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Pegasus Descending

Series: Dave Robicheaux
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( 7,696 ratings, 396 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Pegasus Descending is a gripping crime thriller featuring detective Dave Robicheaux, who is haunted by his past involving a friend's tragic death during a robbery. Set in Louisiana, Robicheaux is drawn into a complex web of corruption and murder as he investigates a case linked to a young woman's suspicious death. The novel weaves intricate narratives of multifaceted characters, providing an evocative depiction of Southern crime and mystery.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This gripping tale may captivate you with its rich atmospheric setting and complex characters. If you're drawn to stories that blend crime with deep, lyrical prose and enjoy a mix of Southern noir and intricate detective narratives, this might be the perfect read for you. James Lee Burke's writing often delves into moral complexities, making it a compelling choice for readers who appreciate thought-provoking thrillers.

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A superb Dave Robicheaux mystery from the multi award-winning crime writer.

James Lee Burke stands at the pinnacle of American noir mystery writing He is a rare winner of two Edgar Awards for Best Crime Novel of the Year James Lee Burke's dark tales of redemption have been compared to those of Faulkner He has won the Gold Dagger once and the Edgar Award twice Pegasus Descending shortlisted for the Duncan Lawrie Dagger James Lee Burke receives widespread and outstanding review coverage: 'His books are sustained by lush Southern-Gothic prose, fast-swerving plots, deep roots in history and an intensity of character that any novelist might envy' Independent 'Pegasus Descending is a major work by a major writer, and to tell you the truth I'd read a shopping list he wrote and count myself lucky' Independent on Sunday 'The 15th of James Lee Burke's David Robicheaux novels, and one of the best - and that is saying something. Burke is the most poetic and lyrical of today's American crime writers' The Times

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Dave Robicheaux left his drinking days behind him many years ago, but he still feels guilt over a tragic event he wasn't sober enough to prevent. Dallas Klein, a gambling addict and bar buddy of Dave's when Dave was posted to Miami PD, was killed in an armed robbery he'd been forced to engineer.

Two decades later, several incidents in Dave's life in Iberia Parish link to those involved. First, he meets Dallas' daughter, Trish, who keeps odd company and is blackballed by the local casinos. Then the supposed suicide of a young girl appears to be connected to the man Dallas owed money to back in the Miami days. Dave's inability to let things alone gets him involved with two very powerful criminals, both wanting to protect their sons from the trouble they court and both with the attitude of the privileged and white.

When a young black drug dealer gets on the wrong side of the boys, tensions run high, and there are more needless deathsβ€”causing Dave to come to blows with the FBI, the DA's office, and a thug who has little regard for any life but his own.

Series: Dave Robicheaux

View all
  • Clete
    In the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcelβ€”veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans copβ€”takes centre stage for the first time. Clete Purcelβ€”private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spotsβ€”is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete...
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  • Black Cherry Blues
    Personal tragedy has left Dave Robicheaux close to the edge. Battling against his old addiction to alcohol and haunted nightly by vivid dreams and visitations, Dave finds his only tranquillity at home with his young ward Alafair. But even this fragile peace is shattered by the arrival of Dixie Lee Pugh, who brings with him a brutal trail of murder...
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  • The New Iberia Blues
    Detective Dave Robicheaux first met Desmond Cormier on the backstreets of New Orleans. He was a young pretender who dreamt of stardom whilst Robicheaux had his path all figured out. Now, twenty-five years later, their roles have reversed. When Robicheaux knocks on Cormier's door, he sees a successful Hollywood director. It seems dreams can come true. But so can nightmares....
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  • The Hadacol Boogie
    When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux's property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks...
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  • The Neon Rain
    Introducing the New Orleans detective Dave Robicheaux. Johnny Massina, a convicted murderer bound for the electric chair, has warned Dave Robicheaux that he's on somebody's hit list, and now the homicide detective is trying to discover just who that is before he ends up dead. Meanwhile, he has taken on the murder investigation of a young black girl found dead...
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  • Last Car To Elysian Fields
    It is a rainy late-summer's night in New Orleans. Detective Dave Robicheaux is about to confront the man who may have savagely assaulted his friend, Father Jimmie Dolan, a Catholic priest who's always at the centre of controversy. But things are never as they seem and soon Robicheaux is back in New Iberia, probing a car crash that killed three...
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  • Creole Belle
    Creole Belle begins where the last book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow, ended. Dave is in a recovery unit in New Orleans, where a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton visits him and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song 'Creole Belle' on it. Then she disappears. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the...
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  • Pegasus Descending
    Dave Robicheaux left his drinking days behind him many years ago, but he still feels guilt over a tragic event he wasn't sober enough to prevent. Dallas Klein, a gambling addict and bar buddy of Dave's when Dave was posted to Miami PD, was killed in an armed robbery he'd been forced to engineer. Two decades later, several incidents in...
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  • Swan Peak
    After the devastating events recounted in The Tin Roof Blowdown, Dave Robicheaux and his ex-partner in Homicide, Clete Purcel, head for the mountains and trout streams of Montana for some much-needed healing. However, while Montana might seem an unspoilt paradise peopled by men and women from an earlier, more innocent time in American history, Dave and Clete soon find that...
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  • Cadillac Jukebox
    The call from ex-Klansman Aaron Crown couldn't have been more unexpected. Sentenced to forty years for the decades-old shooting of a civil rights activist, Crown should have been out of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, for good. Election candidate Buford LaRose wants Detective Dave Robicheaux to ignore Aaron's calls, promising Robicheaux a lucrative job when he makes governor. Worse still, Buford's wife,...
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  • In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead
    Hunting a sadistic killer who targets young prostitutes, Detective Dave Robicheaux has no mind to be sidetracked into persuading ex-schoolmate mobster Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni to leave town. And it turns out that Balboni is the money behind a Civil War movie that's bringing in good business. But then the film crew stumbles on a skeleton out in the bayou,...
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  • A Morning For Flamingos
    'No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists' DAILY MAIL A routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong, leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded and his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge, Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans, a volatile...
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

James Lee Burke is praised as a masterful storyteller, celebrated for his gorgeous prose and deep insight into the human condition. His work in Pegasus Descending is lauded for its atmospheric settings, particularly in New Orleans and the Gulf coast, and the complex exploration of themes beyond mere detective plot mechanics. Often compared to literary greats, Burke's contributions to crime writing are considered unsurpassed, richly deserving acclaim for both his character development and the evocative portrayal of contemporary issues.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780753822081

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 19 July 2007

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 29.0mm

Width: 200.0mm

Height: 132.0mm

Weight: 306g

Pages: 432

About the Author

James Lee Burke is the author of many acclaimed novels, including 12 featuring Dave Robicheaux. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in Montana and Louisiana.

Also by James Lee Burke

View all
  • Clete
    In the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcelβ€”veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans copβ€”takes centre stage for the first time. Clete Purcelβ€”private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spotsβ€”is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie
    Bestselling author James Lee Burke tells his most thrilling and insightful story yet through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Bessie Holland. At the beginning of the twentieth century, as America grapples with forces of human and natural violence more powerful than humanity has ever seen, Bessie Holland yearns for the love that she has never known. She finds a soulmate and...
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    $3799
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    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The New Iberia Blues
    Detective Dave Robicheaux first met Desmond Cormier on the backstreets of New Orleans. He was a young pretender who dreamt of stardom whilst Robicheaux had his path all figured out. Now, twenty-five years later, their roles have reversed. When Robicheaux knocks on Cormier's door, he sees a successful Hollywood director. It seems dreams can come true. But so can nightmares....
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  • Another Kind of Eden
    New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings readers a captivating tale of justice, love, brutality, and mysticism set in the turbulent 1960s. The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding...
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  • A Private Cathedral
    Detective Dave Robicheaux is caught in the crossfire of Louisiana's oldest and bloodiest gangland feud... From the wreckage of Louisiana's oldest family rivalry, Detective Dave Robicheaux faces his most sinister enemy yet. Isolde and Johnny - the star-crossed teenage heirs to New Iberia's criminal empires - have run away together, and Robicheaux is tasked with finding them. But when his...
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  • Black Cherry Blues
    Personal tragedy has left Dave Robicheaux close to the edge. Battling against his old addiction to alcohol and haunted nightly by vivid dreams and visitations, Dave finds his only tranquillity at home with his young ward Alafair. But even this fragile peace is shattered by the arrival of Dixie Lee Pugh, who brings with him a brutal trail of murder...
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  • Burning Angel
    Sonny Boy Marsallas, a New Orleans street hustler, entrusts Detective Dave Robicheaux with a mysterious notebook, kicking off a series of violent incidents and raising questions that need answers, and fast... What did Sonny's girlfriend know that got her murdered? Why is Sonny known as Red Angel by Central American guerrillas? And what do the Mafia want with a desolate...
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  • The Hadacol Boogie
    When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux's property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks...
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  • Harbor Lights
    A story collection from one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella. These eight stories move between the marshlands of the Gulf of Mexico, the sweeping plains of Colorado, and the prisons, saloons, and trailer parks of the South, weaving together quiet acts of love and survival with shocking eruptions of violence...
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  • Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie
    Bestselling author James Lee Burke tells his most thrilling and insightful story yet through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Bessie Holland. At the turbulent beginning of the twentieth century, fourteen-year-old Bessie Holland longs for a love that she has never known. But as the vast Texas countryside is destroyed by oil companies and stalked by a menacing figure with a violent...
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  • Cadillac Jukebox
    The call from ex-Klansman Aaron Crown couldn't have been more unexpected. Sentenced to forty years for the decades-old shooting of a civil rights activist, Crown should have been out of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, for good. Election candidate Buford LaRose wants Detective Dave Robicheaux to ignore Aaron's calls, promising Robicheaux a lucrative job when he makes governor. Worse still, Buford's wife,...
    Paperback
    $2699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Neon Rain
    Introducing the New Orleans detective Dave Robicheaux. Johnny Massina, a convicted murderer bound for the electric chair, has warned Dave Robicheaux that he's on somebody's hit list, and now the homicide detective is trying to discover just who that is before he ends up dead. Meanwhile, he has taken on the murder investigation of a young black girl found dead...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

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