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Publisher: Allen & Unwin, October 2006
Reviewed by Sally Roddom
James Lee Burke's compellingly haunted Detective Dave Robicheaux of New
Iberia, Louisiana, returns to solve a pair of mysteries. Firstly,
18-year-old Yvonne Darbonne has apparently committed suicide, but everyone
who knew her is at a loss to figure out why she would take her own life.
Robicheaux is also doing a cold-case investigation into a hit-and-run
homicide. Robicheaux comes across an obscure clue that points him in the
direction of Darbonne's boyfriend, Tony Lujan. Tony is the son of a
prominent but notorious Louisiana businessman. To add to the mix, Trish
Klein has arrived in town. Trish is the daughter of Robicheaux's old
drinking buddy, Dallas Klein, gunned down during a bank robbery right in
front of a very drunk Robicheaux. As a result of this event, Robicheaux
joined AA and moved as a recovering alcoholic to New Iberia.
Coincidentally, this is where the suspects of Klein's murder have moved.
Trish was six years old when her father was murdered, and now she is
passing counterfeit $100 bills and vowing to kill her father's killers.
PEGASUS DESCENDING is the 15th book starring Detective Dave Robicheaux
and, as with the others, is full of surprises, excitement, tragedy and an
array of fascinating characters. The plot is well thought out, and the
pace is edge-of-the-seat. The finale couldn't get much bigger than the
arrival in the last few pages of the hurricane Katrina. No spoilers here –
all the ends have been tied up by this point: James Lee Burke just uses
the disaster to put all the drama that has preceded the arrival of the
hurricane into perspective. A brilliant move that enables the reader to
get a sense of time and place.
February 2007 review originally published at Murder & Mayhem
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