1130. Dixie City Jam

This is the first James Lee Burke that I have read, and there are many others before it and after it. I was given the book after a recommendation from a family member. Since, I have recently started reading more Crime Fiction, this was a natural fit for me. There a few things to note however about this book as you read my review of it. First, while this is a stand alone adventure of Detective Dave Robicheaux (I still don't know how to pronounce his last name), this is really the seventh book in a series of books with him as the main character. Second, the novel takes place in 1994, so if this puts you off, and you need something more current, this might not be your cup of tea. There is no mention of cell phones, and other modern contrivances. Finally, thirdly, and more importantly, this book is not for the faint of heart. I am not talking about violence or blood and guts. There is some violence, but compared to what we see on our TV screens today it is beyond mild. No, what I am talking about is the multi threaded, multi person character arc. This is something only a SERIOUS NOVEL can achieve, and only a serious writer can pull off. You see this in some of this year's better TV Crime or other Dramas: The Killing, Broadchurch, and The Bridge. If you don't have the ability to follow multiple story threads then this book is not for you.

If you do have the ability to follow multiple story threads, this book, after a short introduction from the past, finds Detective Dave Robicheaux trying to get his ex-partner Clete (Cletus) Parcel out of some trouble he got himself in with some local New Orleans (N.O.) mobsters. This is all set against the background of the search for a sunken Nazi sub. The sub was sunk off the Louisiana coast at the mouth of the Mississippi. Apparently, the Nazi's, back in the World War II days, heavily patrolled these waters as a lot of shipping left these shores bound for Europe. But, this ship may or may not have something in it to hide. And it's connection to Detective Robicheaux is as follows: when he was a teenager, diving off a shrimping boat, working summers on the coast, he had seen the wreck of the sunken sub. Years later, he saw it again at a different location, possibly a place where the sub would have drifted with time and tides. Dave Robicheaux now owns a bait and tackle shop along with a boat rental business. He was in one of his boats when he saw the sub for the second time.

There is a local New Orleans hotel entrepreneur who knows Dave's sub story and wants Dave to help him find the sub and raise it. He goes by the name of Hippo Brimstine. Hippo is Jewish. So, is this the reason he wants to raise a Nazi sub? Or is there a hidden reason? One of the mobsters in town also wants to give Dave money to get the location of the sub. But what is his interest? Was his family connected with Nazi's back in the 30s and 40s. Is it because he is Irish-Catholic? Is it some other reason?

Racial politics and race relations play a huge role in this story, as Dave Robicheaux is a "by the numbers" detective who does not break any rules, or does he? Yet, he does bend them to the extent of needing to achieve his goals. Especially when he and his family are threatened by Neo-Nazis and by other N.O. mobsters. Do they find the sub? Are the threats against Dave, his family and his friends countered? Answers are provided in time..... But something more important to consider.

There is a flavor and a smell to this Novel, and it's all Southern and it's all Louisiana and New Orleans. The prose grabs you and drags you in and does not let you go. When you start reading this book, you feel and breath and taste and smell everything. When Dave Robicheaux buys Po 'boy sandwiches, you smell them in the bag he's holding. When Dave's neighbor is burning his sugarcane fields, you smell it too. You feel the Palm fronds waving in the breeze, you sense the breeze off the Gulf, you experience every single sensation. THIS is a book to immerse yourself in. And this is writing to revel in.

James Lee Burke is a gem of writer and I am sad it took me so long to discover him. I have no problem recommending this book, or this writer, based on just this one book. Easily, a four star book.

1126. The Absent One

Jussi Adler-Olsen's "The Absent One" is not the first "Department Q Novel". Events take place in Denmark with most of the action occurring in Copenhagen and surrounding areas. Carl Morck is a Detective for Copenhagen's Unsolved Murder Cases Unit, the Eponymous, Department Q. Although the author has written previous books in this series featuring this Detective and associated supporting characters (but different cases), this was the first book  about Detective Morck that I picked up to read.

Detective Morck works with very minimum resources -- he has only a staff of two. An overeager assistant of Middle Eastern descent and heritage who is not a full-fledged detective and a Secretary who finished the Police Academy but flanked out as a Police Officer, yet is highly organized. With these impediments in mind, a case lands on Detective Morck's desk about a twenty year old murder of a brother and sister. What becomes immediately apparent is that even though there is someone in jail serving time for this crime, he might not be the person who committed the murders, and might have been murdered or set-up to take the fall. Involved in this conspiracy are some of Denmark's most influential business people and a homeless woman seen wandering the streets of Copenhagen day and night in different outfits, sometimes dressed nicely, sometimes dressed in rags, called Kimmie. She has something in common with the businessmen who are trying -- or have tried -- to cover the twenty year old murder.

In some ways, this book is similar in themes with Steig Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". It discusses themes of social strata, the morals (or sometimes lack thereof) of upper society, the differentiation of people based on their upbringing and schooling.  Does this social stratification, and the fact that Detective Morck's assistant is from the Middle-East play a role in the way he handles this case? That's for every individual reader of this book to decide. Personally, I enjoyed the interplay of the morality in this novel against the foreign (to me) culture. Morals are universal. Good and Evil, and the Great, Wide, GREY in between, should be universal to all cultures, however, the way that each culture approaches them differs, and that interplay made this book very interesting.

Two things threw me off about this book. It is sold as a somewhat "humorous" or "funny" novel. I did not find any of the antics humorous. It's possible that my understanding of the Danish culture prevented me from enjoying the humor. Secondly, some of the translation seemed broken, like words were jumbled. Then again, it's possible that the author's writing itself is what is jumbled, and it comes out across that way in the translation.

Because of these two things, I can only give this book three and a half stars. I did enjoy the story. And I recommend it. Maybe others, will find the humor I missed.

My Short Fiction Collection # 1 ("Death")

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting some of my fiction pieces with the intent to ask for input. My question is really two-fold:

1. Is my fiction worthy, that is, is it something enjoyable, something that you would be willing to read in a magazine (if published), or in an e-Book, if I published one of my longer pieces?
2. Should I continue the story in the particular piece you're reading now, or would you call this a self-contained piece, and are you satisfied with this story? Do you want more pieces like this one?

So, without further ado, here is the first piece, which I wrote many years ago. Let me know what you think in the comments:

---

Death

    

    On a dark Sunday afternoon, it was overcast and muggy, the heiress came to New York. For the first time in her life she could do anything she wanted. She was rich in more ways than money.

   Rick was the first guy she met. He was an average kind of guy with an overbearing attitude. But, as everyone said: "he's a great son of a ..." He helps out people when they don't expect it. Mrs. Whitmore can attest to that. Anyway, Julia got an apartment above him, so, they were next ceiling neighbors. He figured she was rich;  this was at the time he was expanding his business. So they met and started seeing each other regularly.

  
Julia didn't have any sisters or brothers, but her cousins flocked to New York trying to milk her dry of her money. She got Rick to turn them all away. Then Peter showed-up.

  
   She was still in love with him, although she hadn't seen him since she first left Iowa, two years before. "They were made for each other," she thought back then. Now though, she wasn't so sure. And what was love anyway, but a passing fad. How could she explain it to Peter without breaking his heart?

  "This is Rick," she introduced the current man in her life to Peter. "He is my boyfriend."

   Peter wasn't impressed by Rick, but of course he was an SOB anyway, right? You could almost feel the electricity sparkle between them. Something was going to happen, something bad.

   It was the night of the third. Julia was out with Rick. They were presently  drinking at a local pub. Rick said, "I want your body." He didn't for goodness sake say, "I want your money," which is what he meant. Peter showed-up with a gun. It was a .45 with a silencer.  He used it and the poor SOB Rick was dead. And then he killed Julia, the idiot. The heiress was gone along with her money.

---

So, what did you think of this short fiction piece?

Please write your reviews in the comments section. 

1113. The Silk Code

There are a number of FIRSTS associated with this book. This was the author's (Paul Levinson) first Published Novel. This was my first e-Book read on my new NOOK Reader. This was also the author's preferred edition of his work (which as always I assume to mean has been reworked sort of like a "Director's Cut" for a book)....It also marked the first appearance of forensics detective Dr. Phil D'Amato in "novel" form (he had appeared in the author's short stories).

So, with all that in mind and out of the way, let's lay out some background info. But before we do, it's important to understand what kind of book this is. "The Silk Code" is a Science Fiction novel with elements of a Scientific Mystery and a Detective Story. If your science fiction tastes run in the Space Opera category then this book is not for you. But you can look at it another way: Science Fiction does not only encompass classic Space Opera, Star Trek and Star Wars or Space Battles and Aliens; sometimes the Aliens are us, and the scientific discoveries are next door to us OR even in our own back-yard, here on planet Earth, the place we call home. And in the best, good Science Fiction, the Science part is just as important as the Fiction and you learn something from both, because in that story, and in its telling, you learn something about "yourself" and about what makes you human.

The story in this Novel centers around Phil D'Amato, a forensics doctor/detective for the NYPD, sort of a cross between a medical examiner and a guy who gets out on the street to look for answers about the bodies that cross his lab table at the examiner's office. It all starts innocently enough when Phil and a friend are visiting the Amish people in Amish country in rural Pennsylvania at the request of his friend. His friend has something to show him.  {Ed: If you, dear reader, haven't gone to Amish country, you owe yourself the trip. Getting back to the review then.} But for Phil and his friend, the trip is a little more than he bargained for, as he uncovers a shocking secret that the Amish have kept for hundreds of years, if not thousands. As one Amish Leader essentially tells Phil, not all human technology has to be of the shiny, mechanical variety. And some things (and people) are more advanced than we expect. Some technology is biological. The answer may lie within our own DNA. But who or what holds the key to that answer?

Paul Levinson spins a masterful yarn that spans over 1300 years from 750 AD to the present and it involves the Amish, the Tocharians and the Neanderthals. This book was written at the close of the last century, and even with this revised edition, there are some things that will trip you up. For example, cell phone usage is not what you read or see in fiction today. On the other hand this novel (as all good science fiction novels should) was completely prophetic in acknowledging that we know nothing about the Neanderthals and they were not in fact the brutes that they have been portrayed in recent scientific literature (last 100 years or so). They were in fact more like us: they were artists, and singers, and fathers and mothers, and THEY survive in us today. There are people walking among us today carrying up to 4% or more of Neanderthal DNA.

Taking all these elements and spinning a tale out of them would be a feat for any writer. Building a tale and a world that is both believable, accessible to the casual reader -- and with that, I mean someone without a PhD in Biology -- can only be described as a major victory for a first Novel.  This novel achieves what it sets out to do. It solves the two main mysteries at its core. It answers some major questions that are revealed along the way. It has a solid and believable cast. It is very entertaining and for me the right blend of suspense and exposition. Finally, it has an underlying mystery with enough unanswered questions left in the back of your mind, and Phil D'Amato's mind not to make you feel cheated, or to make you think that there is a sequel coming, but rather, to make you THINK. All great books achieve this symmetry. If all your questions were answered by great literature, would you continue to read after the first book, the second, the third? At what point would you stop? This book does this exceptionally well, and for this alone I would have recommended it. This is one of the best books I read in the last year and one of the best science fiction novels of all time, especially because of how it has predicted the last 10 years or so of Neanderthal discoveries. And Phil D'Amato is my kind of detective. Just the right blend of smarts and macho. Taken as a whole? I give this five stars -- easily.