“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” – Mark Twain
New York Times best seller, "Neon Rain"
Travels With Maggie
Last night, after Maggie and I had crawled into bed in the childhood bedroom of my grown granddaughter, Shanna, where I sleep at my oldest daughter’s home because I can’t plug into an electrical outlet, I turned on my Kindle.
My neck started getting uncomfortable after I had read for about a half hour. But since I still wasn’t ready for the sandman, I switched to one of the audible books I had downloaded.
I had put off getting a Kindle for a long time because I loved the magic of holding a real book in my hand. It took all of about 10 minutes, however, before I decided the Kindle had just as much magic, perhaps even more so because if I decided I wanted a certain book, I could be reading it in less than a minute.
But back to last night. My choice of listening pleasure was “The Neon Rain,” a Dave Robicheaux novel by James Lee Burke. The book had
New Orleans' Bourbon Street in 2003 -- Wikipedia photo
been on sale through Amazon’s Audible.com and on a whim I had bought it since I had already used my two monthly credits.
While I’m a big fan of murder mysteries, I quickly realized this one, whose hero is a New Orleans homicide detective with a Vietnam past, is darker than the cozy mysteries I favor. Burke puts into words what the authors I usually read keep hidden behind closed doors.
His descriptive phrases are gritty and complete, and Will Patton, the book’s narrator, captures Robicheaux’s dark character completely.
New Orleans French Quarter -- Wikipedia photo
What kept me reading, however, was that Burke had created Robicheaux in both black and white, and made him likeable. Underneath the toughness was a gentleman with depth, and Burke’s descriptive writing captured both sides.
I recently watched the movie “Salt’ with my daughter and her husband. At the end, the three of us sort of shook our heads.
“Not really a great movie,” my son-in-law, Neal, said.
“That’s because there was never any one to root for,” I replied.
The fact that I can root for Robicheaux, and that Burke is a writer’s writer, will keep me reading/listening to the end of “The Neon Rain.”
I will, however, continue to favor my more cozy mysteries, where the object is to simply to figure out who-done-it. But I also recognize that it’s good to once in a while be jolted back to reality and the knowledge that there is a dark side to the world – and as Twain says, a dark side within each of us’
Thankfully, most of us keep that side hidden behind closed doors.
We fill our lives with light. They are the friends and family we keep close that our lives be bright. Be we are intrigued and drawn to the dark side of people so that we can known of the forbidden.
It’s like Tolkien says, it’s not wise to leave a dragon out of your calculations if you live near one. Thanks for the comments Al.
i usually prefer cozies written by women but occasionally I will read a grittier murder mystery – and they seem (at least to me) to usually be written by men. But I like strong, believable characters too. I enjoyed your blog. (And I’ve grown to love my Kindle, too!)
I’ve also read Burke’s mysteries (most of them, I think) and feel you’ve summed up his writing very well. As for cozies, have you read Sue Henry’s books. She started writing with Alaska as the setting and a native American woman and a State Trooper as her main characters. Recently she’s published three books with the main character a 65 year old woman Maxine who travels in her motorhome with her dog Stretch. Those books gave me the final push to travel on my own.
I haven’t, but I’ll certainly check Sue Henry out. Maxine sounds like Maggie and I. Thanks for the suggestion
I’ll keep an eye out for this one Pat, when we drive across Europe we listen to audio books all the time. Listening to John Grisham, The Confession at the moment. Last time out was his short stories.
I finally succumbed to a kindle as well last year, and have found it very good. Again the space saving is great, I can carry so many books away on trips now. And we have bought one for Jane on the same account so we can share the books we read as well.
Jim
That’s a great idea about sharing Jim. Not being able to give my books away to someone after I have read them has been the one thing about Kindle that I don’t like.
Keep writing … Pat Bean https://patbean.wordpress.com