
Creole Belle
A Dave Robicheaux Novel, Book 19
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $22.46
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Will Patton
-
By:
-
James Lee Burke
About this listen
Dave Robicheaux is back, in a gorgeously written, visceral thriller by James Lee Burke, “the heavy weight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed” (Michael Connelly).
Creole Belle begins where the last book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow, ended. Dave is in a recovery unit in New Orleans, where a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton visits him and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song "Creole Belle" on it. Then she disappears. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the memory of Tee Jolie and goes in search of her sister, who later turns up inside a block of ice floating in the Gulf. Meanwhile, there has been an oil well blowout on the Gulf, threatening the cherished environs of the bayous.
Creole Belle is James Lee Burke at his very best, with beloved series hero Dave Robicheaux leading the charge against the destruction of both the land and the people he has sworn to protect.
©2012 James Lee Burke (P)2012 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Bob Holland is a lawyer for the people of sunbaked Deaf Smith, in southern Texas. Although occasionally he is haunted by memories of a violent past, his life is serene—until a local guitarist, Lucas Smothers, lands in jail for raping and murdering a young woman. As Billy Bob gathers information to defend him, the evidence soon points to the son of a wealthy local businessman. In the ensuing battle, money is pitted against the law. But a deeper struggle also arises, for Lucas is Billy Bob’s illegitimate son.
-
-
Burke Grabs you from the start
- By Damian on 10-27-24
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Cold Dish
- A Walt Longmire Mystery
- By: Craig Johnson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Introducing Wyoming's Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times best-selling author of Dry Bones, the first in the Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, full of memorable characters.
-
-
Not Your Ordinary Western Novel (Series)
- By Dataman on 09-12-12
By: Craig Johnson
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Cimarron Rose
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Bob Holland is a lawyer for the people of sunbaked Deaf Smith, in southern Texas. Although occasionally he is haunted by memories of a violent past, his life is serene—until a local guitarist, Lucas Smothers, lands in jail for raping and murdering a young woman. As Billy Bob gathers information to defend him, the evidence soon points to the son of a wealthy local businessman. In the ensuing battle, money is pitted against the law. But a deeper struggle also arises, for Lucas is Billy Bob’s illegitimate son.
-
-
Burke Grabs you from the start
- By Damian on 10-27-24
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Released from prison after two years for manslaughter, Iry heads to Montana for a fresh start on a ranch owned by a prison buddy's father. He also hopes to nail down a song he's been working on, unable to get quite right. But soon new troubles bring tragic consequences, and it will take a lot more than a soulful tune to ease the pain.
-
-
Bought all Burkes's Audiobooks- Wish Not this one
- By Clif on 03-09-10
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Cold Dish
- A Walt Longmire Mystery
- By: Craig Johnson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Introducing Wyoming's Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times best-selling author of Dry Bones, the first in the Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, full of memorable characters.
-
-
Not Your Ordinary Western Novel (Series)
- By Dataman on 09-12-12
By: Craig Johnson
-
White Doves at Morning
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the center of the tale are James lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from the slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willy Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite personal and political conflicts, both men join the Confederate Army, determined not to back down.
-
-
Where's Will?
- By Luke on 03-01-17
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1
- By: Michael Connelly
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam.
-
-
What a Terrific Book
- By Daniel McAfee on 08-01-08
By: Michael Connelly
-
To the Bright and Shining Sun
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this novel, Burke brings his brilliant feel for time and place to a stunning story of Appalachia in the early 1960s. Here Perry Woodson Hatfield James, a young man torn between family honor and the lure of seedy watering holes, must somehow survive the tempestuous journey from boyhood to manhood and escape the dark and atavistic heritage of the Cumberland Mountains.
-
-
Classic!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-09-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
11-22-63
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 30 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.
-
-
I Owe Stephen King An Apology
- By Kelly - Write Well Academy on 04-16-12
By: Stephen King
-
Hell Divers
- Hell Divers Series, Book 1
- By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to Earth long ago. The only thing keeping the two surviving lifeboats in the sky are Hell Divers - men and women who risk their lives by skydiving to the surface to scavenge for parts the ships desperately need.
-
-
A little cliche action hero-y but damn good story anyway
- By Jillian Noone on 09-04-19
-
Gone Girl
- A Novel
- By: Gillian Flynn
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge.
-
-
Demented, twisted, sick and I loved it!
- By Theodore on 01-20-13
By: Gillian Flynn
-
The Convict and Other Stories
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Steven Boyer, Louis Moreno, Richard Poe, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"America's best novelist" ( The Denver Post), two-time Edgar Award winner James Lee Burke is renowned for his lush, suspense-charged portrayals of the Deep South – the people, the crime, the hope and despair infused in the bayou landscape. This stunning anthology takes us back to where Burke's heart and soul beat -- the steamy, seamy Gulf Coast -- in complex and fascinating tales that crackle with violence and menace, meshing his flair for gripping storytelling with his urbane writing style.
-
-
Haven't read a a Jee Burke I didn't like
- By Toni R. on 09-15-12
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Name of the Wind
- Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1
- By: Patrick Rothfuss
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 27 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man's search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.
-
-
Not sure why the reviews are so polar opposite.
- By Aaron Altman on 06-28-09
By: Patrick Rothfuss
-
The Racketeer
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.... Nothing is as it seems and everything’s fair game in this wickedly clever new novel from John Grisham, the undisputed master of the legal thriller.
-
-
Garbage
- By cristina on 11-29-12
By: John Grisham
-
The Passage
- A Novel (Book One of The Passage Trilogy)
- By: Justin Cronin
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Adenrele Ojo, Abby Craden
- Length: 36 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born". An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy - abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued, and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape - but he can’t stop society’s collapse.
-
-
You love it or you hate it...
- By Nikki on 06-23-10
By: Justin Cronin
-
No Country for Old Men
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.
-
-
Exceptional, engrossing, frightening.
- By P. Giorgio on 07-27-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
A Drink Before the War
- By: Dennis Lehane
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With novels like Mystic River and Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane has dramatically altered the landscape of the crime thriller—while boldly overstepping the boundaries that have long separated mystery from literature. Now two of his sensational early novels have been combined in a single volume—two gritty and mesmerizing masterworks of suspense featuring the private eye duo of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro.
-
-
White Bread
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-30-12
By: Dennis Lehane
Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
To the Bright and Shining Sun
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this novel, Burke brings his brilliant feel for time and place to a stunning story of Appalachia in the early 1960s. Here Perry Woodson Hatfield James, a young man torn between family honor and the lure of seedy watering holes, must somehow survive the tempestuous journey from boyhood to manhood and escape the dark and atavistic heritage of the Cumberland Mountains.
-
-
Classic!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-09-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Harbor Lights
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Gary Furlong, Matt Pittenger, Michael David Axtell, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harbor Lights is a story collection from one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella. These eight stories move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons, and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival, and revenge
-
-
Virtue Signaling
- By Malandro on 01-30-24
By: James Lee Burke
-
White Doves at Morning
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the center of the tale are James lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from the slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willy Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite personal and political conflicts, both men join the Confederate Army, determined not to back down.
-
-
Where's Will?
- By Luke on 03-01-17
By: James Lee Burke
-
The Neon Rain
- A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series. In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.
-
-
Where it all began.
- By 9S on 12-06-09
By: James Lee Burke
-
To the Bright and Shining Sun
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this novel, Burke brings his brilliant feel for time and place to a stunning story of Appalachia in the early 1960s. Here Perry Woodson Hatfield James, a young man torn between family honor and the lure of seedy watering holes, must somehow survive the tempestuous journey from boyhood to manhood and escape the dark and atavistic heritage of the Cumberland Mountains.
-
-
Classic!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-09-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Two for Texas
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This James Lee Burke novel, featuring Son Holland - the great-grandfather of Burke's Billy Bob Holland - as he flees a Louisiana prison camp with a Native American woman and a fellow prisoner in tow, is now available in audio.
-
-
So Good... and a bonus! Clete is here!
- By Tim on 01-04-13
By: James Lee Burke
-
Flags on the Bayou
- A Novel
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.
-
-
Difficult Engagement, Stretching Credulity
- By Craig on 07-19-23
By: James Lee Burke
-
Harbor Lights
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Gary Furlong, Matt Pittenger, Michael David Axtell, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harbor Lights is a story collection from one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella. These eight stories move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons, and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival, and revenge
-
-
Virtue Signaling
- By Malandro on 01-30-24
By: James Lee Burke
-
White Doves at Morning
- By: James Lee Burke
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the center of the tale are James lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from the slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willy Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite personal and political conflicts, both men join the Confederate Army, determined not to back down.
-
-
Where's Will?
- By Luke on 03-01-17
By: James Lee Burke
WI/NWI--5 WI means worth it! This book, as a wine taster would say, has a full body. It melts off the reader’s tongue like syrup and the images are so well portrayed that I recognized a song by its description. History rich, full of friends and foes. Great book all around.
Plot--5 The plot stems from deep New Orleans history and the characters themselves. It flows and tumbles and ends naturally.
Characterization --5 The deeply drawn, real, lovable, questionable people stumble through the story like we all do through life. If you know the series, you’ll be glad to spend time with these folks again, and meeting them for the 1st time is completely possible without the rest of the series.
Violence--5 Lots of violence, but it emerges naturally from the story, and fits.
Grossness --2 Not too bad. A dog dies, which is always bad, but its used to set scene and mood. The violence isn't described in a yucky kind of way.
Sex--0 No sex, but a lot of passion.
Supernatural Elements--4 Though not a main part of the story, the ghost paddle boat and the New Orleans dead shadow and affect the entire story. Treated as a fact of life. Really well done.
Crossing the Line--2 (Lower number is better.) To me, crossing the line is the brutal murdering animals (especially dogs), or children. Stephen King is the worst offender. A dog dies here rather horribly, but serves to set the tone and mood. But I could do without the picture I now carry in my head.
Setting--5 The setting flowed from the speakers and carried me back to New Orleans, deep in the south, and made me a native, not a tourist. For these precious hours, I lived among bayous and plantations, Zydeco and alligators. Wouldn’t have missed this vacation for the world.
Prose--5 Like one long poem. Beautifully written, words create a place I call home, because the characters call it home. True literature.
Deeper Message--5 The story is set in the greater set of the BP oil spill, and how it affects all life, and New Orleans.
Performance--5 James Lee Burke is Dave Robicheaux, and reads the other characters well, too. His accent and his tone of voice makes every word important. Wonderful, poignant performance.
Flowed like honey, Carrying me off to New Orleans
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
another winner
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dave Robicheau is as good as ever.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you could sum up Creole Belle in three words, what would they be?
Don't miss itWhat other book might you compare Creole Belle to and why?
Rain Gods The scene where the bad guys get it are both unique, but similar.Which scene was your favorite?
Where Clete creates a diversion.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Where Gretchen discovers her relationship to Clete.Any additional comments?
Can't wait for another Dave Robicheux.James rides again
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the first time I haven't rated Burke 5 stars and I think it's because the series may be getting a little long in the tooth, but I still look forward to the next one.
It's a little tough for me to tell just how good this novel is because Patton is truly amazing. He could read the dictionary and I would listen entranced for hours.
All in all, well worth your money.
Never fails to deliver
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Would you listen to Creole Belle again? Why?
yes and no.... I don't do books more than once. But....if I did this would be one.Who was your favorite character and why?
Dave Robicheaux....He represents the good in people, with the ability to kick butt and take names...What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His ability and voice are perfect for Louisiana.....Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
When I felt the bobsy twins were gonna bite the bullet.Any additional comments?
James Lee Burke is one of my favorite authors. His word use is great. His stories always seem to champion the little guy...Shows awareness and compassion...Hope he feels that way about real life issues..nail biting
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As is true for his last few books, Burke is not spending as much time developing an intricate story with surprising twists and turns. Instead, his recent stories are an excuse to take us down to the swamp of human evil one more time. Along the way, we learn a lot about human failings, addiction, the effects of trauma (in Dave's case - both as a vet and a cop), and psychopathy. As a forensic psychologist who deals with these issues in my work, I can say that Burke knows his material very well.
As a reader, of course, each of us must ask ourselves how much evil we want to take into our fantasies lives. Reader/listener beware, Burke books result in a lot of vicarious trauma.
The heart of this book - and any book he narrates - is Patton. What an outstanding job! His bayou-inflected voice is perfect for this book. He makes the case, in fact, that a good narrator makes an average book above average.
Classic Burke
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What made the experience of listening to Creole Belle the most enjoyable?
An ever changing storyline and colorfull characters.What did you like best about this story?
The two main characters are used, abused, hard core and loyal.What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Everything! I love the way he rolls the words around, you really get a detailed look at each character and scene.Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Both, I will buy more Burke and Patton audios!Narrator delivers great read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
But Will Patton -- well, Will Patton is phenomenal as a narrator. You can feel the pain and every other emotion of the narrator and the other characters. He just keeps getting better. I cannot believe I would ever say this, but I would buy an audiobook because of the narrator -- a book I would have Never otherwise considered purchasing or reading.
I am hopeful he will narrate more good books as time goes by. I wish he could have narrated "The Twelve." Scott Brick adopts his Butthead voice for too many of a novel's characters: Dammit Beavis, you're a Brick! Patton should narrate the final book of the trilogy.
Will Patton is an Incomparable Narrator; The Best
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Best of the Best
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.