The Neon Rain

A Dave Robicheaux Novel

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Will Patton

Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series.

In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.

More mayhem? Listen to more of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux thrillers.

©1987 James Lee Burke (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"With its fine local color and driving action, this novel is both chilling and first-rate entertainment." ( Publishers Weekly)
"One of Burke's best." ( New York Times Book Review)

Well done and interesting

I enjoyed most of this. Love the New Orleans setting. The violence was a little over the top though.

master crime and metaphor

If you could sum up The Neon Rain in three words, what would they be?

suspenseful, poetic and often funny

What other book might you compare The Neon Rain to and why?

James Lee Burke is a genre unto himself. He can shock with the horrors of murder, yet his characters have so much life, they make you laugh out loud. And raise issues of social welfare in America.

What about Will Patton’s performance did you like?

Will Patton brings a clear distinction to his characters' voices. He sounds adult and for the most part authentic. His reading of the role of the national guard in saving people during Katrina was moving.

Any additional comments?

James Lee Burke can write. I have a degree in literature and when I escape into suspense writing I often feel like I have wasted my time and should have been tackling some great literature instead. I heartily recommend his books as good, suspenseful, entertainment.

Another Po'boy sandwich

First I loved Will Patton, the voices he used for all the characters were brilliant. The story moved along well and not at one time did I wish it were over or go faster. On the other hand, I don't need to know what exactly he is eating. I did want a Lime Cherry coke when I was done though.

Earthy, profane, violent, provocative, atmospheric

Will Patton is an excellent narrator. He ably pairs different speaking styles uniquely evocative of myriad characters: stereotypic Cajun, throaty hard boiled detective, effete pseudo sophisticated mob bosses, black women if different ages and backgrounds, red-necks, ghetto speech, etc.


The plot is somewhat but not entirely predictable. The many characters are well developed. The settings are of Louisiana circa 1985, including New Orleans and various nearby parishes. The atmosphere is slightly gothic. The story consists of law enforcement and criminals committing and solving crimes of murder, lucre, sex, and atrocity. The good guys are not so good, the bad guys not always so bad, although nearly always gratuitously cruel. The young women are depicted as young, naive, noble, and victimized. The older women are variously depicted as knowing, agentic, scheming, sexually assertive, orgasmic, devoted.

The good guys get the good women they desperately need but never thought they would get, which they ultimately sabotage through self-destructiveness.

This is the first of at least 23 installments and is a good place to begin. It is also an entertaining stand-alone story.

Among the 15 audios in this series I have listened to, I rate this one among the top third. So it is a good place to start. If you like this one, skip to installments 14 — 18. Note, however, that there is a lot of redundancy in the prose, tropes, flashbacks, shibboleths incorporated in these stories.

Incidentally, three different narrators are employed in these productions. Will Patton is the hands-down best narrator for this series. Mark hammer’s voice is too old to suit the middle-aged character depicted in the first ten installments. Nick Sullivan’ s pristine, neutral dialect does not even remotely pass as Cajun.

Recommended.

Trivia
In this first installment, Robicheaux evidences no concern about being 15+ years older than his lover (mid40s v late 20s),as against doubt he evidences in much later installments about being 10 years older than his lover. Odd. I would think that age differences would concern him much more in the first than latter instance. Isn’t a middle aged man’s perspective quite different from a twenty-something woman’s. The difference in perspective is greatly attenuated when contrasting seniors only 10 years difference in age.

will patton

any book that will Patten narrats is gonna be the best book ever. That's actually was a very good book. I liked it.

James Lee Burks great discriptive writing

At times the language, otherwise it is a good listen, because I actually read it when it first published.

Where it all began...

Several years ago I discovered James Lee Burke and Dave Robicheaux and became a fan. I started working my way backwards in the stories reading the new ones that came out as well. So, it was a nice surprise when I discovered Audible had released a book written in 1987, remember the days before cell phones, pc's, hand held devies? Anyway, this was hard hitting from the beginning, gave good insight into the background of Dave, in this book he's still a NOPD detective and Clete Purcell and he hadn't bonded the way they do later. I enjoyed this book from start to finish and blew right through it in just a few days. Now where do I go from here?

two wonderful narrators

There is little reason to add one more voice to the ovation for JLB's Robicheaux books. This one is among my favorites, but Burke is so consistently superb that I think that choosing a favorite tells more about the reviewer than the book.
So I am adding my review primarily to express the opinion that BOTH Hammer and Patton are wonderful readers for these books. I had gotten used to Hammer, having heard several of his readings, and was entirely happy with Patton when I heard him for the first time in this one. They are different, of course, but both terrific. Robicheaux through two lenses, perhaps. This is just great stuff any way you look at it.

Cajun Cop Thriller with GREAT Story Line

I've had this in my library a while, waiting for the right mood to strike me to listen to it . . . wow!!! What the heck was I waiting for??? This audio book, narrated by Will Patton, just about tops the list of books I've listened to . . . I do love this genre, cops, good versus evil, set in the south, good mystery to solve . . . but this one just has the right "magic" . . . I can almost see and taste New Orleans as I listen to Will Patton's voice . . . and it's so much more than the sleazy strip joints and bars . . . Now I HAVE to listen to more in the Dave Robicheaux series . . . so glad I didn't miss this one!

Wonderful Writing but Violent

Burke creates a wonderful sense of place, and I like the flawed philosophical Robicheaux, but the book is too black and violent for my taste. Burke writes beautiful prose, but I am afraid that I am not able to enjoy this series as I'd like to.