Clete

A Dave Robicheaux Novel

De: James Lee Burke

Narrado por: Will Patton

In the latest installment in his famous Detective Dave Robicheaux series, New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings Dave’s partner and friend Clete Purcel to the forefront for the first time as Clete and Dave attempt to stop ruthless smugglers of a dangerous new drug.

Clete Purcel—private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spots—is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal—his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

Just as Clete starts to trail the culprits, Clara Bow, a woman with a dark past hires Clete as a detective to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who seems to lurk around every corner. Clete is experiencing shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questioning Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could’ve imagined.

Gripping, violent, yet interlaced with Clete’s humor and consistent drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to a truly iconic series. James Lee Burke proves yet again that he is the “heavyweight champ” and “great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed” (Michael Connelly).

©2024 James Lee Burke (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Burke's is wealthiest hater of wealth I know

seemed like AI was used to generate a Dave Robicheaux novel. Clete wasn't the full Clete I, as a reader of the whole series, have loved.
Burke's is letting modern views of politics influence his writing.🙄

Will Patton IS Clete Purcell!!

Burke’s characters inhabit my dreams, and Will Patton’s personification of Robicheaux and Purcell have brought their world to life in my imagination. I simply cannot listen to anyone else: NO ONE is better than Patton!!!

Will Patton is Clete

Robicheaux stories are always great but if not for Pattons narration, Clete would have been a ho-hum listen. Let’s get back to Dave’s stories.

"Cleat" was a favorite character of mine through nearly all of Burke's book.

It's good to get the quality of Burke's writing without all the conversations with dead civil war soldiers and the overbearing Catholicism. Clete is different, to me at least, than he was in the earlier books. He just seems like Dave in a pork-pie hat.

Clete & Dave are back!

James Lee Burke's stories are literary genius- his descriptions are an art form- please keep em coming

Clefs

The best of many stories by Mr Burke and Will Patton. They are top notch author and narrator!

Three Thumbs Up! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Love the characters in this world. The writing paints amazing scenes in your mind. Long live Clite!

interesting to focus a story on Clete

good story. lots of twists and turns. as usual the good guys came out on top.

Excellent prose with familiar characters from mr. Burke

Loved this series, the descriptions of Louisiana shone equally to the characters , male and female, criminals and law enforcers

Clete: good for seasoning but not the main course

I've listened to a number of the Robicheaux novels on Audible and I've always thought Clete Purcell's "sidekick" role was one of the high points. I may have even said "give us more Clete" in some reviews.

In this book, though, I think Burke went overboard. It's like a chef who thinks their roast needs a bit more seasoning slicing off a tiny piece of meat and dumping a bottle of pepper on it. Completely changes the flavor. That's what happened here, in my view. To make things worse, the story and supporting characters (of which Dave Robicheaux is one, rather than being in the main role) are a bit weaker than the previous few novels. I found it really difficult to gauge what time period this story happens in - Clete frequently refers to his time in Vietnam and acts like he's still a young man in this story, so that puts it in the 80's or 90's sometime. But there are cell phones and other modern conveniences so Clete must be in his 60's or even 70's. So it was hard to figure why he acts like he does. Dave appears only occasionally and strangely there's no mention at all of what's happening with Alafair.

Patten does a nice job of narration but it's all in Clete's voice, which is usually the "seasoning" on the roast. A bit too much in this case. Give us more Robicheaux ;-)