Jayaprakash Satyamurthy's Reviews > The Neon Rain

Amazing atmosphere. I feel like I can see, smell and hear the Louisiana locales Robicheaux moves through as he seeks justice along a very tangled trail. Some excellent ruminations on morality and humanity, always something I look for in a hardboiled crime novel. Very violent - often startlingly so and the violence is never just a set piece but something whose ethical consequences are acknowledged. A bit too all over the place plotwise and the romance angle is so superficial - Annie walks in for time to time to be sweet and consolatory and sexy - but this is the first of a series and I expect Burke's craft improves over time.