Review of "The Hadacol Boogie: A Detective Dave Robicheaux Novel" by James Lee Burke

In this 25th book in the Detective Dave Robicheaux series, Dave's investigation of a murder leads to violent confrontations with murderous criminals. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.

Background: Dave - a recovering alcoholic and investigator for the Sheriff's Department in New Iberia, Louisiana - has had a rough life.



Dave's mother fell in with a pimp and became an addict and prostitute, and his father was killed in an oil rig explosion. As a young man Dave witnessed unspeakable horrors during the Vietnam War, after which he became a cop in New Orleans - a city rife with mobsters, gambling, prostitution, drugs, loan sharks, money laundering, extortion, murder, and so on.



In his job, Dave met criminals of all kinds, including: street thugs; mobsters; sociopaths; psychopaths...and rich, entitled 'bluebloods' who would do anything for money and power. Dave rose through the police ranks to become a homicide detective and eventually left New Orleans for New Iberia - where he lives in a modest home adjacent to a bayou.



Dave was married four times: his first wife Martinique cheated on him regularly, which 'could be expected from a wife who had a drunk like him for a husband'; his second wife Annie was murdered in their bedroom while he tried to swim across the bayou to get to her; his third wife Bootsie - with whom he adopted an El Salvadoran daughter named Alafair - died from lupus; and his last wife Molly was killed by a drunk driver in New Iberia, a loss Dave is still mourning.

These hardships exacerbated Dave's depression, nightmares, and alcoholism. Even when he's not drinking, Dave sees ghosts of Civil War soldiers who died near his home.

Dave's best friend is Clete Purcel, a fellow Vietnam vet who received the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, and three Purple Hearts. Clete was Dave's partner in the New Orleans Police Department, and the buddies, both of whom are smart and tough, still call themselves 'The Bobbsey Twins from Homicide'.



Clete's inability to follow rules got him kicked off the police force, and he became a private investigator/bail bondsman. Clete eats to excess; drinks too much; falls for the wrong women; and uses violence (and worse) against his enemies. Clete speaks to Joan of Arc, and claims she calls him Sir Clete and has saved his life on numerous occasions. Clete is close to Dave's family and would give his life for them.

*****

The story, set at the turn of the 20th century, revolves around Carlucci's Landing, a Cajun enclave built by a man named Jerry Carlucci. Jerry dresses like a television cowboy and is a sociopath.



Carlucci's Landing, located on the edge of Bayou Teche.....



.....contains a ramshackle saloon/café, a brothel, and run-down shacks. In Dave's dark days, he used to go to Carlucci's Landing to get drunk.





Dave and Jerry Carlucci were friendly as youths, when they played American Legion baseball and boxed in the Louisiana Golden Gloves.



After the Vietnam War, Dave and Jerry went their separate ways. Dave became a cop and Jerry became a criminal. Jerry built Carlucci's Landing, and is now a wealthy entrepreneur, pimp, and drug pusher.

[Note: Author James Lee Burke's books are known for vivid descriptions, metaphors, and allusions, as exemplified by Dave's observations about Carlucci's Landing. For instance:

🌈🌈 Describing the people on Carlucci's turf, Dave says, "These were not simply Cajuns; most of them pulled the plug on civilization during the War Between the States. I doubted the people who lived in Carlucci's Landing gave much cognitive time to the environment in which they lived, or cared about the long formation and destruction of ancient volcanos that had once existed there, or the beasts that thrashed in the sand bogs, or the lightning storms that electrified the heavens without making a sound. For them I suspected the issues were immediate and personal, such as staying off the computer, avoiding the IRS and vaccinations and marriage licenses and car tags, instead staying stoned and shooting whatever birds and four-leg creatures they felt like. [When] crank hit Louisiana in the 1980s, Jerry jumped on it. The Landing became a fresh-air sanitarium for people who glowed in the dark or who had to tape their mouths shut to stop talking because they were blitzed on speed.

🌈🌈 Despite the ignominious residents, Dave appreciates the beauty of the region. He observes, "It wasn't all bad down at the Landing, I told myself. It was like Van Gogh's paintings. Or the paintings of his friend, Paul Gauguin. In Carlucci's Landing, the sky turned yellow at evening and stretched out over endless miles of marshland and swamps that dipped into the Gulf of Mexico. The thunderheads in the south were purple and swollen with rain and lightning, then the day began to cool and renew your spirits, the links of bays wrinkling like old skin in the wind, the mullet flying through the air, and the funnel of a waterspout twisting like spun glass, the sun bloodred on the horizon."]

Early in the story, Dave notices bullet holes in Clete Purcel's car, which Clete refuses to explain. Dave suspects there was an altercation at Carlucci's Landing, and learns Clete got into a beef with Elton Foot - a sadistic torturer and hitman the Mob uses.



Foot was harassing his own ex-wife, and Clete - who's a crusader for abused women - went after the brute. Foot shot Clete's car, and Clete beat up Foot with a condom machine. Clete can't control his temper, often gets into savage fights, and has a particular hatred for Elton Foot.

In the meantime, someone dumps a large plastic trash bag in the cattails near Dave Robicheaux's house. Dave finds the bag and cuts it open to find the body of a young black woman with blue eyes and roses tattooed on her breasts.



Sheriff Helen Soileau, head of the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department.....



.....assigns the case to Dave and his new partner, Detective Valerie Benoit.



Valerie is a capable investigator, but - being a young black woman - is constantly harassed by a racist misogynist cop named Lloyd D'Anjou. When Dave defends Valerie with his fists, she develops a crush on her 60-year-old savior, which leads to some awkward moments.

Outside the job, Valerie is an activist and crusader, determined to avenge historic wrongs done to Blacks. Thus Valerie goads racists, and scours southern Louisiana for buried Confederate gold and artifacts. Discoveries like this would halt commercial development, which is anathema to a syndicate planning to make New Iberia the next Atlantic City.



The woman in the plastic bag left on Dave's property is identified as Clemmy Benoit, a musician who sang with pick-up bands in Jerry Carlucci's bar. Dave believes Clemmy was tortured before she was killed, and is tormented by her murder. Determined to bring Clemmy's killer to justice, Dave calls on Clete to help investigate, and they use the old violent methods of 'The Bobbsey Twins from Homicide'.



Meanwhile, there's a lot going on in New Iberia:

Dave's daughter Alafair, who graduated from college in Oregon, has come home and is working on her second novel. It turns out Alafair knew Clemmy Benoit years ago, and Dave fears for Alastair's safety.



A handyman named Boone Hendrix takes it upon himself to repair the roof on Dave's house and to build a backyard hutch for Dave's giant tabby cat Cannon Ball, and his three-legged raccoon Lady Godiva. Boone is a troubled man who seems to be prescient, sees ghosts on the bayou, and has scores to settle.



A northern mobster called Sidney Ludlow comes to New Iberia with his bodyguards and thugs. Ludlow and Jerry Carlucci are in business together, and plan to build a casino on Carlucci's Landing. Dave suspects this enterprise is connected with Clemmy Benoit's death.



All these things comprise the basic elements of the plot, which - in essence - has the 'good guys' (Detective Dave Robicheaux; Detective Valerie Benoit, Sheriff Helen Soileau; and Private Investigator Clete Purcel) going up against 'the bad guys' (Lawless businessman Jerry Carlucci; Crime Kingpin Sidney Ludlow; and Hitman Elton Foot).

The storyline is trademark James Lee Burke, whose tales are often about good versus evil. In this novel, the dark elements include colonizers; gangsters; lowlifes; racists; xenophobes; corruption; and the destruction of the planet. Some of the novel's passages highlight these ideas. For instance:

❃ "Our politicians send young people to wars they don't fight themselves, and let the same people carry the guilt when they come back home. The guys who do this are what Dwight Eisenhower called 'the Military-Industrial Complex'."



❃ "I knew one day we would get rid of [racists and bigots], but it was down the track. I think the problem is in the gene pool. They all have the same grin. They immediately recognize one another and always feel safe among their own kind, without exchanging one word. Check out a Klan gathering. Don't expect them to be rational, either. They laud ignorance."



❃ "How many slaves are buried in the cane fields? Or how many Indians buried across the nation? How about the Baker Massacre in Montana? If you want to get sick, I mean really sick, study what was done to the Blackfeet on the Marias River."



❃ "Louisiana has had a long history with the Mafia, or the Black Hand, as it was originally called....Huey Long, the former governor and then United States Senator, gave Louisiana to [crime boss] Frank Costello. Slots were everywhere. So was prostitution. And all the other attendant vices....The assassination of John Kennedy may have had strong ties to New Orleans. We'll never know. The Warren Investigation was not meant to clarify; it was meant to distract."



❃ "We were entering the twenty-first century...and we shared the feeling that the new century did not bode well for us. The indifference to the melting of the Arctic, the rising of the oceans, the sands of war blowing in the Middle East, the possible return of an evil man in the Kremlin."



I found the book compelling, but the plot is overly complex and disjointed, and it feels like Burke tried to stuff too much into one story. Still, I'd recommend the book to Dave Robicheaux fans.

Thanks to Netgalley, James Lee Burke, and Grove Atlantic for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4 stars 

Review of "Women Make History: Fifty-Three Stories of Courage, Strength, and Resilience" by Sharon Spaulding

Author Sharon Spaulding became interested in overlooked historical women when she learned her husband was descended from Mary Ware Dennett - one of the pivotal members of the women's rights movement. Spaulding dove into Dennett's papers and discovered the lady's remarkable achievements, unrelenting courage, and sacrifices.


Mary Ware Dennett

Spaulding went on to research other 'forgotten' women, some of whom were previously written up in the New York Times series, 'Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World.'

Spaulding's research led to her newsletter "Women Make History: Stories We Should Have Learned in School", and to this book.

Numerous women featured in Spaulding's book were suffragists, and advocated equal rights, equal pay, equal opportunities, and reproductive rights for women. Many of the crusaders also championed causes related to abolition; Blacks; Native Americans; Mexicans; poverty; child welfare; etc., but women in other fields are included as well.

A number of the women featured in this book were denied entry to college, law school, medical school and so on - under the premise their brains were too small and they weren't bright enough to enter a profession. As proof of this folly, women now comprise more than 50% of the student body in American law schools, medical schools, and veterinary schools.

Spaulding notes, "People may have heard of some of these women, but I also included a lot of the lesser-knowns, ones who nobody’s ever heard of...I’m so passionate about sharing these stories because, for the most part, [the women] have been swept aside by history, or maybe they had their moment of fame and then were forgotten....At the end of the day, I wanted women who were representative. I wanted a kaleidoscope of backgrounds - Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, as many voices representing different perspectives and contributions as possible. I wanted to span from the colonial era all the way up to the end of the 20th century.”

Spaulding concentrates on women from the United States, and it would be wonderful to see books featuring women from around the world.

I'll provide brief excerpts from some of Spaulding's entries, to familiarize readers with the book.

❀❀ Mary Ware Dennett (1872 - 1947) was an officer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, co-founder of the National Birth Control League, and a leading activist for women's reproductive rights.


Mary Ware Dennett and her sons

In 1929, Dennett was tried and convicted of obscenity for mailing a 28-page educational pamphlet about sex entitled, "The Sex Side of Life: An Explanation for Young People." The case was overturned on appeal.



Dennett believed birth control should be available to all women, and to draw attention to her cause, Dennett recommended a 'birth strike' - calling on women to refuse to have children for five years. Due to the work of Dennett, Margaret Sanger, and other proponents of birth control, legalization of pregnancy prevention in the U.S. happened gradually through court decisions, legislative action, and public policy.

❀❀ Zitkála-Šá (1876 - 1938) was a Sioux Indian who advocated for Native American rights.


Zitkála-Šá

When she was growing up, Zitkála-Šá (baptized Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) was forced to pray as a Quaker, speak only English, cut her long hair, and practice White customs. As a result, Zitkála-Šá became an advocate for Native Americans. After attending college and pursuing graduate studies at The New England Conservatory of Music, Zitkála-Šá collaborated on 'The Sun Dance', the first opera about Native American life.



Zitkála-Šá wove music, writing, and political activism into her fight for Indian equality, and the celebration of Native cultures. Zitkála-Šá is featured on a quarter with her likeness.



❀❀ Jovita Idar ( 1885 - 1946) was a Mexican-American woman who supported Mexican-American civil rights and championed bilingual education as a means of preserving Mexican heritage and culture.



Idar's father owned the Spanish-language newspaper La Crónica, which covered Mexican affairs in Texas, and exposed Jovita to political activism


Jovita Idar and her brothers worked for La Crónica newspaper

Later, when Jovita published an editorial in the newspaper El Progreso, criticizing President Woodrow Wilson's interference in the Mexican Revolution, the Texas Rangers ransacked El Progeso's office and destroyed its printing presses.

Idar formed La Liga Feminil Mexicanista (The League of Mexican Women), which focused its efforts on educating Spanish-speaking children about their heritage, and helping women achieve economic, social, and political parity. Idar is featured on a quarter with her likeness.



❀❀ Maggie Lena Walker (1864 - 1934) was born into slavery, and later became an important philanthropist and civil rights activist.


Maggie Lena Walker

After the Civil War, Walker went to school while helping her mother, who took in laundry. Walker later joined her local chapter of the Independent Order of St. Luke, an African-American fraternal organization dedicated to improving the social and financial lives of Black people. Walker opened a bank and launched a series of businesses that provided jobs for Black women and offered quality, less expensive products to the African-American community


Maggie Lena Walker's bank

Walker was a strong civil rights activist who helped organize a boycott against Richmond, Virginia's segregated streetcars; this resulted in a new streetcar company. Walker was also a frequent speaker at civic, business, and educational events across the country, and invoked biblical themes to inspire self-reliance and racial pride.

Walker's home is now a National Historic Site, and serves as a museum and a tribute to her contributions to Black enterprise.



❀❀ Minerva Hamilton Hoyt (1866 - 1945) was a champion of desert ecosystems, and responsible for the creation of three national landmarks in Southern California.


Minerva Hamilton Hoyt

When the population of Southern California began to grow in the early 1900s, Hoyt became concerned for the desert's fragile ecosystem. Desert plants were ripped up for gardens of the wealthy, and large swaths of the desert were destroyed to make room for homes and highways.



Hoyt founded the International Deserts Conservation League, and served on a commission tasked with recommending new state parks in California. To write her report for the commission, Hoyt hired and supervised teams of biologists and ecologists to gather scientific data, and she worked with photographers to document landscapes.

Hoyt recommended the creation of parks in Death Valley, the Anza-Borrego Desert, and the Joshua Tree forests. Eventually, Anza-Borrego became a national landmark, and both Joshua Tree and Death Valley became national parks. A mural of Hoyt standing amid the desert landscape graces the Joshua Tree National Park headquarters.


Mural of Minerva Hamilton Hoyt at Joshua Tree National Park

❀❀ Eunice Newton Foote (1819 -1888) was the first person to discover the effect of greenhouse gases on Earth's atmosphere.


Eunice Newton Foote

Foote attended the Troy Female Seminary, where she studied astronomy, chemistry, geography, meteorology, and general science. Later, Foote built a home laboratory where she conducted experiments on the effects of sunlight on different gases.



Foote found that the amount of moisture in the air affected the temperature and she discovered that the tube with carbon dioxide became hotter than the others. Foote concluded, "An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature", which made her the first person to warn that increased levels of carbon dioxide could lead to global warming.

Foote was also an inventor, and received patents for devices that prevented shoes and boots from squeaking; for a strapless skate; and for a paper-making machine.

In 2022, the American Geophysical Union instituted 'The Eunice Newton Foote Medal for Earth-Life Sciences.'



❀❀ Florence Price (1887 - 1953) made history when she became the first Black woman to have her symphony performed by a major American orchestra.


Florence Price

Price's mother was a singer and pianist who began teaching Florence at an early age. Then in 1906 Price graduated from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, one of only a few schools that admitted Black students.


Price moved to Chicago in 1927, where the mingling of artists, musicians, writers, and dancers influenced her work, which was rooted in classical tradition, African melodies, gospel, blues, and jazz.



In 1939, Conductor Frederick Stock of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered Price's 'Symphony No. 1 in E Minor' at the Chicago World's Fair, and the performance was widely praised.


Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Despite many successes, Price struggled, and she lamented, "I have two handicaps. I am a woman and I have Negro blood in my veins." Despite hardships, "[Price] loved doing what she was doing. She never stopped, she never stopped writing music."



If these samples whetted your appetite, you'll find many more inspiring stories about accomplished women in the book. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Susan Spaulding, and Outside the Box, LCC for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4 stars