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    Light Of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
    Light Of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
    Light Of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
    Audiobook (abridged)8 hours

    Light Of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

    Written by James Lee Burke

    Narrated by Will Patton

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Dave Robicheaux battles the most diabolical villain he has ever faced in this atmospheric thriller.

    Sadist and serial killer Asa Surrette narrowly escaped the death penalty for the string of heinous murders he committed while capital punishment was outlawed in Kansas. But following a series of damning articles written by Dave Robicheaux’s daughter Alafair, Surrette escapes from a prison transport van and heads to Montana, where an unsuspecting Dave—along with Alafair; Dave’s wife, Molly; Dave’s faithful partner Clete; and Clete’s newfound daughter, Gretchen Horowitz—have come to take in the sweet summer air.

    Surrette may be even worse than Dave’s old enemy Legion Guidry, a man Dave suspected might very well be the devil incarnate. But before Dave can stop Surrette from harming those he loves most, he’ll have to do battle with Love Younger, an enigmatic petrochemical magnate seeking to build an oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas, and Wyatt Dixon, a rodeo clown with a dark past whom Burke fans will recall from his Billy Bob Holland novels.

    Drawing on real events that took place in Wichita, Kansas, over a twenty-year span, Light of the World “reaffirms Robicheaux’s status as one of the most successfully sustained creations in contemporary crime fiction” (The Washington Post Book World).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 23, 2013
    ISBN9781442361508
    Author

    James Lee Burke

    James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author, two-time winner of the Edgar Award, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. He has authored forty novels and two short story collections. He lives in Missoula, Montana.

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    Reviews for Light Of the World

    4/5

    144 ratings17 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I loved this book for the first 100 pages. When it started focusing on Clete Purcell it completely lost me.
    • 5/5
      I have never been able to put down a Dave Robicheaux novel and James Lee Burke's Light of the World is no exception. I believe this is Burke's 20th book in the series and he is stronger than ever. I thought Creole Belle was my favorite book in the series, until I read Light of the World. I quite literally could not stop reading this book and recommend it to anyone who enjoys exceptionally beautiful writing coupled with colorful characters and a suspenseful plot.
    • 5/5
      Police Detective Dave Robicheaux faces off with the most diabolical villain he has ever faced in the twentieth installment of the Dave Robicheaux series. Sadistic serial killer Asa Surette avoids the death penalty for murders he committed while capital punishment was banned. But when Robicheaux's daughter Alafair writes a series of articles implicating Surrette in other murders which could get him death, he decides to escape prison and make her pay. Can Robicheaux save his daughter?
    • 4/5
      and that rating's generous, for old time's sake. bloated, repetitious, poorly organized, and self-indulgent. i've loved this series for many years, but maybe it's time to stop.
    • 2/5
      I read my first James Lee Burke book in 1990, it was The Neon Rain, I bought the paperback for the title, and I loved the main Character Dave Robicheaux. After reading the book I read the next two books in the series, and from then on I read everything that James Lee Burke wrote. I would buy his books the day they came out even though they were hardback and expensive and knowing if i waited a week or two they would go on sale. I didn't care, I couldn't wait to read them. Like all book series, some were better than others but even the not so great ones were better than many other books out there. The series should have ended with "The Glass Rainbow", even though I would be sad that the series was over, the main characters Dave and Clete were becoming, cliched, predictable and tiring. Let's face it these two should be dead, after all of their crazy antics or at the least in jail or retired and playing shuffleboard in Florida.
      The series was in trouble as all series are when he started adding additional characters to the story. His wife Molly who was some liberal do-gooder Nun in El Salvador, so she gets a pass for anything she helps Dave with, and then there was the the making of Dave's daughter Alafair more prominent in the stories. A daughter with the same name that the author has in real life.To really "Jump The Shark" the author added a daughter for Clete named Gretchen whose background was supposed to, I guess elicit sympathy but was just cliched and laughable.
      The other problem with this series and other series from Mr Burke, were that his politics and beliefs went from being a small part of the story, to instead being front and center. The author is free to have whatever political views he wants but to ruin a fictional book series to make his point is disastrous. We all know he is Liberal, hates Republicans and especially Bush who we blames for everything including New Orleans lack of planning for Hurricane Katrina. The BP disaster was another example of big business screwing over the little guy, in fact he really hates oil companies, and Logging companies too. He doesn't however see a problem with Dave and Clete repeatedly taken the law into their own hands and administering justice the way they see fit. Like many other Liberals he also doesn't seem to mind making money for himself, as he is doing something good and noble because he writes books as opposed to raping the land and fouling the water. It must be nice to hang out at one of your two homes Mr Burke and and make pronouncements about the rest of the world.
      I must confess I did not read the last book in this series Creole Belle, because based on actual reader reviews it did not sound like I would like it, and I thought I would seek it out in paperback sometime down the road. That has yet to happen.
      So it was with major wariness I decided to buy Light of the World, as I had some time to kill at the airport recently.
      The writing is like James Lee Burke, there are parts that lyrical almost poetic, but it has all been done before and better by this author. There were times I wondered if Mr Burke even actually wrote this book of if someone who was very familiar with his style (his daughter maybe) actually contributed or fully wrote it. I mean who talks like Dave in the 21st century? In this book the storyline is all over the place, there are descriptions that seem to be used to fill up pages rather than adding anything to the story. His political views started showing up as early as on page 24 of the paperback version and the story continued downhill from there.

      If you have read this book and it was your first or second in this series, and you liked it, go back to the books in the beginning before the Author was a cranky preachy old Liberal. The series used to be the benchmark of writing and storytelling, the descriptions made you feel as if you were there experiencing what Dave was, as it was happening. The action portions make sense and the story lines made sense.
      I saw where Mr Burkes latest Book is not really part of any of his current series though the are a character or two from one of his series, in it. I doubt I will read it. This author unfortunately for me just is not worth the time anymore.
    • 2/5
      I thought I'd never get through this mess. Where do I start? Number one, it was w-a-y, w-a-y too l-o-n-g. Does Burke use an editor? Probably not. But even if it were half as long it would still be too long. It was one of those books where I hoped the enemy won! What a cast of useless characters he uses and reuses; mentally unstable, broken down, drunks. And the foul mouthed children need to be put into special homes. I wouldn't even go into the black, ultra violent treatment of the confusing storyline. Well, that's enough. I did not like this book. I am appalled at the number of people who do. What has happened to our tastes in the country?
    • 5/5
      Light of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel. James Lee Burke. 2013. Burke begins this adventure with Dave’s commentary on the nature of evil and original sin all of which is colored by his experiences in childhood, in Vietnam and in New Orleans as a homicide detective, and his Catholicism. In Asa Surette, Burke has created his vilest most despicable character, a sadistic serial killer. Surette was supposedly killed when a prison van transporting him crashes and burns in Kansas. Dave, his wife and daughter as well as Clete are in Montana at a friend’s ranch when they hear this. At one time, Alafair, Dave’s daughter had interviewed Surette in preparation for a book, but she was so repulsed by his evil that she did not write the book. When Alafair is almost hit by an arrow and mentions that she’d felt like someone was following her when she went into town. Dave decides to look in to the matter and eventually comes to believe that Surette is still alive, and decides to find him. Needless to say, Clete is there to help and to make matters worse, as usual. Burke’s writing improves with each novelVv
    • 4/5
      Dave and Clete are getting old but the story remains the same. This time in Montana where the old 'Nam and NOPD pals take on, once again, an evil bad guy. But Burke writes well and except for a few parts kept me hanging. A clean page turner w some new refeences. A biography from the Depression.
    • 3/5
      Dave Robicheaux is a Louisiana police detective vacationing in a friend's home in Montana. A series of events lead Robicheaux to believe that the serial killer, Asa Surette is alive and killing. His step daughter may be in his cross-hairs, too. (A little too much "wax-poetic" for my tastes.)
    • 4/5
      Another excellent book by James Lee Burke! He never fails to engage!
    • 5/5
      Full disclosure here: I’m a fanatic James Lee Burke fan so am biased toward anything he writes. I’ve followed his tales of Louisiana bayou homicide detective Dave Robicheaux from The Neon Rain to the latest and 20th installment in the series Light Of The World. Each book is a lesson in literary crime writing but LOTW is one of the best. The theme of this story is evil. Pure unadulterated evil. Does it exist as a tangible object? A living, breathing entity? Is it buried deeply in each of us? Does it dwell in the hearts of some more than others? Light Of The World is a story of revenge, violence, corruption, and ultimately how one copes with the presence of raw evil in human form. Or as Dave says:I was never good at solving mysteries. I don’t mean the kind cops solve or the ones you read about in novels or watch on television or on a movie screen. I’m not talking about the mystery of Creation, either, or the unseen presences that reside perhaps just the other side of the physical world. I’m talking about evil, without capitalization but evil all the same, the kind whose origins sociologists and psychiatrists have trouble explaining.Thus begins Light Of The World.Dave, along with wife Molly and lawyer/novelist daughter Alafair, as well as former partner Clete Purcel, travel to the wilds near Missoula, Montana for a little R and R. All is well until an arrow flies from nowhere and nearly kills Alafair while she is on a mountain jog. To Dave, the most likely suspect is Wyatt Dixon, an ex rodeo champion and felon, who reprises from Bitterroot (2001) but other suspects quickly jump up on Dave’s radar. One, the sexual sadist and convicted serial killer Asa Surrette, who apparently died in an explosive prison transport van crash. Or did he? Could he have survived? Somehow escaped from the mangled, charred vehicle? Alafair has no doubts. She has seen his face, in town, following her. Dave isn’t convinced. Could Surrette not only be alive but be hell-bent on exacting revenge against Alafair, for whom he holds a deep-seated hatred after she wrote a series of articles blaming him for other crimes? Can Dave protect her from such a relentless force?Perhaps the most interesting character in the story is Gretchen Horowitz, Clete’s estranged daughter, introduced in Creole Belle (2012). A former contract killer for mob types, she is now reinventing herself as a documentary film maker. A fascinating and deep character with a history, she enters the fray in a no-brakes, in-your-face fashion. Smart, tough, and relentless, she employs her own brand of violence to protect herself, and Alafair.This story is written in James Lee Burke’s usual style. Richly poetic writing mixed with down and dirty storytelling. The setting comes alive, the story drags you along at a breathless pace, and the characters rise to haunt you long after you read the final page. Classic JLB.DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Dub Walker and Samantha Cody thriller series
    • 4/5
      James Lee Burke, like his detective Dave Robicheaux, grew up in the bayeux of Louisiana. Most of his Robicheaux books are set there or in New Orleans. A number of years ago Burke moved to Montana and he has set some books there, including one, Swan Peak, that has Dave and his friend, Clete Purcell running into trouble while on vacation there. Now, with Light of the World, he has brought Dave and Clete, Dave's wife Molly, Dave's daughter Alafair and Clete's daughter Gretchen Horowitz to Montana for another vacation. You would think after the last time that they would find some other place to vacation! But then I guess you wouldn't have this story.Alafair and Gretchen are adults now. Alafair has written a novel and is working on another one. Gretchen, formerly a killer-for-hire, went to film school and has produced one critically acclaimed documentary. She is filming another one about an oilman, Love Younger, who lives in Montana near where Dave et al. are staying. Love Younger isn't very happy with Gretchen but he does have other things on his mind as his granddaughter, an orphan from a nearby reserve who was adopted by his son, Caspian, and daughter-in-law, Felicity, was just recently murdered. Three years before this Alafair decided to interview a serial killer, Asa Surette, in jail. She was so shaken by this man that she wrote several articles with the intention of getting Surette subject to the death penalty. Earlier this year Surette was supposedly killed when the prison van that was transporting him collided with a fuel truck and everyone was burned beyond recognition. Now, Alafair is convinced that Surette survived and that he is in Montana. Not just anywhere in Montana but right near the house where Alafair and the rest of the gang are staying. Someone shot an arrow at Alafair when she was out jogging and nicked her ear. At first Dave didn't believe Alafair when she told him that Surette was alive and in Montana but he is forced to accept that it is so when Alafair comes back from Missoula with a note from Surette. Did Surette kill Younger's granddaughter? Is he responsible for the abduction of a waitress and the brutal mutilation of a police detective? Or is there more than one homicidal maniac at work here?Some of the scenes made my skin crawl. Burke has always written in the noir tradition but this book seemed darker than any other. Surette is not only without conscience but has a connection with evil forces. He exudes a smell like fecal matter that no deodorants, cologne or soap can get rid of. He believes he cannot be killed. This reminded me a lot of Andrew Pyper's book The Demonologist which I read earlier this year. When Pyper was in Winnipeg for the Thin Air Festival I asked him if he believed in the existence of demons and evil forces and he replied in the affirmative. I am normally an optimistic person but reading books like this and Pyper's make me wonder if I am deluding myself.
    • 5/5
      Dave and Clete and their daughters go on a vacation in Montana.Dave's daughter, Alafair, is jogging on a mountain path when someone shoots an arrow which narrowly misses her.At a crime scene, Clete's daughter takes offense at a sexist remark made by a local cop. The cop bears resentment when she complains.Alafair was a writer and interviewed a mass killer, Asa Surette, when he was in prison. She wanted him to admit to other crimes he committed and relieve the agony of the victims of other families.We also meet a brave man who works for a rodeo. He has a run in with a wealthy family and this side story is very interesting to read about.The setting is excellently portrayed as are the characters.James Lee Burke also describes the scenes so well it is as if the reader was sitting in on the story.I enjoyed this book and feel it will be a candidate for post season literary awards.
    • 5/5
      I believe James Lee Burke to be in a singulary class when it comes to thriller mysteries. He is a modern literary master of this genre. Light of the World may be his best work yet and I have read all of his novels. I dread the day his novels cease.
    • 4/5
      It is unbelievable that after all the novels Burke has written, he just keeps getting better and better. This one features a road trip, with Clete, Dave and Alafair staying with a friend and then hearing that Gretchen will soon be joining them as well. A fact that Dave is more than a little worried about. With all four of them together, you just know strange things are going to happen. True evil, when someone thought to be dead more than likely is not. A fast moving, and compelling read. A must read for Burke fans.
    • 5/5
      Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell – and those closest to them – have certainly earned a little downtime. Barely having survived the gunfight that ended The Glass Rainbow, Dave and Clete were soon battling pure evilness again in the nineteenth book in the Dave Robicheaux series, Creole Belle. Now, as Light of the World opens Dave and Clete, along with Dave’s wife Molly and daughter Alafair, are recovering on a friend’s ranch in a remote part of Montana. Life is good – at least until Alafair is almost killed by an arrow while running on one of the ranches wooded trails. Dave, not a man who believes in coincidences, immediately starts nosing around (much to the chagrin of the local sheriff) and is soon reminded that the forces of evil never take a day off. The fight is on. And then Clete’s daughter (introduced in Creole Belle) shows up and throws a little gasoline on the already simmering fire.Dave and Clete, personally flawed as they are, pride themselves on representing good in the perpetual battle between good and evil. They defend those who are incapable of defending themselves – and, because they are willing to get their own hands dirty to get the job done, they do it very well. And when it comes to protecting their daughters, all bets are off, especially when facing someone like Asa Surette, a ghostlike psychopath who has been nursing a grudge against Alafair for years and finally is in the position to make her pay.Alafair, however, is more than ready to defend herself, and takes a surprisingly active hand in confronting the man whose attention she feels so guilty about bringing into their lives. Readers will decide for themselves (I found her new warrior-like persona to be a little jarring) whether the new Alafair is, perhaps, a bit of a misstep on the author’s part. Now twenty books long and twenty-six years old, the Dave Robicheaux series is as strong as ever. Dave Robicheaux and Cletus Purcell have become as familiar to avid fans as members of their own families. The men, especially Clete, may not be perfect but it is their flaws that make them so effective in fighting the human predators so common in their world. They are willing to give as good as they get, and we love them for it.Bottom Line: Light of the World is a great addition to the Dave Robicheaux series and fans will want to grab it. James Lee Burke is as good as ever – maybe even better. Gretchen Horowitz, Clete’s recently discovered adult daughter, is great fun and one hopes that she will be around for a long time.
    • 5/5
      Mr. Robicheoux is an amazing writer. I was so thrilled to locate a copy of this book in my town. When a serial killer comes to Montana does he come in search of a particular victim or does he just randomly to take people?.There is always a strong feeling of mysticism and religion in his novels. Great writer.