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Last Car To Elysian Fields

Series: Dave Robicheaux
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( 6,504 ratings, 338 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Last Car to Elysian Fields follows Detective Dave Robicheaux as he navigates the murky waters of crime in Louisiana. The narrative intertwines the search for a missing blues singer with the investigation of a local priest's brutal attack. Burke masterfully blends elements of mystery and suspense, painting a vivid picture of the bayou's dark underworld while exploring themes of redemption and justice.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate atmospheric crime thrillers set in the deep South, infused with rich, evocative descriptions and complex, engaging characters. This story offers a mix of gritty detective work and deep personal stakes, promising a masterful blend of mystery and probing reflection on the human condition.

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'A lyrical and lovely novel that takes Burke back to the top of the crimewriting tree where he richly belongs' Independent On Sunday

Tremendous sales for all of James Lee Burke's paperbacks - he consistently sells over 50,000 in mmpb. Now in Phoenix paperback his whole series is being rejacketed. Burke's previous Robicheaux novel, JOLIE BLON'S BOUNCE, was nominated for the CWA Gold Dagger and has been nominated for the Edgar Award. Burke has won the Gold Dagger once for Sunset Limited and the Edgar Award twice 'What we are seeing is a good writer becoming a great one' Philip Oakes, Literary Review 'Confirms his status as one of America's finest writers in any genre' Susanna Yager Sunday Telegraph 'Burke's great strength is that he makes you want to spend as much time with Robicheaux and his other characters as possible' Observer 'Last Car to Elysian Fields reminds us what a great thriller should be. This is Burke at the peak of his form and that, really, should be all the recommendation anyone needs' Simon Hynde Daily Express

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

It is a rainy late-summer's night in New Orleans. Detective Dave Robicheaux is about to confront the man who may have savagely assaulted his friend, Father Jimmie Dolan, a Catholic priest who's always at the centre of controversy. But things are never as they seem and soon Robicheaux is back in New Iberia, probing a car crash that killed three teenage girls.

A grief-crazed father and a maniacal, complex assassin are just a few of the characters Robicheaux meets as he is drawn deeper into a web of sordid secrets and escalating violence.

A masterful exploration of the troubled side of human nature and the dark corners of the heart, peopled by familiar characters such as P.I. Clete Purcel and Robicheaux's old flame Theodosia LeJeune, Last Car To Elysian Fields is vintage Burke—moody, hard-hitting, with his trademark blend of human drama and relentless noir suspense.

Series: Dave Robicheaux

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  • Clete
    In the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcel—veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans cop—takes centre stage for the first time. 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...
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  • The Hadacol Boogie
    When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux's property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks...
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  • Heaven's Prisoners
    Dave Robicheaux is trying to put a life of violence and crime behind him, leaving homicide to run a boat-rental business in Louisiana's bayou country. But one day, while fishing in the Gulf with his wife Annie, he witnesses an event that will change his life forever. A small two-engine plane suddenly crashes into the sea, and Robicheaux dives down...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Last Car To Elysian Fields
    It is a rainy late-summer's night in New Orleans. Detective Dave Robicheaux is about to confront the man who may have savagely assaulted his friend, Father Jimmie Dolan, a Catholic priest who's always at the centre of controversy. But things are never as they seem and soon Robicheaux is back in New Iberia, probing a car crash that killed three...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Creole Belle
    Creole Belle begins where the last book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow, ended. Dave is in a recovery unit in New Orleans, where a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton visits him and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song 'Creole Belle' on it. Then she disappears. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Light of the World
    James Lee Burke's legendary detective Dave Robicheaux returns to try to save his daughter from a sadistic killer. When Detective Dave Robicheaux's daughter, Alafair, declares her intention to interview a convicted serial killer called Asa Surette, he does all he can to dissuade her. Dave has always encouraged her ambitions as a writer, but as a father he doesn't want...
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  • In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead
    Hunting a sadistic killer who targets young prostitutes, Detective Dave Robicheaux has no mind to be sidetracked into persuading ex-schoolmate mobster Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni to leave town. And it turns out that Balboni is the money behind a Civil War movie that's bringing in good business. But then the film crew stumbles on a skeleton out in the bayou,...
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  • Swan Peak
    After the devastating events recounted in The Tin Roof Blowdown, Dave Robicheaux and his ex-partner in Homicide, Clete Purcel, head for the mountains and trout streams of Montana for some much-needed healing. However, while Montana might seem an unspoilt paradise peopled by men and women from an earlier, more innocent time in American history, Dave and Clete soon find that...
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  • A Private Cathedral
    Detective Dave Robicheaux is caught in the crossfire of Louisiana's oldest and bloodiest gangland feud... From the wreckage of Louisiana's oldest family rivalry, Detective Dave Robicheaux faces his most sinister enemy yet. Isolde and Johnny - the star-crossed teenage heirs to New Iberia's criminal empires - have run away together, and Robicheaux is tasked with finding them. But when his...
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  • Burning Angel
    Sonny Boy Marsallas, a New Orleans street hustler, entrusts Detective Dave Robicheaux with a mysterious notebook, kicking off a series of violent incidents and raising questions that need answers, and fast... What did Sonny's girlfriend know that got her murdered? Why is Sonny known as Red Angel by Central American guerrillas? And what do the Mafia want with a desolate...
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  • Cadillac Jukebox
    The call from ex-Klansman Aaron Crown couldn't have been more unexpected. Sentenced to forty years for the decades-old shooting of a civil rights activist, Crown should have been out of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, for good. Election candidate Buford LaRose wants Detective Dave Robicheaux to ignore Aaron's calls, promising Robicheaux a lucrative job when he makes governor. Worse still, Buford's wife,...
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  • A Morning For Flamingos
    'No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists' DAILY MAIL A routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong, leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded and his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge, Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans, a volatile...
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

James Lee Burke's Last Car To Elysian Fields is celebrated for its intricate plot and deep moral exploration. Critics have praised the book's evocative depiction of Louisiana's bayou landscape, enhanced by Burke's lyrical prose, likening the experience to enjoying a mint julep with a backdrop of blues.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780753817964

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 October 2004

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 26.0mm

Width: 154.0mm

Height: 199.0mm

Weight: 272g

Pages: 320

About the Author

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

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  • Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie
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  • Clete
    In the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcel—veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans cop—takes centre stage for the first time. 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...
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  • The Hadacol Boogie
    When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux's property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks...
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    New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings readers a captivating tale of justice, love, brutality, and mysticism set in the turbulent 1960s. The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding...
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  • A Private Cathedral
    Detective Dave Robicheaux is caught in the crossfire of Louisiana's oldest and bloodiest gangland feud... From the wreckage of Louisiana's oldest family rivalry, Detective Dave Robicheaux faces his most sinister enemy yet. Isolde and Johnny - the star-crossed teenage heirs to New Iberia's criminal empires - have run away together, and Robicheaux is tasked with finding them. But when his...
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    Sold Out
  • Burning Angel
    Sonny Boy Marsallas, a New Orleans street hustler, entrusts Detective Dave Robicheaux with a mysterious notebook, kicking off a series of violent incidents and raising questions that need answers, and fast... What did Sonny's girlfriend know that got her murdered? Why is Sonny known as Red Angel by Central American guerrillas? And what do the Mafia want with a desolate...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Cadillac Jukebox
    The call from ex-Klansman Aaron Crown couldn't have been more unexpected. Sentenced to forty years for the decades-old shooting of a civil rights activist, Crown should have been out of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, for good. Election candidate Buford LaRose wants Detective Dave Robicheaux to ignore Aaron's calls, promising Robicheaux a lucrative job when he makes governor. Worse still, Buford's wife,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Heaven's Prisoners
    Dave Robicheaux is trying to put a life of violence and crime behind him, leaving homicide to run a boat-rental business in Louisiana's bayou country. But one day, while fishing in the Gulf with his wife Annie, he witnesses an event that will change his life forever. A small two-engine plane suddenly crashes into the sea, and Robicheaux dives down...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Creole Belle
    Creole Belle begins where the last book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow, ended. Dave is in a recovery unit in New Orleans, where a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton visits him and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song 'Creole Belle' on it. Then she disappears. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • A Morning For Flamingos
    'No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists' DAILY MAIL A routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong, leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded and his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge, Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans, a volatile...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Light of the World
    James Lee Burke's legendary detective Dave Robicheaux returns to try to save his daughter from a sadistic killer. When Detective Dave Robicheaux's daughter, Alafair, declares her intention to interview a convicted serial killer called Asa Surette, he does all he can to dissuade her. Dave has always encouraged her ambitions as a writer, but as a father he doesn't want...
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