Black Cherry Blues
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season342 pages, about 7 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbOne listener review reports it took a while to get into the story before the plot picked up.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 12 reviews from critics and book blogs, 3 credit the plot and one credits the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA listener review compares Burke’s prose to Elmore Leonard’s crime fiction.
The case for it
on Dave Robicheaux
“one of the great characters in contemporary literature”
Paul Doiron · Criminal Element, 2019 on Robicheaux’s inner demons
“Robicheaux’s sleuthing is a simultaneous exorcism of demons of grief, loss, fear, rage, vengeance”
Publishers Weekly, 1989 on the story line
“the story line holds together w/o pause, slow spot, or error”
five stars · a book blog on the setting
“Beautiful prose about both Louisiana and Montana”
a book blog
The case against
on the prose style
“his prose is as overmuscled as Arnold Schwarzenegger”
Kirkus Reviews, 1989 on the mystery’s pace
“The mystery plot of this book took far too long to resolve”
a book blog on the Montana setting
“setting doesn’t seem to work as well after they head up to Montana”
a book blog on Dave’s passivity
“the main character just let everything happen around him and the mystery solve itself”
three stars · a listener review
