12. The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke

Another day, another dead prostitute. This will be the third dead hooker book in a row. Not the trend I was going for.

My father-in-law, long a reader of James Lee Burke and detective books in general, praised the Dave Robicheaux series as a benchmark for the genre. With a gothic setting (Louisiana, a character on its own with a Southern culture distinct from the rest of the Deep South) and "real," flawed characters caught up in complex stories, to paraphrase, I was sure to love them.

I forget where I picked up The Neon Rain, first in a series, though I'm inclined to think my in-laws gave it as a gift a few Christmases ago. It would fit, and I had shown interest. Let me start off by saying I can see the attraction, but it took me some time to get into it. Taken as a whole, the novel is littered with strong dialogue and controlled plotting, an accomplished entry to the field.

Robicheaux is a New Orleans cop, a bit of a maverick, a recovering alcoholic, better than most at his job and like a scent hound when he gets on the trail. Of course his investigation of the dead young woman's death (not what it seems, he tells the close-minded sheriff) lands him in someone's crosshairs, and is just the start of his tumble down the rabbit hole. Bayou drug lords, gun running, Feds with dark agendas, cops - both rural and urban - with ulterior motives, a good looking social worker out to change the world (and maybe...one man's heart?): Burke takes his detective through a twisting, frustrating path on his way to justice.

Published in 1987, The Neon Rain would have felt very timely, what with its arms smugglers at the center of the plot. And there's a healthy distrust of the government (and authority in general, as they cover-up the dead girl's murder as suicide/overdose and...more than that would start giving away the wending plot). The story moves around various unsavories, including government officials, contains more than one sharply-written kidnapping, and soaks us in the violence and corruption Robicheaux sees in the world (in a good way).

Common to a lot of detectives and PIs, Robicheaux is a broken man, to varying degrees, and the love of a good woman will go a long way to mending him. So, par for the course, there is a romantic subplot, but it adds a good flavor and helps alleviate what could be a depressing story start to finish without this little ray of sunshine. Was it all entirely believable? Your mileage will vary.

Though this is the first Robicheaux novel, it's not Burke's first rodeo. His style is, to quote about every review out there, "evocative." That's the defining adjective. Rich, colorful, confident and engaging also work. Speaking to the last - and as I said above - it took a bit for me to really invest in this world. You'll fall into his vision of NOLA, but his language (which can get a little purply) was a slight hurdle for this reader*.

So did I like it? Well, I did buy the next two books.

3.75/5

-EMH

*I think that's partially on me for reading two detective novels prior this with a very different prose style. Connelly is a bit starker in his description, befitting the difference of LA cop mystery vs. New Orleans gothic. Not that I want all books in a genre to read identically; I entered this read with different expectations. Still, the man EVOKES with only slightly more restraint than an 80s hair rocker getting dressed.