Cadillac Jukebox by James Lee Burke

 Remember how it took me weeeeeeks to re-read Burning Angel?  I polished off Cadillac Jukebox in 3 days.  OK, maybe 4.  But one of those days I was incapacited by dental anguish and benzodiazepines.  Mobsters. Murders. Politicians.  Old girlfriend.  While you might not make sense of this warning until after you're in the middle of the book, the following quotes contain spoilers.  Maybe I shouldn't tell you  Maybe you wouldn't be able to peek ahead in the narrative on the basis of these quotations if they just seemed like throw-away prose.  Sorry.  OK.  I'll edit a couple out.  (Done.  You are safe.)

First - a description of one of the "button men"- Mingo Bloomberg.  I met him - maybe you did too? - in the last novel.  I don't think I met his eyes, however.

I let my eyes wander over his face.  There were tiny back specks in the blueness of his eyes, like pieces of dead flies, like microscopic traes of events that never quite rinse out of the soul.

 Second - there's this story element that comes up in various books or movies - college students breaking into an office in which there is a file of exams.  

A half dozen students had been expelled for stealing tests from the science building.  The article stated the tests had been taken from a file cabinet, but the theft had been discovered before the examinations had been given, and the professors whose exams would have been compromised had all been notified.

I must have professored wrong.  I was always finishing up writing the exam moments before it was due.  And, even if I had been more prepared, the exam would have been in my personal office.  I don't remember hearing about a repository for upcoming examinations.  Maybe I wasn't cool enough to get the key to that room.

Finally - a perfect sentence from Mr. Burke.

But I think I've learned not to grieve on the world's ways, at least not when spring is at hand.

....spring is at hand.  If only.  I am not prepared to descend into winter again.  Those wide seasonal swings seemed so romantic when I was in Brissie.  

 


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