Pegasus Descending by James Lee BurkeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm going a few years back in the Robicheaux backlist to read the few books that I missed while reading through. While I feel a bit jaded about recent Robicheaux stories, this one felt like a breath of familiar bayou air. Again, the humidity drips off the page. The characters act the way you expect (and don't overreact like it seems in Robicheaux stories of more recent vintage). And the bad guys are the ones you've come to expect - mobbed up guys with Miami ties, small business men gone big due to links to casinos, people linked to movies (again with the movie industry baddies, albeit just a passing mention here). And the atmosphere is vintage Burke. My favorite bit in the book is the description of one of the victims, nicknamed Crustacean Man, and his backstory. You can picture the police using that name when referencing the case, giving it some respectability despite its outlandishness. Some interesting personality here from the police department which is more than I usually notice of the officers Robicheaux works with. In most of Burke's books, the other police officers in his and other departments have much the same rolls as redshirts in Star Trek - nondescript characters known for doing the rote work and often becoming victims. I enjoyed this one, more as a throwback to older Robicheaux mysteries. And as normal, the audiobook narrated by Will Patton, is pitch perfect. To me, Patton delivers the mood of this series defined by Burke.
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