Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
Audiobook11 hours
A Private Cathedral: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
Written by James Lee Burke
Narrated by Will Patton
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
After finding himself caught up in one of Louisiana’s oldest and bloodiest family rivalries, Detective Dave Robicheaux must battle the most terrifying adversary he has ever encountered: a time-traveling superhuman assassin.
The Shondell and Balangie families are longtime enemies in the New Iberia criminal underworld and show each other no mercy. Yet their youngest heirs, Johnny Shondell and Isolde Balangie, rock and roll-musician teenagers with magical voices, have fallen in love and run away after Isolde was given as a sex slave to Johnny’s uncle.
As he seeks to uncover why, Detective Dave Robicheaux gets too close to both Isolde’s mother and the mistress of her father, a venomous New Orleans mafioso whose jealousy has no bounds. In retribution, he hires a mysterious assassin to go after Robicheaux and his longtime partner, Clete Purcel. This hitman is unlike any the “Bobbsey Twins from Homicide” have ever faced. He has the ability to induce horrifying hallucinations and travels on a menacing ghost ship that materializes without warning. In order to defeat him and rescue Johnny and Isolde, Robicheaux will have to overcome the demons that have tormented him throughout his adult life—alcoholism, specters from combat in Vietnam, and painful memories of women to whom he opened his heart only to see killed.
A Private Cathedral, James Lee Burke’s fortieth book, is his most powerful tale, one that will captivate readers—mixing crime, romance, mythology, horror, and science fiction to produce a thrilling story about the all-consuming, all-conquering power of love.
The Shondell and Balangie families are longtime enemies in the New Iberia criminal underworld and show each other no mercy. Yet their youngest heirs, Johnny Shondell and Isolde Balangie, rock and roll-musician teenagers with magical voices, have fallen in love and run away after Isolde was given as a sex slave to Johnny’s uncle.
As he seeks to uncover why, Detective Dave Robicheaux gets too close to both Isolde’s mother and the mistress of her father, a venomous New Orleans mafioso whose jealousy has no bounds. In retribution, he hires a mysterious assassin to go after Robicheaux and his longtime partner, Clete Purcel. This hitman is unlike any the “Bobbsey Twins from Homicide” have ever faced. He has the ability to induce horrifying hallucinations and travels on a menacing ghost ship that materializes without warning. In order to defeat him and rescue Johnny and Isolde, Robicheaux will have to overcome the demons that have tormented him throughout his adult life—alcoholism, specters from combat in Vietnam, and painful memories of women to whom he opened his heart only to see killed.
A Private Cathedral, James Lee Burke’s fortieth book, is his most powerful tale, one that will captivate readers—mixing crime, romance, mythology, horror, and science fiction to produce a thrilling story about the all-consuming, all-conquering power of love.
Author
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author, two-time winner of the Edgar Award, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. He has authored forty novels and two short story collections. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
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Reviews for A Private Cathedral
Rating: 4.371428571428571 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
70 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I love Burkes characters and settings. The story started good but went off the track nearing the end. Also the philosophy monologs could be scaled down. Otherwise an enjoyable read. Patton is the best reader for this kind of book. Excellent
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No one writes like James Lee Burke. And Will Patton does the best audio. Burke’s writing is compelling, thoughtful, and edgy. I love every book he has written. I reread them as many as three times. They never get dull
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clete Purcell has always been like that, but I worry about Dave too now.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I have loved all of JLBurkes books and read many of them multiple times, but the gratuitous violence in this one has made it hard to listen to. I have actually had to skip over some parts, something I never do. Because I respect this writer, I will finish this book, but I am disappointed in such a fine writer resorting to this type of writing. This could have been a good story. I am not sure why the author wants to traumatize is with such horrific scenes.
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