Sunset Limited

A Dave Robicheaux Novel, Book 10

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Mark Hammer

Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Detective Dave Robicheaux returns to center stage in an incendiary new novel by James Lee Burke. A gripping tale of racial violence, class warfare, and the sometimes cruel legacy of Southern history, Sunset Limited is a stunning achievement, confirming Burke's place as one of America's premier stylists as well as master storytellers.

The 40-year-old crucifixion of a prominent labor leader named Jack Flynn remains an unsolved atrocity that has never been forgotten in New Iberia, Louisiana. When Flynn's daughter, Megan, a photojournalist drawn to controversial subjects, returns to the site of her father's murder, it quickly becomes clear that her family's blood-stained past will not stay buried. Megan gives her old friend Dave Robicheaux a tip about a small-time criminal named Cool Breeze Broussard, scarcely suspecting that the seemingly innocuous case will lead Robicheaux and his partner into the midst of a deadly conspiracy.

Combining brilliant prose, crackling suspense, and an exquisite sense of character and place, Sunset Limited is a wrenching tale of historic violence and soiled redemption that reveals one of America's finest novelists at his masterful best.

©1998 James Lee Burke (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Dave Robicheau

Would you try another book from James Lee Burke and/or Mark Hammer and Will Patton ?

Here in lies the problem. I love the James Lee Burke novels and especially the Dave Robicheau series but............. Mark Hammer is not the person that should be reading this book. He's terrible and brings boredom and a lack of voices to the characters. I was very disappointed in his abilities. Will Patton on the other hand makes the books come alive. He is Dave Robicheau and Clete Purcell and a difference voice for each character. When Will Patton reads the books I will be happy to buy them..... Mark Hammer is a different story.

What other book might you compare Sunset Limited to and why?

None

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Mark Hammer is a terrible narrater

Was Sunset Limited worth the listening time?

No

Any additional comments?

No

Good Ole Dave

Decent story. I really enjoy the way the author paints a scene with his words. Oh and Cleet always feels like he's living on borrowed time...

another great book by James Lee Burke

loved this book great story and narration. story took several turns before things were revealed

Got through this Book of J Burke, not his best or

Listened to this book as I wasn't going to listen to anymore that Hammer read, I was pleased he livened up the pace and had enriched the book a little, Not sue what happened to this story it started out involved, seemed to loose direction about a 1/4 in. Couldn't keep characters separate at times, Besides Sonny connection with Dave's,& that conclusion the story was a bit confusing, Most of Burkes books are one of my best Audible experiences of all times this one left me short., Hammer was alot better than his read of Burning Angel,

Toby Belch and Filler? Not Burke's best.

Yep, I have liked Streak Robicheaux enough to read ten of his stories to date. Mark Hammer's an important reason. He's among the greatest voices to have worked in this audio media. And yeah, Dave Robicheaux's life and mind are still fascinating as he tries to focus the American South through his very liberal lens where all people of color are noble yet bruised by all white people of affluence who have both inherited and continue to stain their own souls. While there's complexity of plot and character there's no nuance in Burke's judgement of this deep- Louisiana culture. To Burke, there is no New South, except as an irony. Little surprise that Alec Baldwin's been casts as Robicheaux in movies.

But in 'Sunset Limited' I began to find what was an engaging eccentricity in Robicheaux's internal monologues to have grown into an oddness bordering upon a distracting contradiction. Dave is presented to us as a simple cop: man-of-the-people, back-country moralist with a deep bayou accent and deeper back-countrty mind-set.

So how does one account for the intellectualism of his analogies? For example I was startled to here one made in this novel between the characters around him and Sir Toby Belch from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night! I know that Robicheaux attended a blue collar college, and yet he brings the critical analysis of a professor of literature to bear upon his reactions to story points. Toby Belch?? And his inner vocabulary as he analyzes his dreams, presents his imaginings, and details histories is rich as a tenured faculty member's and simultaneously littered, even driven, with Jungian archetypes.

So many of these, well, homilies, are now plunked into the stories that I'm feeling like a guy asked to buy a mine that some seller's shot-up with a shotgun loaded with tiny gold shavings. They call that "salting" and sellers who do that get into trouble with the law.

I'll read the next in this series… and I can recommend that you buy this one… but I can't recommend it with the enthusiasm that I had for say, "In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead". But still, as a tribute to the late Mark Hammer, it's worth hearing.

Sunset limited - good but not the best

I was a little disappointed in this novel. Mr Burke’s accounts of Cajun life in southern Louisiana have always been quite entertaining and many times I have found myself recognizing places in his books that I too have experienced. But Sunset Limited seemed not to connect like many of the other Robicheaux adventures. Perhaps it had something to do with reader as I had become so used to the cadence and inflection that Will Patton put into the books that he reads and it took some time to get used to Mr Hammer’s rhythms. Even though I thought the various characters did not connect very well, I still enjoyed the book , but I have to say this, every southerner who has ever fished for “bream” knows that it is pronounced “brim” not “ breem”.

Great story

Always love James Lee Burke. Never disappoints. Master storyteller for our times. Read and learn about the South!

Burke is Always Good

Any additional comments?

James Lee Burke is far and away my favorite writer. His books are always entertaining and thought-provoking and his characters and settings are more real than those of any other author. This not my favorite of his books, but still excellent and better than a book by anyone else.

Hammer made it difficult to listen...

I enjoy James Lee Burke's books, but Mark Hammer made it a hard read. There was no distinction between different characters, and at times his delivery was quite boring. I guess I've been spoiled by Will Patton. In my opinion Patton "is" the voice of Dave Robicheaux!

Much better than reviews gave it credit for.

Reader not nearly as bad as stated by other reviewers. Would they have preferred a horrible east coast accent over the slow twang of someone from the Bayou?
Story interesting. Kept my attention throughout. Typical JLB.