A Stained White Radiance

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Mark Hammer

Detective Dave Robicheaux travels to the mountains of Montana to help his best friend and unearths a larger plot that threatens them both.

Oil speculator Weldon Sonnier is the patriarch of a troubled family intimately bound to the CIA, the Mob, and the Klan. Now, the murder of a cop and a bizarre assassination attempt pull Detective Dave Robicheaux into the Sonniers’ hellish world of madness, murder, and incest. But Robicheaux has devils of his own—and they may just destroy the tormented investigator and the two people he holds most dear.

Where oh where is Will Patton??

What a narrator!! All characters sounded the same except the child and Clete Purcell. If I had not been listening closely I would have been confused after the first hour. I wondered how I had missed this book in the series and now I know! No more Mr. Hammond for me thank you!!! I really didn’t want to give 5 stars to any part but I don’t know how to erase them. Only 1 star to performance and 4stars to overall.

More politics than I like.

Somebody with the talent of James Lee Burke would do well to leave his left wing leanings out of a good story. Most who doesn't hold the same beliefs are relegated to beer swilling, toothless, ignorant characters. The rest are corrupt officials and politicians. Lots of Republican and right-wing references but never any mention of the Klan origins. The insults are mostly just subtle and cruel.

A great writer at work here

James Lee Burke is a gifted writer, very few writers have his talent. This book takes the storyline and characters into some dysfunctional waters, there are some twists and turns and moments when you can be immersed in the world of South Louisiana and taken by the beautiful dialog and become a part of the world and scene. The series is amazing and pulls no punches in looking at uncomfortable topics. If you crave to find a writer with talent and want to be taken with great narration that is a match to some of the best dialog I have ever listened to then this is a series to get into.
Recommended enthusiastically.

Sensations

What did you love best about A Stained White Radiance?

James Lee Burke has the ability to create the stage of new Iberia. I can see it, feel it,and smell it in my mind. Thank you for the experiences. I wait for each new release.

Great story line, great book series. Horrible narrator

James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series is a wonderful collections of books that I started years ago. The author is a very talented guy and I really do love his work. However the narrator (M. Hammer) on this particular recording, and the other recordings in the series by the same narrator, are just impossible to get through for me. His pronunciations of French/Cajun names and words is pretty rough to start with. Then there is the accent he uses. I think this guy is under the impression that very single person from Louisiana is an uneducated wretch who cannot speak correctly or without sounding like they have spent their entire lives in a backwoods southern trailer park where half the people are cooking methamphetamines. I tried and tried again to keep going with this book but ultimately decided to just order the paperback online so I didn’t have to hear Mark Hammer’s version. I even returned this book to audible. At the time of the review, I have 150 books in my audible library and this is only the second book I have ever returned. And it’s the first book I have ever written a review of. The narrator’s performance is just that bad.

“A Stained White Radiance” seems to be just as good as the author’s other works, I really want to stress that. This negative review is 100% about the narrator, Hammer. Not about the author or the series. Will Patton is the other narrator in this series and he does a wonderful job with the Dave Robicheaux story. I have listened to all of the Patton narrated non-abridged Robicheaux novels by Burke. They are all worth the time I spent listening to them. I hope Patton will record the books originally done by M. Hammer to complete the series. But until then, I will be reading paperback copies of the Hammer recorded Robicheaux audio books.