Last Car to Elysian Fields

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Mark Hammer

Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

For Dave Robicheaux, there is no easy passage home. New Orleans, and the memories of his life in the Big Easy, will always haunt him. To return there means visiting old ghosts and opening himself to new, yet familiar, dangers.

When Robicheaux, a police officer based in the somewhat quieter Louisiana town of New Iberia, learns that an old friend, Father Jimmie Dolan has been the victim of a particularly brutal assault, he returns to New Orleans to investigate, if only unofficially.

Meanwhile, back in New Iberia, three local teenage girls are killed in a drunk driving accident. Robicheaux traces the source of the liquor to one of New Iberia's "daiquiri windows," places that sell mixed drinks through drive-by windows. When the owner of the drive-through operation is brutally murdered, Robicheaux immediately suspects the grief-crazed father of the dead teen driver. But his assumption is challenged when the murder weapon turns up belonging to someone else. Tying together these disparate threads is a maniacal killer named Max Coll, a deeply haunted hit man sent to New Orleans to finish the job of father Dolan.

©2003 James Lee Burke (P)2003 Simon & Schuster Inc. All Rights Reserved. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

"James Lee Burke is at the top of his game." (The New York Times)
"This is an outstanding entry in an excellent series" (Publishers Weekly)

elcuete

The reader destroyed a perfectly good book. He is a boring reader. I feel I wasted a selection. I will not get another book read by him. I always waited for a James Lee Burke book but if this is the reader of choice for him I will give him a miss.

I could not finish the fisrt part

I totally agree with Brenda. I thought my extreme difficulty in understanding the reader was due to english not beeing my mother language. I have been very reassured to know that some american people also finds this audio confusing and difficult to understand. I will not download any other book by the same reader.

not his best work

too meandering, too many plot lines. Narrator used 1 voice for all characters making dialogue hard to follow

Last Car to Sinus Care

"This novel can't be as pedantic as you say it is", he says. "Oh, yes it can," she says. "Do you really mean that the story line has no redeeming qualities?", he says. "Yes! That is precisely what I mean," she says.

Although the author of this story may have woven a perfectly spellbinding thread to follow, this audio version is both distracting and regrettable. The narrator appears to need some work on his sinus cavities. And, the constant "he said, she said" references certainly put one in mind of a sixth grade term paper rather than a novel suited for publication.

If I were able to rate this audio novel at less than "1" I would.

What is this book about?

I love this series by JLB and buy each new one I see. I wish, however, they were somehow numbered because, coming late to the series, I am getting them out of order and have to readjust each time between Dave's drinking, wives, girlfriends and pets. Having said that, I must say, I failed to see a story in this one. It was disjointed and I was shocked at the ending. Not surprised, like a good ending, but perplexed that it was the end of the story - what was the story?

Last Car to Elysian Fields

This books sounds as though it were a home recording with background sounds and a totally amature reader. I'm amazed at the folks who enjoyed his reading. Slow book opening, slurred reading, nobody with whom to identify--I didn't make it through the first chapter. And, usually, I LOVE all the books.

Disappointed

I could not have said it better than fellow audiobook member Jay. I have been following all of the Robicheau books and with Will Patton as the narrator I have developed a clear image in my mind of what Dave Robicheau and all of the other characters look like and the voice of Will Patton matches perfectly with all of these characters.
I picture this narrator Mark Hammer as a much older man with a gravely voice that does not fit the image of what you would expect Dave Robicheau or the other characters to sound like.
Try as I may I cannot get into this audio book and will have to forgo this Dave Robicheau adventure and I feel this was a very bad choice of a narrator for this series.

Bad Narrator!!!

How did this guy get a job as a narrator?! I am a fan of this author and Dave Robicheaux novels, so far I have heard Will Patton who does and impressive job. But Mark Hammer is painful to listen to! Slow,you could actually hear him eating,and drinking,swallowing what ever, shifting around in his chair, I finally had to turn it off. The charaters were poorly represented. Why would anyone choose this man to represent their book,I can't understand, especially when there are so many great narrators out there, and one of them has already read for this author. Don't waste your money.

Terrible reader

I grew up in south Louisiana and this guy has a horrible joke of an accent. It's nothing like Will Patton who gets a few words wrong, but not many. I will not finish it. He would ruin a great story for me. I will not listen to anything he reads again.

narration is terrible

The content of the book is good. Not his best. Whoever narrates this book needs to find another job.