The Tin Roof Blowdown

A Dave Robicheaux Novel

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Will Patton

Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2008 Audie Award for Mystery

Dave Robicheaux returns in another Bayou adventure, this one more gruesome and gut-wrenching than any that have come before. Hurricane Katrina has ravaged New Orleans, leaving the streets and buildings flooded and the city awash with opportunists, looters, and vicious criminals. There is no order, no law. Police are shooting randomly at innocent people, prison guards have abandoned their posts, bodies float through the streets and hang from trees, and every drug dealer, murderer, and rapist is out taking advantage of the desperate lawlessness that holds the city captive.

In the midst of it all is Robicheaux, doing his best to help regulate the post-Katrina madness, all the while on a dogged search for a pair of dangerous fugitives, a dope-addicted, fallen priest, and a vigilante insurance salesman who takes his family's protection too far. This promises to be the most taxing and emotional case Robicheaux has had to work.

In his singular style, which defies genre, James Lee Burke has created a haunting picture of life in New Orleans after Katrina. Filled with complex characters and vivid descriptions of the destruction and death that gripped the Big Easy, The Tin Roof Blowdown is an action-packed crime thriller as well as a poignant story of what disaster and desperation can do to people.

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

©2007 James Lee Burke. All rights reserved (P)2007 Simon and Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Mystery, 2008

"Meticulously textured....dense, rich prose that draws the reader into a web of greed and violence." (Publishers Weekly)

His best, for many reasons

What a story! The best account of the aftermath of Katrina I've read.
Burke is a master storyteller. Terrific writing. A great heart.

BRILLIANT!!!

James Lee Burke’s unique descriptive abilities and his gift to wield adjectives like a Master Samurai wields a Katana, all coalesce with Will Patton’s unparalleled narration abilities into an absolute MUST HEAR! I honestly don’t know who is more brilliant in this production, Burke or Patton! WARNING: pausing this book may cause physical pain!

KATRINA DESTROYS NEW ORLEANS

Would you consider the audio edition of The Tin Roof Blowdown to be better than the print version?

Yes, Will Patton does a great job and the music is awesome.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

the plot was complex and I kept thinking I figured out the bad guys until I found out I didn't

Have you listened to any of Will Patton’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've listened to him doing other Dave Robicheaux stories. He was great all the time.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Whole sections describing the suffering of the people while bureaucrats ignored them were moving and, for the most part, true.

One of Burke's best

Wonderfully written and the narration is all one could hope for. Burke's ability to describe places and events is masterful. He helped depict hurricane Katrina in ways no news or media report could ever do. As always, the characters are real and complex, allowing readers, or listeners, to feel they know them. I hated to reach the end....all the evidence anyone needs that this is a fine read.

Gruesome

Gruesome descriptions of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Story seems incidental to the horrors of the chaos and destruction.

Read it years ago

The audible version was more exciting than reading. The Lector was very engaging. Good Book

Wonderful

This is my second Burke/Robicheaux novel...and I liked it even better than the first. Burke has a beautiful writing style that communicates the scenes as well as the characters...and the incredibly tragic background of NOLA in the days of Katrina and Rita provides a rich setting for the story. Will Patton is again a revelation. He was good with the other book, and even better with this one. His voice characterization for Clete is absolutely amazing, and all the other characters are very solid, too. An absolutely engaging story.

Ok book...not so Ok narration

Having grown up in New Orleans it was interesting to hear the story, however, the narrators extremely slow speech pattern and incorrect pronunciation of cajun/french names shows a lack of preparation and understanding of this area and the people. People in N.O. don't speak with a southern dialect, nor do they speak slowly...it was a distraction from the story.

The Best.

There is nothing that I would change. I'm a large fan of James Lee Burke. I thought the voice of Will Patton was excellent for the characters. His reading brought the book alive. Of course the writing itself is so very honest. Describing The aftermath of Katrina. Vivid but more then that Viet Nam. Stark honesty. Hard to find but appreciated. Thank you for stepping up, Mr. Burke. It's what AA people do.

Excellent story

Narration is excellent.

Story is interesting, engaging…keeps ya guessing until the very end.

Highly recommended.