Better Business Bureau serves as consumer watchdog
September 5, 2012
Art After Dark returns to Houma
September 5, 2012
CREOLE BELLE
By James Lee Burke
Simon and Schuster $27.99
As he recovers in the hospital from wounds he suffered in a shootout a month earlier, New Iberia detective Dave Robicheaux is visited by singer Tee Jolie Melton, who leaves an iPod loaded with the song “My Creole Belle” on his bedside table. Later, when he learns that Tee Jolie has been missing for weeks, he and buddy Clete Purcell go in search for her and her younger sister. Clete meanwhile discovers a contract killer targeting him is his own illegitimate daughter, and she and Dave’s daughter, Alafair, are hostages of a mad Nazi war criminal.
Having Dave back in New Iberia and environs adds lots of flavor to this first-rate story.
A WANTED MAN
By Lee Wild
Delacorte $28
Three men walk into a pumping station but only two come out. When blood begins to seep out of the station, the lone witness calls the sheriff who calls the FBI who sends the lovely agent Jackie Sorenson to investigate.
Not too far away Jack Reacher, hitching on a frigid Nebraska highway, accepts a ride in a car with two men and a woman and quickly realizes not all is well with this trio. Meanwhile, CIA and State Department personnel join Agent Sorenson, indicating the victim was obviously important.
The plot thickens in the exciting way author Wild keeps pages turning as Jack is joined by Sorenson and the mystery woman from the car in thwarting an incredible terrorist attack. This is Reacher at his best.
CANADA
By Richard Ford
Ecco $27.99
Talk about “coming of age” stories, this is a gem. It’s narrated by 15-year-old Dell Parson, who opens with these sentences: “First, I’ll tell you about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.”
Dell and twin sister, Berner, were virtually alone after their parents were imprisoned for robbing a bank. Berner, independent and strong willed, left home for places unknown without even saying goodbye, while Del opted to go with his mother’s friend across the border to Canada where he was to be taken under the wing of her brother, Arthur Remlinger, an American expatriate, who was not at all solicitous of Dell’s welfare. Instead, he seemed to be grooming him for a shattering act of violence.
DIRTY RICE
By Gerald Duff
UL Press $20
Baseball fans that remember the Evangeline League will relish the nostalgia of minor league baseball teams playing ball throughout south Louisiana.
Founded in 1935 the league included, among other cities, the Houma Indians, New Iberia Cardinals, Lafayette White Sox and the Rayne Rice Birds.
The novel revolves around Gemar Batiste, a talented player from Texas, who quickly became the Rice Bird’s star player. Only, Gemar was different, an Alabama-Coushatta Indian, who was asked to play the stereotypical Indian and even asked to cheat. That went against his grain for he saw the diamond as a sacred place of honor named for Longfellow’s heroine.
This is a warm and humorous story with all the flavor of non-fiction.
THE LAST TRADE
By James Conway
Dutton $26.95
This novel may scare the daylights out of you, not just because of the murders, but more so for learning how fragile money markets are and how easily money can move worldwide without detection and cause a crash overnight.
In this instance, unscrupulous traders attempt to undermine the U.S. economy by selling stocks they don’t own (“selling short”).
Drew Havens made a bundle with the “Rising High” fund when the U.S. housing market collapsed. Now, torn by guilt, he refuses to go along with his boss’ plan to bring the American financial market “to its knees.”
At the cost of learning your financial ABC’s, you may lose plenty of ZZZs.
– Raymond “Ray” Saadi is a longtime local radio station owner/operator who’s moved from broadcasting to books. Now retired, he has been writing book reviews for more than 12 years.
James Lee Burke, born in Houston in 1936, is the author of more than 20 published books, including Pulitzer Prize-nominated “The Lost Get-Back Boogie.” His latest, “Creole Belle,” is a thriller set in New Iberia.
“Creole Belle”
“A Wanted Man”
“Canada”
“Dirty Rice”
“The Last Trade”
