Kevin Burton Smith asked if TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN was worth a read.
In my opinion, a definite Yes!
I feel that the climax is contrived, but the denouement is priceless. It shows, I think, an understanding of the mind of low-life characters as many of us perceive them.
There are bad good guys, and good bad guys. In a sense, I think the James Lee Burke touches on both of these phenomena in the writing of his that I have read.
As to "returning to form?" I can't say. I have read only a few of JLB's books, and I have not read the ELECTRIC whatever, but from what I hear hear, I should consider reading that one.
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As for puffery and all of that ... I think we spend too much time defending hurt feelings when one of us use a loaded word like "Puffery" when expressing an opinion.
Too many of us forget that everything on this list is opinion, whether the majority agrees with it or not.
Nothing any of us say is fact ... even when we are describing the action of a character in a book, the interpretation of the action is subjective.
That being said, at least the comment about "Puffery" collected a lot of ink, uh, electrons or whatever. It made for some interesting reading.
Jack Bludis
Read, read, read. Write, write,write.
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