Mr. Robicheoux is an amazing writer. I was so thrilled to locate a copy of this book in my town. When a serial killer comes to Montana does he come in search of a particular victim or does he just randomly to take people?.

There is always a strong feeling of mysticism and religion in his novels. Great writer. ( )

I read my first James Lee Burke book in 1990, it was The Neon Rain, I bought the paperback for the title, and I loved the main Character Dave Robicheaux. After reading the book I read the next two books in the series, and from then on I read everything that James Lee Burke wrote. I would buy his books the day they came out even though they were hardback and expensive and knowing if i waited a week or two they would go on sale. I didn't care, I couldn't wait to read them. Like all book series, some were better than others but even the not so great ones were better than many other books out there. The series should have ended with "The Glass Rainbow", even though I would be sad that the series was over, the main characters Dave and Clete were becoming, cliched, predictable and tiring. Let's face it these two should be dead, after all of their crazy antics or at the least in jail or retired and playing shuffleboard in Florida.
The series was in trouble as all series are when he started adding additional characters to the story. His wife Molly who was some liberal do-gooder Nun in El Salvador, so she gets a pass for anything she helps Dave with, and then there was the the making of Dave's daughter Alafair more prominent in the stories. A daughter with the same name that the author has in real life.To really "Jump The Shark" the author added a daughter for Clete named Gretchen whose background was supposed to, I guess elicit sympathy but was just cliched and laughable.
The other problem with this series and other series from Mr Burke, were that his politics and beliefs went from being a small part of the story, to instead being front and center. The author is free to have whatever political views he wants but to ruin a fictional book series to make his point is disastrous. We all know he is Liberal, hates Republicans and especially Bush who we blames for everything including New Orleans lack of planning for Hurricane Katrina. The BP disaster was another example of big business screwing over the little guy, in fact he really hates oil companies, and Logging companies too. He doesn't however see a problem with Dave and Clete repeatedly taken the law into their own hands and administering justice the way they see fit. Like many other Liberals he also doesn't seem to mind making money for himself, as he is doing something good and noble because he writes books as opposed to raping the land and fouling the water. It must be nice to hang out at one of your two homes Mr Burke and and make pronouncements about the rest of the world.
I must confess I did not read the last book in this series Creole Belle, because based on actual reader reviews it did not sound like I would like it, and I thought I would seek it out in paperback sometime down the road. That has yet to happen.
So it was with major wariness I decided to buy Light of the World, as I had some time to kill at the airport recently.
The writing is like James Lee Burke, there are parts that lyrical almost poetic, but it has all been done before and better by this author. There were times I wondered if Mr Burke even actually wrote this book of if someone who was very familiar with his style (his daughter maybe) actually contributed or fully wrote it. I mean who talks like Dave in the 21st century? In this book the storyline is all over the place, there are descriptions that seem to be used to fill up pages rather than adding anything to the story. His political views started showing up as early as on page 24 of the paperback version and the story continued downhill from there.

If you have read this book and it was your first or second in this series, and you liked it, go back to the books in the beginning before the Author was a cranky preachy old Liberal. The series used to be the benchmark of writing and storytelling, the descriptions made you feel as if you were there experiencing what Dave was, as it was happening. The action portions make sense and the story lines made sense.
I saw where Mr Burkes latest Book is not really part of any of his current series though the are a character or two from one of his series, in it. I doubt I will read it. This author unfortunately for me just is not worth the time anymore. ( )

Dave, Alafair, Mollie and Clete go to Montana where they are stalked by a serial killer who has escapted from a Kansas Prison. How many more will this deranged psycho-killer murder before he is stopped. Clete's daughter Gretchen joins them in Montana, is she really a former Mafia contract killer. Good story with some very bad characters. Dave still drinks iced tea or coffee and Clete's drinking is worse than ever if that is possible. ( )

Police Detective Dave Robicheaux faces off with the most diabolical villain he has ever faced in the twentieth installment of the Dave Robicheaux series. Sadistic serial killer Asa Surette avoids the death penalty for murders he committed while capital punishment was banned. But when Robicheaux's daughter Alafair writes a series of articles implicating Surrette in other murders which could get him death, he decides to escape prison and make her pay. Can Robicheaux save his daughter? ( )

By now, the ingredients of a Dave Robicheaux thriller should be familiar to the constant reader: an ex-alcoholic Vietnam vet Louisiana cop with a self-righteous streak for whom even a trip to the shop to buy some milk ends up being a wrestling match with great themes of life and death and good and evil against the backdrop of epic natural grandeur and decay; there's his old partner, an alcoholic overweight burnout with poor impulse control, PTSD and a violent criminal career before turning PI who will find some rich wife or widow in trouble and end up in bed with her despite everyone up to and including the Hand Of God descending from the heavens with a note the size of the Grand Canyon tied to its finger stating this it is a Bad Idea but who is, nonetheless, the Goodest Man In The World; there's Dave's daughter, beautiful, talented, headstrong and doesn't like being called 'kid' anymore; new since the previous book is Clete's daughter, abuse survivor turned near-mythical mob hitperson, out of the life and making films and just maybe the person to whom all the bad things James Lee Burke can't bring himself to let happen to Alafair will happen instead; there's usually a basically decent law enforcement official who just won't see things the way Dave and Clete see them and who is small-mindedly constrained by not grasping the titanic spiritual war at the heart of each book; there is a rich family who are all awful, awful human beings; there is a not-so rich person who is even worse and either working for or using the awful rich people and committing various atrocities for reasons the human mind cannot easily contain within the comforting confines of Judeo Christian morality, or something; and there will be a damaged, dangerous, violent man looking for redemption, with or without the help or hindrance of good or bad woman, depending.

You'd think after twenty of them you'd get tired of it, but nope, bring on the next one.

Light Of The World has Dave and family taking a break from battling fathomless evil and venality in Louisiana to go battle some fathomless evil and venality in Montana, staying with their writer friend, with whom Dave, at least, never seems to do anything other than argue. Someone shoots an arrow at Alafair, and Dave hassles what turns out to probably be the wrong guy over it, but that's okay, he's involved anyway. There's an escaped, presumed dead serial killer who may be an avatar of an evil from outside the ken of men stalking the landscape, some dead and missing women, and a vile, filthy rich family up to no good. Clete's got a bad feeling about this one, he thinks it might be his last boogie, but we gotta punch their lights under a black flag, podna. Honestly, Dave and Clete must be scary and weird and insufferable to other people, and they ain't aging gracefully, but Burke continues to write like an angel taking an aerial survey of hell, making these books addictive and cathartic. One of the most readable crime novelists working today. ( )