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Book Review: Creole Belle

     Hey, everyone. I have recently read an excellent book which I'd like to discuss. The title is Creole Belle and the author is James Lee Burke. It is one of those rare novels which I would give a rating of 5 stars out of 5. It is one of a series of books about the Louisiana police detective named Dave Robicheaux.
     Dave's specialty is homicide. Not just the solving of it, but the occasional enactment of it. Ha, ha. At the opening of the story he is laying in a hospital, recovering from wounds incurred during a shootout. During his convalescence he has a visit from a lovely young woman he knows, named Tee Jolie. In his morphine-induced tranquility he doesn't know if she is real or not. She tells him that she and her sister, Blue, are being held captive on an island. She even leaves Dave an I-Pod with some of her own recordings on it. Of course, Dave immediately sets out to find the girl when he recovers.
     Clete Purcell is Dave's best friend. Clete is an alcoholic, semi-nutcase, lovable ex-Marine. Dave needs his help with the Tee Jolie case, but Clete has major problems of his own. He has discovered that he has an illegitimate daughter running around New Orleans and New Iberia. That is not so bad. The fact that she is a contract killer complicates things. Clete tries to get her out of the hit-man life without telling Gretchen (Horowitz) that she is his kid. Clete actually needs Dave's assistance more than Dave needs his. Clete's daughter is making enemies among the criminal overlords of the Gulf Coast. Soon, the girl is offered a choice; kill Dave and his wife and his daughter, plus Clete, or else her mother will die a horrible death.
      Detective Robicheaux feels that the oil spill in the Gulf is a catalyst in a series of murders. There is a cover-up by wealthy landowners, politicians and at least one crooked cop. Alexis Dupree and his son, Pierre, are on Dave's short list of suspects for murder, corruption and the abduction of the two sisters mentioned previously. Alexis appears to be tied to ancient war crimes. Pierre's wife, the lovely Varina, may be a family victim, or the brains behind the criminals.
     This is a long book, but certainly not boring. The climactic ending will thrill you, when Clete and Dave have to take the law into their own hands and clean out a wicked nest of thugs. I highly recommend this one.
    From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

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