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Robicheaux is not interested in Crown's tardy proclamation, but events force Dave to reconsider his perspective. While a movie company investigates Crown's claim, Buford LaRose, a powerful gubernatorial candidate and the author of a book on the shooting, asks Robicheaux to distance himself from the case. LaRose's wife Karyn, with whom Robicheaux once shared a romantic tryst, also insists that Dave not get involved. More facts emerge, Karyn's approach becomes more explicit, and New Orleans-based criminals begin to take interest. As Dave's curiosity builds, the situation threatens to fester into racial confrontation. It also becomes black versus black and white versus white, hunters and the hunted, in the bayous and canebrakes of southern Louisiana.
Authors of mystery series -- this is James Lee Burke's ninth featuring Dave Robicheaux -- must describe the characters and high points of previous books to provide a basis for the current tale. This allows readers new to the series to enjoy the book without penalty for starting late in the larger story's evolution. The process must not tax the longtime reader. At this task, especially in Cadillac Jukebox, Burke is a master. He weaves the obligatory info into the plot early on. The reader is swept into an elegant and perilous morality tale where power and advantage shift with knowledge and revelation, as well as with a psychotic's use of adrenaline-pumped muscle.
Amid 30-year-old evidence and the murders of several people at the periphery of the controversy, Robicheaux must balance his law enforcement job -- his perch on the higher moral plane -- with the necessity of acting as go-between for feuding factions in the lowlife. He catches himself all over the spectrum: from insightful to blatantly stupid. There are even moments when, out of pride or attempted manipulation, criminals inform Dave what's really going on. With Karyn LaRose's come-ons, Robicheaux also must confront his own past. He knows from experience that when one claims to be perfect, a quick comeuppance is close at hand. Aaron Crown's conviction is questioned; Robicheaux's own motives and methods may be equally suspect.
In Cadillac Jukebox Burke relates a tale of backwoods revenge and double-cross that yanks characters down to "What goes around comes around." Once again he cloaks believable drama in Louisiana's exquisite natural surroundings. Money and political influence lay down the rules, but reason and truth are given a chance at victory.
James Lee Burke's series of Dave Robicheaux mysteries is successful because each book has carried its own personality and depth and flavor and pace. It serves little purpose to compare the books in the series. That said, I must suggest that Cadillac Jukebox could be the best Robicheaux ever. It calls for the immediate attention of both newcomers and established fans.
Writer and photographer Tom Corcoran lives in Lakeland, Florida.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.