Thanksgiving gave me opportunity to read James Lee Burke

Thanksgiving gave me opportunity to read a James Lee Burke mystery Pegasus Descending. I had a bus ride to my family's party, and my kindle was loaded with electricity both from the plug in my wall at home and from his writing on the page.

I give thanks for his story-telling ability. I can sail away to places I have never visited before, and experience them with all my senses. How wonderful is writing like that? In fact, for over half the bus ride, I was in Florida while riding on the New Jersey Turnpike. I lived the story with his detective Dave Robicheaux. One of the reasons I write the Samantha Cochran manuscipts in first person is James Lee Burke. He taught me how effective that person is to create a multi-sensory scene.
However, that is where the comparison in our writing styles diverges as his beautiful lengthy descriptions of every setting are not present in my writing. I write with more urgency. Probably the difference between the writing of an intense New Yorker versus the slow pace of the laid-back south and mid-west populace.
If you have not had the chance to read Mr. Burke, you should start within the minute, because it beats the hell out of almost everything else you can do legally wherever you live.
I may have written this before somewhere a blog or a tweet or on my Facebook page, but every time I pick up one of his novels, no matter which of his detectives is the protagonist, I leave New Jersey and travel to Louisiana, or Texas or Idaho or wherever his book takes place. Cheapest vacation you can ever buy. And one of the safest, no driving to a resort, no flying to a destination, and no travel delays that make your connections disconnected.
Oh, and if you were wondering if Alafair Burke, who writes mysteries as well, is related to him, her credentials as a former DA in the great Northwest does not require genetic compatibility with Mr. Burke. She has earned her ranking as a mystery writer on her own. She is quite prolific. However, she is his daughter and neither of the two will disclaim that fact. He has stated, she was writing mysteries before he ever penned one Dave Robicheaux manuscript.

I leave with this final thought, James Lee Burke is such a talented writer that he has won an Edgar (the award given by Mystery Writers of America for the best mystery novel of the year) for two of his detectives.

Now stop reading this post and go download or buy one of his books.

Here is a link for the order and complete listing of Mr. James Lee Burke's works

Or as an alternative, buy one of Alafair's
Here are the books of Alafair Burke in order.

One last thing, if you think you are too snooty and proper to read mysteries, because they are not literate enough or they do not present the level of academia that your taste requires, before I give you the you are one number sign with my middle finger, remember, Robert B. Parker taught college level English, as did Mr. Burke. His daughter's teaching credentials are listed at the link above. Things sometimes are not what they seem; oh wait, isn't that what most mysteries are based on. So if mysteries are the pablum of the masses, their author-chefs can still cook the hell out of them.


Enjoy. Read and live.
--- L.A. Preschel