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Clete

By: James Lee Burke
Narrated by: Will Patton
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In the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcel - veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans cop - takes centre stage for the first time.

Clete Purcel - private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spots - is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past.

When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal - his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

Just as Clete starts to trail the culprits, Clara Bow hires Clete as a detective to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who seems to lurk around every corner. Clete is experiencing shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questioning Clara's ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could've imagined.

Gripping, violent, yet interlaced with Clete's humor and consistent drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to a truly iconic series.

PRAISE FOR JAMES LEE BURKE, THE AWARD-WINNING KING OF SOUTHERN NOIR:

'James Lee Burke is the heavyweight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed' Michael Connelly

'A gorgeous prose stylist' Stephen King

'No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists' Daily Mail

'The greatest crime writer currently at work' Spectator

'The reigning champ of nostalgia noir' New York Times

'Masterly' Sunday Telegraph©2024 James Lee Burke (P)2024 Simon & Schuster LLC Crime Thrillers Detective Modern Detectives Mystery Private Investigators Suspense Thriller & Suspense Witty Marriage
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The Hadacol Boogie By: James Lee Burke
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As always JLB writes with astounding narrative skills and brings the story to life… the narrator is perfect…. But the story deteriorates and we enter a world of ludicrous fantasy where “Sir Clete “ becomes a plot too far …. Leaving the listener feeling it was time wasted .

Beautiful but ludicrous…..

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Clete is one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite series, but it takes a while to get used to being this close to him. the novel form puts you in the man's head and that's quite a lot when the character has mostly been a combination comic relief, violent relief and rough diamond moral conscience for the series. this one gets weird in a way quite different from some of the more recent books in the series and it's cool and interesting and refreshing. but the other worldliness just doesn't hit quite as poignantly in this as in the series within a series around Light of the World. it's almost as if Burke has noticed that all his warnings about right-wing American power bearing the spirit of the third Reich and actual transcending evil have been ignored and the world he was warning about is now here.

Clete gets his own story and it's weird

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I don't think James Lee Burke and the Robicheaux novels will be for everyone, but for me they take me to a place no other novels do. I've read them all, and would recommend reading them in order. I think his later books may split opinion, even more than the early ones. They increasingly embrace more than just the physical realm, which you can take as being in the minds of the protagonists, or something more. Burke is a writer who is concerned with the deeper questions of life and human nature, which I think touches the soul as well as the mind. His descriptions of Louisiana and the American South, the Nature, the history, the culture and the food make me long to visit. I live in the UK, so it's a long way to go, but listening to this latest novel has put it at the top of my bucket list again! This was the first Robicheaux I've listened to on Audio and I thought the reader was excellent.

Just love James Lee Burke's writing

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JLB answers our demands for more Clete and delivers. Wonderfully read. Suspending disbelief is easy with storytelling and characters this good. More Clete please!

So good on every level.

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I am a massive fan of James Lee Burke and Clete is a fantastic story. Will Patten truly brings both Clete and Dave Robicheaux to life with his great characterization of each player in the JLB novels and Clete does not disappoint.

Outsanding

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