In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

James Lee Burke

Hyperion (1993)

Tags: Private Investigators, Detective and Mystery Stories, Mystery Detective, Fiction, Suspense, General, Modern contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Modern fiction, General Literary Fiction, Mystery, Mystery Detective - General, Detective, Fiction - Mystery, Hard-Boiled, Mystery and Detective Stories, Louisiana, Popular American Fiction, Dave (Fictitious Character), Robicheaux, New Iberia (La.), New Iberia, New Iberia (La.) - Fiction, Dave (Fictitious Character) - Fiction, Dave (Fictitious character) -, Private Investigators - Louisiana - New Iberia - Fiction, Dave (Fictitious c
Private Investigatorsttt Detective and Mystery Storiesttt Mystery Detectivettt Fictionttt Suspensettt Generalttt Modern contemporary fiction (post c 1945)ttt Modern fictionttt General Literary Fictionttt Mysteryttt Mystery Detective - Generalttt Detectivettt Fiction - Mysteryttt Hard-Boiledttt Mystery and Detective Storiesttt Louisianattt Popular American Fictionttt Dave (Fictitious Character)ttt Robicheauxttt New Iberia (La.)ttt New Iberiattt New Iberia (La.) - Fictionttt Dave (Fictitious Character) - Fictionttt Dave (Fictitious character) -ttt Private Investigators - Louisiana - New Iberia - Fictionttt Dave (Fictitious cttt

From Publishers Weekly

In the sixth Dave Robicheaux mystery (following A Stained White Radiance ), Burke explores new narrative territory with qualified success, leading his Cajun detective into a series of dreamlike encounters with a troop of Confederate soldiers under Gen. John Bell Hood. Soon after the severely mutilated body of a young woman is found in a ditch outside the southern Louisiana town of New Iberia, deputy sheriff Robicheaux busts Elrod Sykes, star of a Hollywood movie being filmed nearby, for drunk driving. Sykes says a skeleton wrapped in chains was unearthed during filming in a marsh where, in 1957, Robicheaux witnessed--but remained silent about--the killing of a chained black man by two white men. As the belatedly guilt-stricken detective tries to identify that victim, another young woman is brutally killed. Then, Sykes's co-star is shot to death, perhaps having been mistaken for Robicheaux, who gradually connects the recent murders to Louisiana mob-kingpin Baby Feet Balboni, a key backer of the movie. With the help of FBI agent Rosie Gomez and the intermittent, often elliptical advice of the ghostly Gen. Hood, Robicheaux nails the psycho--but not before the man has kidnapped the detective's young daughter Alafair. Burke's evocative prose is well suited to the misty bayou scenes in which past and present mingle, but the links between the two eras are weak, and some of the contemporary characters lack definition. 75,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

New Iberia Lt. Dave Robicheaux (A Stained White Radiance, 1992, etc.) is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni--back in his home parish as co- producer of Hollywood director Michael Goldman's Civil War film--when sozzled/psychic movie-star Elrod Sykes, pulled over for drunk driving, starts babbling about a corpse he found in the Atchafalaya Swamp--the corpse of a black man Dave had seen murdered 35 years before. Convinced that Baby Feet is the key to both the old murder and the horrific new serial killings of prostitutes, Dave goes outside the law to nail him over the protests of locals getting fat off Hollywood-and- mob money--provoking stunning new outbursts of violence, getting suspended after a shootout leaves still another prostitute dead, and finding himself holding hushed conversations with the specter of a Confederate general whom Sykes had already met deep in the bayou. Dave's visions of the Confederate dead bring a Faulknerian resonance to the miasmal guilt and self-doubt that enrich all his encounters with evil. After outstanding success in the genre, Burke has produced a violent, somber, deeply satisfying crossover novel. (First printing of 75,000) --
Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

In the sixth Dave Robicheaux mystery (following A Stained White Radiance ), Burke explores new narrative territory with qualified success, leading his Cajun detective into a series of dreamlike encounters with a troop of Confederate soldiers under Gen. John Bell Hood. Soon after the severely mutilated body of a young woman is found in a ditch outside the southern Louisiana town of New Iberia, deputy sheriff Robicheaux busts Elrod Sykes, star of a Hollywood movie being filmed nearby, for drunk driving. Sykes says a skeleton wrapped in chains was unearthed during filming in a marsh where, in 1957, Robicheaux witnessed--but remained silent about--the killing of a chained black man by two white men. As the belatedly guilt-stricken detective tries to identify that victim, another young woman is brutally killed. Then, Sykes's co-star is shot to death, perhaps having been mistaken for Robicheaux, who gradually connects the recent murders to Louisiana mob-kingpin Baby Feet Balboni, a key backer of the movie. With the help of FBI agent Rosie Gomez and the intermittent, often elliptical advice of the ghostly Gen. Hood, Robicheaux nails the psycho--but not before the man has kidnapped the detective's young daughter Alafair. Burke's evocative prose is well suited to the misty bayou scenes in which past and present mingle, but the links between the two eras are weak, and some of the contemporary characters lack definition. 75,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

New Iberia Lt. Dave Robicheaux (A Stained White Radiance, 1992, etc.) is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni--back in his home parish as co- producer of Hollywood director Michael Goldman's Civil War film--when sozzled/psychic movie-star Elrod Sykes, pulled over for drunk driving, starts babbling about a corpse he found in the Atchafalaya Swamp--the corpse of a black man Dave had seen murdered 35 years before. Convinced that Baby Feet is the key to both the old murder and the horrific new serial killings of prostitutes, Dave goes outside the law to nail him over the protests of locals getting fat off Hollywood-and- mob money--provoking stunning new outbursts of violence, getting suspended after a shootout leaves still another prostitute dead, and finding himself holding hushed conversations with the specter of a Confederate general whom Sykes had already met deep in the bayou. Dave's visions of the Confederate dead bring a Faulknerian resonance to the miasmal guilt and self-doubt that enrich all his encounters with evil. After outstanding success in the genre, Burke has produced a violent, somber, deeply satisfying crossover novel. (First printing of 75,000) --
Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Scanned & Semi-Proofed by Cozette

Edgar Award-winner

JAMES LEE BURKE

"No one captures Louisiana culture

as well as James Lee Burke. . . it is also possible

that no one writes better detective novels."

Washington Post Book World

"BURKE HAS CREATED A SERIES OF

AWESOME DEPTH AND BREADTH."

Houston Chronicle

"BURKES MOST AMBITIOUS AND SUCCESSFUL

ROBICHEAUX NOVEL . . .

Extraordinary . . . He has never been a more acute

observer, a more compelling writer, or told a better

tale than he has in
ELECTRIC MIST."

New Orleans Times-Picayune

"HAUNTING . . . GREAT ENTERTAINMENT . . .

In
ELECTRIC MIST,
Burke steps beyond genre

boundaries into new literary territory. The result is

entertaining, satisfying, and thought-provoking—

without losing any of the plot, violence, and action

for which he is justifiably known."

Baltimore Sun

"AN OVER-THE-TOP, HYPNOTIC THRILLER . . .

EVERYTHING THAT A GOOD MYSTERY IS

SUPPOSED TO BE."

Washington Post Book World

IN THE ELECTRIC MIST WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD

JAMES LEE BURKE

      A movie company has invaded Dave Robicheaux's bayou,
mingling its dark Hollywood secrets and scandals with
local crimes savage, bloody, and horrific.

      As cameras roll, the young and not-so-innocent are dying for real at the hands of a serial killer. And Robicheaux's
investigations are reviving the specters of long-dead
warriors and past nightmares that could cut the Cajun
cop's haunted life brutally short.

Other Dave Robicheaux Novels by
James Lee Burke

from Avon Books

BLACK CHERRY BLUES

A MORNING FOR FLAMINGOS

A STAINED WHITE RADIANCE

JAMES LEE

BURKE

IN THE ELECTRIC MIST

WITH CONFEDERATE DEAD

AVON BOOKS

An Imprint of
HarperCollins
Publishers

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

AVON BOOKS

An Imprint ofHarperCollinsPublishers

10 East 53rd Street

New York, New York 10022-5299

Copyright © 1993 by James Lee Burke

ISBN:0-380-72121-X

First Avon Books paperback printing: July 1994 Published by arrangement with Hyperion

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Marca Registrada, Hecho en U.S.A.

HarperCollins ® is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers

Inc.

Printed in the U.S.A.

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