime I had seen numerous groups come and go. Their names change, but their membership remains the same— people who feel they have been left out. They blame immigrants and women and gay people and Jews and Blacks and anyone else they can pick on. Needless to say, most of them are not bright and get chewed up and spat out by the rich people who exploit them.”

The novels of James Lee Burke have been cherished gifts for me, and this is no exception.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #Clete #NetGalley

This is the 24th book in the Dave Robicheaux series, but i tis the first one I've read. I think I would have benefited from reading some of the prior books to have a better understanding of Dave Robicheaux, but this book seems to be told completely from Clete Purcel's point of view.

Description:
Clete Purcel—private investigator, former New Orleans cop, and war veteran with a hard shell covering a few soft spots—is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and detective partner. But he has a troubled past. When Clete picks up his Caddy from a local car wash, only to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade, it feels personal—his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose—and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

As Clete traces the connections in this far-reaching criminal enterprise, Clara Bow, a woman with a dark past, hires Clete to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths link back to a heavily tattooed man who lurks around every corner. Clete experiences shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questions Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could’ve imagined.

My Thoughts:
It took me some time to get used to the writing style. The story is told from Clete's point of view and is filled with what I call "tough guy" language. There were times I had to stop and look up some terms because I didn't know what the book was talking about - terms like "Mick" and "F.T.S' and 'slack time' and 'got naped'- I had no clue. The book had a claustrophobic, criminal atmosphere throughout. Then there were the visions that both Clete and Dave seemed haunted by, a product of their time spent serving our country during war time. The ghost of Joan of Arc kept appearing to Clete and I didn't get that either. I never felt close to any of the characters. I did feel sorry for Chen though. There's a good story here, but it's not my type of book. I think those who really like mob stories would probably enjoy it.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic through Netgalley for an advance copy.

This isn't Clete's story but rather a story told by Clete, the best friend of Burke's Dave Robicheaux and it's terrific. Fans of Burke know that he has a distinctive style and a sly way of telling his tale. What really impressed me is that Clete's voice is distinct from Dave's-and it's a great one. This story, set in the past (but know the timelines might feel a little loose), starts when Clete discovers thugs tearing apart his Eldorado, newly back from his friend's carwash, looking for drugs. It then spins Clete off on a quest, with not just Dave but also -wait for it- Joan of Arc. He's got a new client in Clara Bow, a woman whose husband has some evil friends, he's rescued Chen who has been trafficked, and keep your eye on Gracie, who works the pole but who has an interesting back story. This is incredibly atmospheric (right down to the spearmint snowballs) and it's got a fair amount of humor to leaven the violence. What I really liked about this is that it shows Clete's big heart and his dogged pursuit of both truth and setting things right. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Great read.

I have read many novels by the great James Lee Burke. I have read most, if not all, of his remarkable Dave Robicheaux mystery and suspense stories. So I come to this review as a big fan of the writings of Burke. So I was excited to read his latest Robicheaux story entitled “Clete.” This story is written in the 1st person voice of Robicheaux’s best friend, and borderline crazy man, Clete Purcell. First the good news: James Lee Burke continues to put together beautiful phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. His writing elevates his books from “detective fiction” to “literature.” I find myself rereading sentences regularly just to slow myself down and enjoy the prose, whether his descriptions of Louisiana countryside or the grimness of tough urban New Orleans streets. His tales are at their fundamental best concerning the good versus evil in men (and women) and often within the same character.
The puzzling part of “Clete” is his penchant in recent years to add a supernatural element to his stories. Threaded amongst some violent episodes about bad people selling nasty drugs we are introduced to Joan of Arc conjured up by Clete (or is she?) where Joan plays a critical part in the plot…and at the most critical moments. I just don’t know why Mr. Burke goes there. Do I enjoy this mystical moments? Yes I do. However, in hindsight, I tend to think that this plot device should either be eliminated altogether or just used with a light touch. Far be it from an avid reader without any writing talent to be critical of a great author’s writing choices. I would love to hear what others conclude after he/she finish reading “Clete.”
Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read “Clete” and I am glad James Lee Burke continues to publish instead of resting on his laurels.

I am a great fan of James Lee Burke, and the David Robicheaux series in particular, however, lately he has been dipping more into the surreal, confusing the issue with more and more other worldly elements. In this first outing in which Clete is the major character, after a strong beginning,the story dissolved for me. It does, however contain, some of works trademark evocative writing, which, as always is a pleasure to read. He does manage to speak with a different voice and point of view.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for allowing me to preview, yet another solid novel by James Lee Burke.

Clete Purcel has always been one of my favorite characters who seems to shine in small spotlights throughout the Dave Robicheaux universe. He finally gets his due in this novel by one of the greatest writers of our time.

A decorated war veteran and former homicide detective, Clete Purcel has a huge heart even though he has had his issues. Clete and Dave unwrap a conspiracy in an area of Louisiana that is beautifully described by Burke. Clete is a complex man. He will do what needs to be done especially when defending those who can’t stand up for themselves.

I truly hope we see another novel through Clete’s eyes. Great read!

I'll be honest, I had a hard time following this book. I got about 33% through and had to put it down. I like James Lee Burke, but this one wasn't for me...

I finally discovered James Lee Burke in 1990, some four books into his Dave Robicheaux series, when my favorite bookseller of all time put a copy of The Neon Rain in my hands and said "you have to take this one home with you." Thirty-four years later I've enjoyed almost forty of Burke's novels, including all twenty-four Robicheaux books, and I'm thrilled that Burke is still adding to the series. But the series addition I've been itching for for a while now is one featuring Clete Purcell, Dave's soulmate, and I finally got it.

Clete Purcell has shared most of his life's experiences with Dave Robicheaux. The two had each other's backs in Vietnam, then again as frustrated New Orleans Police Department cops, and have continued to watch over each other now that Dave is a sheriff's detective for New Iberia Parish and Clete is working as a New Iberia private detective. If one of them is in trouble, the other can be counted on to show up with guns blazing - and this time around, Clete is going to need all the firepower he can get.

Trouble has a way of finding people like Clete Purcell even if it has to find his Cadillac convertible first. Shortly after picking the Caddy up from a local car wash, Clete wakes up to find four thugs systematically taking the car apart. What they are looking for he hasn't a clue, but Clete does have a good idea about who might have stashed something in the car without his permission. Clete's grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and if there's anything he hates more than fentanyl, it's the people who deal it. So it's a red hot Clete Purcell who returns to the car wash to get some answers.

But it won't be that simple because before Clete even gets started a pretty young woman calling herself Clara Bow asks him to investigate her evil ex-husband. Clara pushes all the right buttons. She's exactly the type of woman Clete can never resist rescuing, even when it puts his own life in danger, so now things are certain to get a lot more complicated for Clete Purcell and Dave Robicheaux. If they don't figure this thing out quickly, it is not only Southwest Louisiana that's in trouble - the rest of the world will pay a heavy price.

James Lee Burke paints a dark picture when it comes to good vs. evil, and he pretty much always has. When it comes to portraying evilness, Burke doesn't blink - but he saves his best writing for flawed white knights like Clete and Dave. Burke believes that a few good men willing to stop evil in its tracks no matter the personal cost can impact the world for centuries to come. Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell are two of those good men.

Longtime readers of the Dave Robicheaux series will especially enjoy Clete because they get to experience Dave through the eyes of the man who knows him best. As powerful as this story is, I still could not help but chuckle when I realized that each of the men sees the other as the craziest and most dangerous of the pair. They both believe that the other has to be protected from himself and his urges - and both of them are correct. What a team.

Whilst I didn't dislike this book, it just wasn't for me. I was hoping to come across Clete and found myself in a new world, however, it became quite clear that the book was more of a spin-off of the successful Dave Robicheaux series, with Dave himself playing a very prominent role in the book.

The two already had a clear dynamic and I felt that by not reading Dave's series, for which Burke is best known, I was missing out on a lot, I also found Clete himself to be a bit of a rambler, not ever really getting to the point and often leading the reader down rabbit holes of what i perceived to be random, off-topic thoughts.

The reason I gave the book 3 stars is because I think this is a good book if you like Burke's work and are already acquainted with both Clete and Dave. I cannot mark the author down for this being a new world to me, that would be unfair. I also liked the Bayou/New Orleans setting, so that deserved praise too.

But if you are looking for a new series, or a one-off novel, my honest advice is to start with Burke's early work, as opposed to beginning with Clete.

James Lee Burke does it again. I’m a huge fan of the Dave Robicheaux series and love most of the characters featured in the novels. One of my favourite is Clete Purcell, Dave’s buddy who lends his name to the title of the novel.

The plot as is usual with James Lee Burke’s novels is fairly straightforward and the writing is taut. Clete has his home broken into and is assaulted by three men who ransack his beloved Cadillac looking for something that he believes is drugs. He ropes in his friend Dave Robicheaux into helping him track down the perps. Investigating this break-in leads Dave and Clete into a conspiracy which features antisemites, drug runners and general no gooders who are neck deep in human trafficking and other serious stuff. The mystery and plot are good, but not one of Burke’s best. There’s a supernatural element to the plot which I don’t think does much for the book.
Despite that, this is a breezy and easy read and one that fans of Burke will not want to miss.

The incredible James Lee Burke takes the opportunity to take us into the mind and perspective of Clete Purcel, one of the Bobbsey Twins, partner and friend of NOPD's Dave Robicheaux, prepare yourself to be walking into his blurred and hallucinative realities. Clete carries the trauma of the Vietnam War, of horrors that cannot be unseen, a ex-cop with a chequered past that has taken its toll and made him many enemies, now a PI doing his best to right wrongs in the 1990s. Having picked up his caddy from Eddy Durbin, with his ominous brother, Andy, only to wake up and find his caddy being systematically wrecked in the search for misplaced dangerous drugs. Filled with dark premonitions of terrors to come, and weighed down by depression, Clete investigates with Dave.

The damaged and flawed Clete has seen what fentanyl did to his grand-niece, fuelling his hatred of drug dealers, and this particular drug threatens unprecedented levels of societal destruction. What surprises, given all that he has undergone, is that Clete retains his heart and soul, he will do all that he can to save and protect others, those he loves and those regarded as disposable, as can be seen when he rescues the drug addicted Chen, committing to helping her and Gracie Lamar. Everyone close to him is in grave danger, as the number of dead bodies start to rise, and he takes on Clara Bow, wife of Ponzi scheme scammer, Lauren, as a client, seeing Joan of Arc, where as he puts it 'Reality felt like a wet tissue in my hands', as he carries a picture of a Jewish mother and her children in his wallet.

The author brings Louisiana vibrantly alive, the richly described landscape and bayous, heaven on earth, paradise teeming with its serpents, its racism and corruption, political and individual, and its destructive hurricanes, where its history in intertwined with the present. He skilfully draws attention to how people have deliberately been kept poor and scared, leaving them open to be manipulated by the unscrupulous powerful and wealthy. Clete, along with Dave, refuses to bend to these forces, willing to do whatever is necessary, even to die, to address the racism, misogyny, and the violence and brutality of the ever evolving drug trade, lamenting the lives of the innocents that it takes. A superb addition to an amazing series, where we finally get a valuable and informed glimpse into the complex Clete, what has shaped him, who he is, and where he is coming from. I highly recommend this to fans, new and old, of the Robicheaux series. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Another great novel by one of America’s finest and most prestigious living authors today. I had avoided reading him in the past because my husband always cautioned me that his works are from a dark and gritty point of view. Since my husband has passed I felt reading this as an homage to my husband. James Lee Burke made me interested from the very beginning of this novel. The novel was centered in the dark side of NOLA and it surrounding areas during the 1990’s Yes, this was every bit as good as you would expect. I ravaged the novel it was so unbelievably exemplary.! Not my genre but I will be seeking out James Lee Burke’s’ next novel. You should seek this one out when it will be published on June 11, 2024. You will find it to be the best thing you read all year, because it is one that stays on your mind. It will be published June 11, 2024. Thanks to #NetGalley, #AtlanticMonthlyPress, and #JamesLeeBurke #Clete for the opportunity to read an early e-copy of an uncorrected proof.

A genuinely exceptional instalment of the Robicheaux series, narrated for the first time by Clete… we don’t learn a great deal more about Clete as a result- testament to how well his character has been drawn in previous episodes. What I particularly liked about this book was seeing the supernatural element more clearly twinned to the human in a way which didn’t require too much willing suspension of disbelief. That said the burden of evil as expressed through human actions weighs even more heavily for that. It feels like the author finds darkness outweighing hope. Is there one last book in this series? It feels like there might be and that perhaps it will be the last. If so, im hoping that ‘hope’ is more prevalent if only because the author is such an incredibly accurate mirror of what is going on in society and politics that for it to be otherwise would be very scary indeed.

I have also posted this review on goodreads and thanks for the opportunity to read and review it

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an advance reader copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

James Lee Burke is likely the greatest living American author of our time. I look forward to new titles in the Dave Robicheaux series whenever they are published. This latest chapter in the series, has sidekick Clete Purcel narrating the "haps" of this duo. While the different perspective & deeper dive into Clete's character were a good change of pace....I missed the tale being told from Dave's perspective.
Burke's evocative prose still shines through using Clete's voice! Definitely a worthy installment in the saga and I can't wait for the next Robicheaux novel!

Description
In the latest installment in his famous Detective Dave Robicheaux series, New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings Dave’s partner and friend Clete Purcel to the forefront for the first time as Clete and Dave attempt to stop ruthless smugglers of a dangerous new drug

Clete Purcel – private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spots – is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal – his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

Just as Clete starts to trail the culprits, Clara Bow, a woman with a dark past hires Clete as a detective to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who seems to lurk around every corner. Clete is experiencing shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questioning Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could’ve imagined.

Gripping, violent, yet interlaced with Clete’s humor and consistent drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to a truly iconic series. James Lee Burke proves yet again that he is the “heavyweight champ” and “great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed” (Michael Connelly).