Cadillac Jukebox (1996) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters edit see section history

• Dave Robicheaux: The author’s recurring homicide detective. He once worked for the New Orleans Police Department, but is currently a deputy sheriff in New Iberia, Louisiana. He is a Vietnam War veteran, and suffers from war demons and alcoholism. His first wife was murdered. His current wife, Bootsie, suffers from lupus.
• Aaron Crown: Redneck. Killed a Black civil-rights activist 30 years ago. His protest that he is innocent set off this story.
• Buford LaRose: Therapist, University professor, and candidate for Governor.
• Karyn LaRose: Wife of Buford LaRose. She and Dave Robicheaux spent a night together many years ago. Because Dave was a drunk then, he doesn't remember, and Karyn is hurt and angry that he doesn't remember.
• Alafair Robicheaux: Salvadoran war orphan adopted by Dave Robicheaux. A recurring character, she is 14 years-old in this book.
• Helen Soileau: Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department deputy. A recurring character.
• Mingo Bloomberg: Button man for the Giacano mob family of New Orleans.
• Sabelle Crown: Daughter of Aaron Crown
• Bootsie Robicheaux: Dave Robicheaux's wife.
• Dwayne Parsons: Writer of documentary scripts. He is murdered early in the book.
• Clete Purcel: New Orleans police officer and good friend of Dave Robicheaux. A recurring character.
• Batist: Blackman who helps Dave Robicheaux by running the bait shop. A recurring character.
• Lonnie Felton: Famous movie director.
• Jerry Joe Plumb: Boyhood friend of Dave Robicheaux, now a New Orleans criminal.
• Dock Green: Add a description of this character.
• Persephone Green
• Jimmy Ray Dixon: Brother of the dead civil rights activist killed 30 years ago.
• Mookie Zerrang: Freelance hit man from Miami. A giant Black man with gold teeth. Enjoys being cruel.

Quotes edit see section history

• “If you seriously commit yourself to alcohol, I mean full-bore, the way you take up a new religion, and join that great host of revelers who sing and lock arms as they bid farewell to all innocence in their lives, you quickly learn the rules of behavior in this exclusive fellowship whose dues are the most expensive in the world. You drink down. That means you cannot drink in well-lighted places with ordinary people because the psychological insanity in your face makes you a pariah among them. So you find other drunks whose conditions is as bad as your own, or preferable even worse.”

  Author

• “Look, human beings do bad things sometimes, particularly in groups. Then we start to forget about it. But there's always one guy hanging around to remind us of what we did or what we used to be. That's Aaron. He's the toilet that won't flush.”

  Iberia Parish Sheriff.

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New Iberia, Louisiana

Organizations edit see section history

• Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office: Add a description of this organization.

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Burning Angel, and followed by Sunset Limited.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. James Lee Burke (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Freddy Michalski (Translator) - for French Editions

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3552.U723 C33 1996
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Authors, A-Z › ( B ) › Burke, James Lee
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Mystery

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Wikipedia Article on Dave Robicheaux: Once an officer for the New Orleans police department, Robicheaux constantly breaches the ethical code over the course of just about every case he works on - seemingly without consequence - and currently pursues cases in New Iberia, Louisiana as sheriff's deputy. He is a recovering alcoholic whose demons stem from his service in the Vietnam War and his impoverished difficult childhood in rural Louisiana; his mother abandoned the family (and was later murdered) and his father died in an oil rig explosion.
• Book Review: James Lee Burke’s ninth novel featuring Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux is haunting. In Burke’s series, the hard-driving suspense is balanced by lyric descriptions of Louisiana landscape; the characters who emerge from the brush and bayou are as appropriate to their place as are Thomas Hardy’s characters. The result is a mythic portrait of Louisiana with a cumulative richness that makes the series extremely addictive.
• Book Review: The setting for Cadillac Jukebox, as ever, is the bayoux and backstreets of Louisiana where Aaron Crown, former Klansman, has finally been convicted of the murder 28 years earlier of a prominent civil rights leader. But something about the case doesn't smell right to Robicheaux and he soon discovers that powerful people would rather have an uncomfortable past left well alone - not least the candidate for State Governor, Burford LaRose and his wife Karyn. Karyn is an old flame of Robicheaux and he is reluctant to get further involved for fear of alienating his own wife. But when he is warned off the case by the mob and an unhinged hitman starts targeting those connected with the case, Robicheaux finds himself drawn headlong into a darkly complex tale where personal and professional loyalties are put to the test.
• Book Review: James Lee Burke's latest has most of the ingredients readers have come to associate with his passionate Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux: lyrical descriptions of the bayou country below New Orleans, colorful characters with curious names, and spicy dialogue. Alas, this time out, Burke has neglected to supply an even faintly credible plot. Prone to hunches, Robicheaux goes completely off the deep end, concluding for no good reason that a former Klansman imprisoned for the murder of a civil rights leader has been framed.
• Book Review: May be the most incoherent of the crime stories that James Lee Burke has set in the Louisiana bayou country of the Atchafalaya Basin. At the outset, Dave Robicheaux, the melancholy sheriff's deputy who broods over this series, seems to have a hard but unambiguous mission: to find out whether a redneck named Aaron Crown actually killed a civil rights leader back in the 1960's, and to figure out what this old crime, for which Crown has only recently been arrested, has to do with the upcoming gubernatorial election.

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history