The Tin Roof Blowdown (Dave Robicheaux) - Hardcover

Burke, James Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752889168 ISBN 13: 9780752889160

Publisher: Orion, 2007

Synopsis

The story begins with the shooting of two would-be looters in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and then follows a motley group of characters - from street thugs to a big-time mob boss, from a junkie priest to a sadistic psychopath - as their stories converge on a cache of stolen diamonds, while the storm turns the Big Easy into a lawless wasteland of apocalyptic proportions.

The nightmarish landscape created by Katrina seems the perfect setting for Burke's almost Biblical visions of good and evil - it is as if he had to wait for this disaster to find the occasion to match his emotionally supercharged prose. You can feel the undercurrents of rage and pain beneath the narrative, making this not only his most personal and deeply felt book for some time, but quite possibly his best novel to date. This is not just a superb crime novel, it is potentially THE fictional chronicle of a disaster whose human dimensions America is still struggling to process.

About this title

Review:

THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN is more than a crime novel; more than a literary novel even. It is a work of profound historical value and importance ... To say I enjoyed this book is an understatement ... there were moments when I wanted to put the book down, it was so painful to continue. But I couldn't. Nor, I dare say, will anyone else (Independent on Sunday)

THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN is the novel James Lee Burke was born to write. His imagination has always tended to the apocalyptical - but Hurricane Katrina outdid his worst inventions ... The passages describing the actual flooding are tremendously powerful but Burke also weaves a fully satisfying story into this extreme event (Evening Standard)

This New Orleans looks like Bosch and reads like Ballard ... it's worth emphasising that no 'literary' novelist has performed this task of imaginative witness to disaster yet. And none will do it half so well as Burke. ... he proves more forcefully than ever that he can dive down these mean - or drowned - streets and strike both a tragic, and epic, note (Independent)

In the US, he's often regarded as the crimewriter's crimewriter. But that was before Hurricane Katrina ripped the soul out of Burke's beloved New Orleans and inspired him to write what has to be his most gripping thriller to date ... Burke's descriptions, especially of the aftermath of the hurricane, are more vivid and powerful than any piece of reportage I've yet to come across (The Mirror)

Probably his finest novel ... it's quite an achievement to make the 16th novel in a series a personal best, but it's more than that - it stands comparison with the best of Southern fiction (Observer)

The story, about greed and murder and redemption, contains some of Burke's most brilliantly realised characters ... a compelling and moving narrative, punctuated by his devastating descriptions of the ravaged city (Sunday Telegraph)

You feel guilty for enjoying it so much ... a great piece of art has come out of human trouble ... it is his greatest novel (Boyd Hilton Simon Mayo Book Club)

A beautifully written howl of rage and pain over the disaster - social, political, human - that was Hurricane Katrina ... Burke has crafted a killer mystery and a passionate tribute to to his beloved New Orleans (Time Out)

THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN is, inevitably, sadder and angrier than previous Robicheaux novels. We always knew James Lee Burke was a master craftsman of the crime genre. This proves him to be more than that (The Times)

The Tin Roof Blowdown is more than a crime novel; more than a literary novel even. It is a work of profound historical value and importance ... To say I enjoyed this book is an understatement ... there were moments when I wanted to put the book down, it was so painful to continue. But I couldn't. Now, I dare say, will anyone else. (Mark Timlin INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)

Book Description:

James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novel is a powerful evocation of Hurricane Katrina and its devastating effects on his beloved New Orleans.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0752889168
• ISBN 13: 9780752889160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384