Product Description

Personal tragedy has left Dave Robicheaux close to the edge. Battling against his old addiction to alcohol and haunted nightly by vivid dreams and visitations, Dave finds his only tranquility at home with his young ward Alafair. But even this fragile peace is shattered by the arrival of Dixie Lee Pugh who brings with him a brutal trail of murder and violence. Robicheaux reluctantly agrees to help out his old friend but becomes more involved than he bargained for when he finds himself suspect Number One in the series of bloody killings. Forced to leave his home, Robicheaux's precarious existence reaches breaking point when Alafair's life is threatened.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31340 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
James Lee Burke is the author of nineteen previous novels, including eleven featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in Missoula, Montana and New Iberia, Louisiana.

Customer Reviews

Excellent example of American crime fiction
Dave Robicheaux, ex cop, recovering alcoholic with lots of demons lurking in his psyche meets up with an old college friend. Dixie Lee Pugh has problems of his own and soon Dave is embroiled in a trail of murders, corruption, and general mayhem.

Black Cherry Blues is an excellent example of American crime fiction. The narrative is fast paced but believable while at times the writing is quite lyrical. He conjures up life in the Cajun and Montana countryside so well you feel you are there. Of course, some of the bad guys are oh so bad, while others are bad but have a better side to their character. And Dave Robicheaux is a great character - tender to his adopted daughter, loyal to his friends but ruthless in his treatment of those who threaten the ones he loves.

My first James Lee Burke book - but it certainly won't be my last.

3rd Dave Robicheaux novel: the blues singer and the Mafia
"When I closed my eyes and swallowed, I could even taste that black cherry wine. I knew then it wasn't never gonna be any different. I was always gonna be drunk, whether I was dry or out there juicing. So in my head I wrote a song about it. I could hear all the notes, the riffs, a stand-up bass backing me up. I worked out the lyrics for it, too -
You can toke, you can drop,
Drink or use.
It don't matter, daddy,
'Cause you never gonna lose
Them mean ole jailhouse
Black cherry blues."
- Dixie Lee Pugh, herein, remembering a song he wrote after two days' DTs in solitary

BLACK CHERRY BLUES, the first Robicheaux novel I ever read but third in the series, makes clear from the first page that the reader is entering a new episode of an ongoing story. Robicheaux mysteries are definitely *novels*, in which characters' personal problems often aren't fixed by the last page.

Dave Robicheaux and his adopted daughter Alafair, for example, are still getting through the first year after Annie Robicheaux's death (HEAVEN'S PRISONERS). Robicheaux's former partner from New Orleans Homicide, Cletus Purcel, has found a way around *some* of his problems, but his police career is still lost to him, and he too has more problems than his flippant exterior would at first lead one to believe.

Much of the story - as opposed to the mystery - has to do with Dave's commitment to Alcoholics Anonymous while coping with Annie's death. He *has* fallen from grace occasionally, but sticks to the principle of coping with one day at a time, refusing to let one fall be his downfall. As in some other entries of the Robicheaux series, Dave is haunted by the memories of his dead - Annie's memory has joined the ranks of his old platoon mates from Vietnam who visit his sleep.

Dixie Lee is another side to the problem, a blues singer who hasn't found a healthy way to cope with his alcoholism or his prison record. Pugh is reminiscent of various real-life music stars with troubled pasts. He even has a cousin who's a player in Louisiana state politics (appearing in a later book).

The mystery is really another problem to be solved: finding out what kind of trouble Dixie Lee has gotten into through his ex-cellmate, a mid-level organized crime boss whose thugs roughed up Dixie Lee after he renewed his acquaintance with Dave. Whether or not Dixie Lee needs or deserves rescuing, Dave soon faces a trumped-up murder charge in consequence that he'll have to clear up before it ever gets to court, since he can't afford a private investigator or a really good lawyer.

Drive-in totals:
- death threat to pet raccoon
- at least four dead bodies, including fire and explosion, not counting post-traumatic flashbacks and nightmares
- some sexual content
- road trip to Montana

Excellent, Tough-guy Mystery
Dave is one Cajun who subscribes to the philosophy: “hit first, before they hit you.” When Dave’s old college roommate, Dixie Lee, comes into town, he asks Dave to look into the possibility that his coworkers may have killed two guys in Montana. Robicheaux gets pulled back to his old ways, and sure enough, he must travel to Montana solve a murder before he's put in jail. The plot is much better than the two previous novels. I enjoyed the ending and Burke’s exceptional writing. This one deserved to win the Edgar Award!