This is one of Burke's best efforts, in my opinion. Robicheaux is on a fairly even keel, his family life is stable, his personal demons harnessed and put to good use, his crusade against evil aided and encouraged by the ghost of General John Bell Hood (it works, it really does), and Clete Purcel nowhere in sight. By turns poetic and brutal, as always. Burke can almost make me nostalgic for Louisiana mosquitoes.
(First read shortly after publication, and re-read in 2009, prompted by having watched the movie with Tommy Lee Jones twice in one weekend.) ( )

This was the first Robicheaux novel I read, and my favorite. I've since read most of them twice. The great title of this one foreshadows the fantastic writing and story that follows. Robicheaux is one of the best protagonists in modern literature. Burke is one of the best writers. ( )

A movie is being make in New Iberia and with it a number of unsavory characters come to town. Detective Dave Robicheau see the actors dressed as Confederate soldiers and then has dreams where he talks with Confederate General John Bell Hood. I usually find Robicheau to be a likable character but he seems like a real ass at times in this book. ( )

This one never quite clicked with me. The Robicheaux series has always been firmly rooted in reality, so for him to start talking to ghosts? Simply didn't work for me.

Strip the ghost portions away—and the awful, cliched part they played at the end—and this is a fine Robicheaux story.

Hoping for better things moving forward. ( )

When Hollywood invades New Iberia Parish to film a Civil War epic, restless specters waiting in the shadows for Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux are reawakened - ghosts of a history best left undisturbed. Hunting a serial killer preying on the lawless young, Robicheaux comes face-to-face with the elusive guardians o his darkest torments - who hold the key to his ultimate salvation. . . or a final, fatal downfall. ( )

Six books and five years into the Dave Robicheaux series, James Lee Burke decided to do something different. Ex-detective Cletus Purcell doesn't appear in this one. Movie stars do (you can attach your own mental images to the stars in the novel: for me, Elrod Sykes took the form of Dennis Quaid). Elrod sees dead people. So does Dave's daughter Alafair. And so does Dave, although it's "explained" first as a side effect of being drugged and later as dreams; but nothing explains how Elrod could have known the name etched onto the butt of the antique pistol that's been undisturbed in a shoebox for forty years, or how all these people see a Confederate general matching a very specific unique description. This mysticism is an entirely new element of Burke's storytelling. So is the relative clarity of the interwoven plots. You probably won't get confused in this one.

For the first time in the series, Burke uses the elements of his thriller to explore a theme--the twisted legacy of racism and idealism that makes the South what it is today. The result is entertaining and thought-provoking, but not entirely convincing. It's unfortunate that familiar, realistic characters such as Dave's wife and daughter and his friend Batist are given little authorial attention, while over-the-top temporary appearances like director Mikey Goldman, mobster Julie Balboni, and even the dead general are given lots of page time. I hope that for the next book in the series, Burke returns to the rich characterization of ordinary people--something he's unusually good at. ( )

Summary: Investigation of multiple rapes and murders, and a murder from 1957 confront Robicheaux with dark figures from his past, and pose a threat to all he holds dear.

If Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote crime fiction about rural Louisiana, he might have produced this book. I didn't expect to encounter magical realism in this, the sixth of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux stories. It was strange, but for me it worked better than some of the Marquez I have read. The magical realism part has to do with dreams or waking visions of the Confederate dead (hence the title), appearing first to an oft-drunk movie actor, Elrod Sykes, and then to Robicheaux, who is now stone-cold sober. Robicheaux even has conversations with General John Bell Hood, who seems to be his version of Obi-Wan Kenobi, speaking in metaphors and riddles that offer clues and sometimes warnings.

The story begins with a gruesome kidnapping-rape-murder of a young woman. While investigating the murder, Robicheaux pulls over a drunken Elrod Sykes, who subsequently proceeds to tell him a story of seeing Confederate soldiers in the Atchafalaya swamp where he is being filmed by a movie company that has more or less taken over Robicheaux's New Iberia (in more ways than one). He also tells him of finding a dead body in chains. It turns out this is no drunken illusion. The body is near a location where Robicheaux had witnessed a murder of a black prisoner in chains -- in 1957 -- reported but dismissed by the authorities.

He's joined in the investigation by an F.B.I investigator, Rosie Gomez, partly because of the kidnapping element (and evidence of more murders), but also because of the presence of Julie "Baby Feet" Balboni, an investor in the film, who has returned from the New Orleans underworld to New Iberia, where his family once controlled organized crime. He and Robicheaux were also once classmates, and baseball team mates. He has a group of "associates" including his consigliere, Chollo, the movie security guy, Murphy Doucet, a former cop, and Twinky LeMoyne, Doucet's partner.

In an unlikely turn of events, Sykes ends up living with Robicheaux after his girlfriend, Kelly is shot. He quickly becomes a favorite with Bootsie, Dave's wife, and his daughter Alafair, and manages to discover a new-found sobriety. Robicheaux, however, as he investigates Balboni and his connections falls out of favor with the townsfolk, and then is set up taking the fall for a murder of an unarmed prostitute. Evidence exonerates him but then another murder of an old detective friend comes closer to home. Throughout, he continues to see Hood and his soldiers at key turning points. The closer he gets to the killer he seeks, and the solution to the 1957 murder he witnessed, the closer danger comes to him until an exciting conclusion.

One of the qualities of Burke's work is his descriptive power to create an atmosphere, in which you feel the humidity, smell the trees, the ozone of the lightning, the fetid smells of the swamps. I've never been to that part of the country but I felt like I was there as I read. Robicheaux is a fascinating character--a Vietnam vet with troubled memories, a reformed alcoholic, someone who carries troubled memories and lives in an uneasy truce with them, who has a strong sense of rectitude, and yet will bend the rules of evidence and interrogation in pursuit of his ends.

This was my first Robicheaux novel, picked because of a recommendation of a bookseller, and the intriguing title as much as anything. Burke's writing, and Robicheaux's character were good enough that I am ready to come back for more. ( )

This book begins with the savage murder of a young white girl who seems to be involved in prostitution. How Dave and his FBI partner, Rosie Gomez solve the murder and catch the killer makes for a fascinating book. This was such a good read I read it in one day. Burke is a really good author even if he does do a little bit too much analysis with Dave. Highly recommend this book and author. ( )

...cont'd...

In The Electric Mist is the sixth book in the series, and involves a killer _targeting young prostitutes and the discovery of a body from decades before, both of which are somehow connected with a movie shooting in the locality and the gangster who is funding it, a man who went to school with Dave. All the familiar elements of a Robicheaux are there, with the exception of Clete Purcel rolling round like a match searching for a powder keg. Dave debates the nature of good and evil with the spirit of a Confederate general while searching for a killer and wrestling with his own demons of drink and violence, his disgust with the venality and self-interest of people around him threatening to overwhelm his own sense of decency.
I got my first James Lee Burke novel, Heaven's Prisoners, from the Cork City library when I was an impoverished, study-shy 19 year old student, and read it under a hot April sun down by the river on the grounds of the University. His books remain as beautiful and potent and profound as they did when I lost whole days to them beside the Lee, and I don't begrudge a single one. ( )

I liked this one better than the last one I read by him. Dave Robicheaux grows on you. A good story, but it bothered me that he totally dropped a character instrumental to the conclusion for about 200 pages and then expected me to remember who the hell the character was. That was a little annoying, but other than that, the characters, atmosphere, etc. felt right on the money. ( )

This story, written in 1996, shows the compassionate and spiritual side of Det. Dave Robicheaux of the New Iberia, sheriff's department.

As the story opens, there has been a murder and mutilation of a nineteen-year-old prostitute. Later, Dave tells the sheriff, he's seen the body and he won't stop the investigation until her killer is brought to justice.

We also see a childhood friend of Dave's return to New Iberia. This man, Julie Balboni, is now with the mob and wants to invest into a movie being shot in the area about the Civil War.

The sheriff wants Dave to encourage Julie and his mob followers to leave the area.

As the movie is being made, Dave meets the star, Elwood Sykes who has a problem with alcohol and Dave's attempt to help Elwood is an interesting aspect of the story.

Another unique part of this story is that there are times when Old Civil War figures appear to Dave to give words of philosophy or advice.

The story is well written as is the setting and once again, James Lee Burke has demonstrated why Dave Robicheaux is one of the most popular characters in detective fiction. ( )

I really liked The Neon Rain, the first Robicheaux novel, but this one, with its supernatural element, did not quite work for me. Burke is clearly doing something ambitious and historically relevant to the modern south in this novel, but I could not suspend disbelief enough. And I'm into supernatural stuff. ( )

In my ongoing reading of the Dave Robicheaux series -- all of them, in order this time -- I've been looking forward to re-reading this installment of the series, which I read for the first time when it was new. The final third of the book, I simply read straight through and refused to put it down for something so mundane as going to bed at a reasonable hour. I was caught up in the mystery -- or mysteries. There are several -- that of a lynching which Dave witnessed as a youth, the remains of which have finally surfaced on the bayou; that of the murder of at least two prostitutes in modern-day New Iberia and environs; that of the phantoms Dave and those around him encounter. Ghosts? Dreams? Delusions? Hallucinations? All of the above? Burke is careful not to explain everything, but leaves room to explain away enough that the "ghost story" doesn't dominate the crime story, even while it illuminates issues involved. This is a great book -- gritty and grisly and beautiful by turns, giving lots of room for thought. ( )

I did enjoy this book very much - the bayou environment is not something I am familiar with, so it lends an air of fantastic genre to the novel. What's more, the virtual presence of a Confederate ghost does remind me of the short fictions of Ambrose Bierce (there usually are some uncanny elements in a damaged post-civil war environment). The characters are brought to the foreground, they are outlined against a quiet, Louisiana, background, and they seem more alive than what it would be for normal characters, as if they were the ones that mattered, not the plot. In any case, this book is a very good one, and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to read about bayous and villains, or to have a taste of Ambrose Bierce's fantastic atmosphere. ( )

This was given to me by a friend and i said to myself: "sure. like i will find someone who writes as good and as sucks me in as well as JDM. Well, this guy Burke does it, at least with the Devereux character. Maybe it's because my blood is french and indian, and i speak french, and I love the cajun music and cooking, and of the four kinds of terrain, i like the swamp the best, but no, it's more than that. i shall read more of his work. ( )

This is the 6th in the Robicheaux series and once again a good thriller. Burke is a fine crime writer - very imaginative and powerful.

Back Cover Blurb:
When a movie crew arrives in New Iberia to shoot a Civil War epic Detective Dave Robicheaux finds that it's not just the bayou's living inhabitants who are being disturbed. As he hunts for a sadistic killer _targeting young prostitutes, evidence of an earlier murder is brought to light. The skeletal remains are the last echo of a crime Robicheaux himself witnessed as a college freshman almost forty years ago..... ( )

No one writes mysteries like James Lee Burke. The most beautiful writing, the best plotting and the most unforgettable characters. ( )

I really enjoyed this installment. The conversations with the confederate general were a lot of fun. Good stuff. ( )

This is number 6 in the Dave Robicheaux series and is a very good mystery thriller. The Confederacy and the supernatural are more prominent in this book than in any others I have read by James Lee Burke. General John Bell Hood, or his ghost, makes multiple appearances in the story. One point of historical accuracy. Hood started the Civil War as the leader of the Texas brigade which was infantry not cavalry as stated in the book. That aside.
The book begins with the brutal murder of a beautiful young prostitute who it is revealed later had connections with one of the primary villains Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni. In Robicheaux's youth Feet was the catcher on the high school baseball team where Robicheaux was a pitcher. The interaction between Balboni and Robicheaux is one of the main story lines of the book. Balboni has moved back to New Iberia where a movie he is backing is being made. Balboni is a prime suspect for the murder along with Michael Ducet who provides security for the movie. Ducet is also a suspect for a murder Robicheaux witnessed at 19 of a black man who was in chains.
The sheriff calls for the FBI who shows up in the person of a Rosie Gomez who becomes Robicheaux's strong ally. There is an incident from Rosie's past that becomes a prominent part of the story. Then another murder occurs matching the pattern of the first and now the search is on for a serial killer.
Burke keeps the action moving and Robicheaux provides the narration. It is Robicheaux's inner dialogue that separates this series from a straight forward who done it. The last 75 pages turn very quickly as the stakes are raised with the kidnapping of Alafair, Robicheax's adopted daughter.
I enjoyed the book but it does not show the depth of The Tin Roof Blowdown, the most recent book in the series. Except for Rosie the female characters, especially Robicheaux's wife Bootsie, are very shallow. It shows that Burke is a good author who has improved his craft as he goes along. ( )

This is one of my ultra favorite novels featuring Dave Robicheaux. The plot may seem far-fetched and out there, but Burke's writing is so descriptive and emotional that the paranormal events happening seem like normal, everyday occurrences in South Louisiana.

I did a lot of travelling to South Louisiana a few years ago. I've been to New Iberia, Houma, Lockport, Golden Meadow and Thibodeaux. I've travelled as far down as Grand Isle, Louisiana, and there is something ghostly and beautiful about the swamps, Spanish moss, and most importantly about the people who live there. I can almost believe that the Confederate dead walk out of the mists to leave ominous messages before disappearing back into the unknown. So this book was a delight to me. Coming from a place in South Mississippi that was undeveloped and untouched by war during the Civil War (although Jones County, the only county in MS that remained in the Union is a mere hour away), the Civil War takes almost mythical proportions inside my head. ( )

An entertaining enough book but to my taste rather overwritten; it could have used far fewer descriptions of the colour of the sky, for instance. Also, the ending was a bit Republican. But it did make me wish I could find some boudin or a po' boy sandwich in Sydney. ( )

Another good Robicheaux novel. The ending was rushed but the build up was a page turner. Some Stephen King-esque ghosts of Confederate solders haunt Dave Robicheaux in his dreams as he attempts to two some gruesome murders and deal with the New Orleans mob. ( )

okay, he was on drugs when he wrote this one, but it is the only one ( )

Anytime you read a James Lee Burke novel you are taken into the bayous of Louisiana with a writing style that makes you almost see and smell the settings that his main character, Dave Robichaux, lives in each day. This book has Robichaux dealing with an old high school classmate (Baby Feet Balboni) who is back in New Iberia since he is funding a movie.

Dave Robichaux deals with his own demons in this early novel and is always the renegade cop with a lot of angst and an interesting way of not following the law that he's supposed to uphold. I enjoy Burke's books, and this was no exception, but there were times in this book that I felt the plot didn't really follow any particular direction. The serial killer sort of creeps out into the novel and the killing of a man 30 years ago has Robichaux able to link together crimes that don't really link together. The other problem was the Confederate General (Hood) that talks to Robichaux at times in the book. It was too bizarre and I know it is FICTION, but I could not get myself to buy into it very much.

Burke's books are generally a good read. This is not his best work. It's not a bad read, it's just not his best by any means.

I understand this book is being made into a movie at this time, starring Tommy Lee Jones. I think that will work well. ( )

One of my top 5 all time favorite books! And the book that made me fall in love with JLB as an author. ( )