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A Private Cathedral

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A Private Cathedral

By: James Lee Burke
Narrated by: Will Patton
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About this listen

After becoming embroiled in one of Louisiana's oldest and bloodiest gangland feuds, Detective Dave Robicheaux must battle the most terrifying adversary he has ever encountered....

The merciless Shondell and Balangie families are long-time enemies in the New Iberia criminal underworld. Yet their youngest heirs, Johnny and Isolde - star-crossed teenage lovers - have run away together. As he tried to uncover the reasons why, Robicheaux gets too close to both Isolde's mother and her father's mistress.

In retribution, Balangie - as jealous as he is cruel - hires an assassin to hunt Robicheaux and his long-time partner, Clete Purcel. This hitman is unlike any the two have ever faced - able to materialise without warning and to introduce horrifying hallucinations in his victims. In order to defeat him and rescue the young lovers, Robicheaux will have to overcome the demons that have tormented him his whole life....

©2020 James Lee Burke (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio Crime Thrillers Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction Assassin Exciting Scary Mystery

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Critic reviews

“America’s best novelist.” (The Denver Post)

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if you're a fan great, if you've never heard of James Lee Burke a good introduction. Fantastic narrative and storytelling. Strong characters good and bad...well worth the time

Stunning Listerning

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A fantastically dark twist to the crime mystery genre but one that sits well with this JLB series. In retrospect it seems almost inevitable that the Dave and Cleet would go here eventually.

Unique,

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Love JLB, especially the Robicheaux stories with big Clete Purcell. This one has a great storyline, it’s brutal and funny, holding the listeners attention every second. Will Patton’s narration is bang on, perfect for the characters portrayed. Hoping for more in this amazing series!

My favourite JLB so far!

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Another exceptional story, written in Burke’s lyrical and individual style. The narrator could not be more suited to reading drama of this calibre.

Always breathtakingly brilliant.

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I've read and loved all of Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels and generally speaking I like a linear chronology so this book is like Lee Child and his "Reacher' series or Philip Kerr's 'Bernie Gunter' series which don't follow a linear time chronology. That's not a big deal but it's a stretch to suspend disbelief enough to buy the galleons in the mist and time travelling evil killers on the loose unless you either believe all that Louisiana mysticism or think like me that Dave and Clete are suffering the effects of alcohol, LSD or other mind altering substances. There is an obsession with death, religion, superstition, music, sex and violence which are all ingredients of David Simon's excellent 'Treme' but this is a different gumbo altogether. I loved the book for its narration, the gorgeous purple prose and the relationship between Dave and Clete but I was less convinced by the plot. It came across as Burke riffing on old and familiar themes in a near steam of conscious narrative. If you love Burke's work you'll go along with this and find it enjoyable enough but new readers ought not to start here.

Hallucinogenic Ghosts in the Mist

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Will Paton's excellent, characterful narration is the saving grace of this book. I am a JLB junkie, having read all of the Robicheaux saga, but this is below par. The deus ex machina role of a time-tripping , medieval bad man compromises the gritty reality you expect: too much fantasy, not enough exploration of motives. And just how old are Dave and Clete now? Dave's fatal attraction to and for women is overplayed - as is Clete's propensity for violence. Finally, the underlying theme of "Antifa" revisionist history almost presages the advent of BLM.

A ghoul too far

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Great story, as Clete and Dave confront existential questions about evil. Very topical and relevant to the current administration in USA. The language is as rich and lyrical as always and the narration is superb.

JLB never disappoints

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Well, we have read into the words for so long, that evil and wonder is around us. It came to be in this book. Not like any story before from James Lee Burke.
A grand finale

All his fears

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I’ve read and listened to several of these novels. This one was seemed a bit ‘tired’ and repeated at lot of the same ideas and action as the others.

Very like the others.

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Have been an avid fan of all of JLBs work since 2002, this book though is just too odd, time travel, spectres and just incongruous plotting and characters.

It is set out of time when DR and CP are younger than they were in the last DR story but it just adds to the general confusion of the book.

I never thought I would say this but think DR should be quietly discontinued.

Come in number 9, your time is up.

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