James Lee Burke

Books: Mystery

Dave Robicheaux: Black Cherry Blues (1989)

Black Cherry Blues (1989)

Dave Robicheaux is an ex-cop and an alcoholic and a widower with an adopted daughter. He remains haunted by the murder of Annie, and now spends his time running his own small business–a boat dock in New Iberia on the Bayou where he also sells bait and food. He runs into an old classmate, and then is drawn into an ugly case that gets uglier every time he turns around.

Dave has a lot going on in his life, and other than Alafair, none of it is very good. And running into Dixie makes things even worse.

I read this book extremely quickly, both because I wanted to know what happened, and because I just wanted to finish the book. The writing was good, the story was interesting, the characters were interesting, but I didn't particularly enjoy the book, and just wanted to finish it so I could move on and read something else.

What didn't I like? To be honest, I haven't the slightest idea. Dave is a fascinating and complex character, the mystery is well done and kept me guessing, but… I just couldn't get into it.

So I'll put it on the shelf and see what Grandmom thinks, but as of now I'm not interested in reading another book in this series.

Rating: 7/10