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A Stained White Radiance | 
 enlarge | Author: James Lee Burke
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy Used: $3.88
You Save: $13.12 (77%)
Used (12) from $3.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 685709
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0671868179
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780671868178
ASIN: 0671868179
Publication Date: August 1, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 2 cassette tapes, box has wear
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Product Description
Cajun police detective Dave Robicheaux knows the Sonnier family of New Iberia -- their connections to the CIA, the mob, and to a former Klansman now running for state office. And he knows their past -- as dark and murky as a night on the Louisiana bayou. An assassination attempt and the death of a cop draw Robicheaux into the Sonniers' dangerous web of madness, murder and incest. But Robicheaux has devils of his own. And they've come out of hiding to destroy the tormented investigator -- and the people he holds most dear. Filled with the usual Burke combination of brilliant action and a stunning novelistic theme, A Stained White Radiance will keep Burke's fans riveted -- and win him many new ones.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 beautifully written January 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A Stained White Radiance is a beautifully written book. An absorbing suspenseful story woven into the culture of the south. Burke gives us a sheriff who is complicated, masculine and sensitive to others and his environment. I read every word, not for the storyline but for the writing itself.
 Not much good January 7, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This product was very late being delivered and then when I opened it there were no tapes in the box. I got ripped off on this one. Will never order from this seller again.
 Not his best August 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm reading his books in order and this is number 5. It's not as boring as Black Cherry Blues but certainly falls far short of the other 3. This one can be skipped as like Black Cherry it contains no "significant" changes in Dave's life.
 He Signs a Case with a Baseball Bat June 13, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"A Stained White Radiance," published in 1992, is fifth in James Lee Burke's increasingly popular Dave Robicheaux series. It bears some family resemblance to the others, particularly in Burke's remarkable ability to make his home country-- New Orleans and its surround, Southern Louisiana-- sing. His descriptions of its landscape, animal, vegetable and mineral, are so deeply felt, that people who have never been closer to New Orleans than Chicago can sense its morning aromas, its approaching storms and nighttime skies.
There are further family resemblances, to be sure. Robicheaux is married to second wife Bootsie, whom he knows, as he does most people in his world, from high school or before. Bootsie suffers from lupus. The detective has quietly, unofficially adopted orphan Alafair; she keeps a three-legged raccoon, called Tripod, as a pet. Robicheaux owns a bait shop that Batist, longtime black family servant, manages. The detective is with the New Iberia police department, as he's been kicked off the New Orleans department. He's still battling his demons: drink, dark memories of Vietnam. His cases generally lead him to the dark side, often to New Orleans, frequently to conflict with the local mafia. When he needs to, he calls upon Clete Purcell, his former partner at NOPD, who's been excommunicated from the department, as he has. Purcell's a heavy, sunburnt, Irish Channel kind of guy, eats too much, smokes and drinks too much, drives an old Cadillac, and lets his anger out to play too frequently. Robicheaux's cases often, as this one, involve present-day outgrowths of hidden, long-ago misdeeds. The family resemblance continues in that the case in this book centers, as so many of the author's do, around the detective's childhood friends, the Cajun Sonnier family, that are ineradicably marked by the harsh abuse they suffered in childhood. The case also centers around the murder of a local cop. When Robicheaux finally clears the murder in his usual fashion, with a high body count, his supervisor will tell him, "I think you wrote your signature on this case with a baseball bat, Dave." Sometimes he does.
However, in this book, Robicheaux is unable to reach the man he really wants to bring down. He muses, " I was guilty of that age-old presumption that the origins of social evil can be traced to villainous individuals, that we just need to identify them, lock them in cages, or even march them to the executioner's wall, and this time, yes, this time, we'll catch a fresh breeze in our sails and set ourselves on a true course." Doesn't mean he doesn't keep trying.
JLB is the 'Bard of the Bayou' July 8, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dave is back working as a detective with the New Iberia sheriff's office; living with Bootsie and Alafair, and running his boat rental business. On a routine call, a new officer is killed by two men caught in the middle of a crime. The house where this occurs, is the home of an old friend from his childhood, Weldon Sonnier.
The Sonnier family story is even sorrier than Dave's childhood. Dirt Poor, their mother dies, leaving them to be taken care of by their abusive father's girlfriend. Things get so bad for the kids that at one point they set her on fire. Their father dies in an industrial accident and they spend the rest of their childhood in foster homes and state institutions.
The oldest brother (Weldon) was a flier in 'Nam and then worked for Air America, running drugs and arms to rebels in the mountains of Laos. The younger brother (Lyle) was in 'Nam with Dave, and was a 'tunnel rat' who lost three fingers on his hand. Their sister (Drew) was Dave's girlfriend in college after he got back from 'Nam, as he was on the rebound from Bootsie.
Now Weldon is a rich, successful oilman; Lyle is a born again preacher; and Drew is messed up. Weldon's brother-in-law (his wife is a pill addict) is a racist politician (Bobby Earl) in the manner of David Dukes), mixed up with the aryan brotherhood. One of Earl's biggest backers is the local drug don.
Weldon has gotten involved with Earl's friends who need a man who knows how to fly under the radar (literally). But on a job (that he was pre-paid) for, Weldon gets a conscience and dumps the cargo. Needless to say, his ex-employers are not happy. To add a little extra grusomeness, there is a psychopath midget, and a man with a burned face that looks like melted rubber.
Everything else that happens is related to the murder of the cop and the appearance of the 'burned man'. The action is sometimes a little too bloody, but it's hard to put the story down. The denoument is almost funny (in a non-haha way), and the epilogue sounds like the end of a Jerry Springer show.
More than anything, JLB writing about Dave's relationships with Bootsie, Alafair, Baptiste, and Cletus continue to mature.
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