The Bayou Trilogy
Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do
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3.6 • 56 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In the parish of St. Bruno, sex is easy, corruption festers, and double-dealing is a way of life—and Rene Shade is an uncompromising detective swimming in a sea of filth in this hard-hitting, critically acclaimed trilogy of crime novels.
As Shade takes on hit men, porn kings, a gang of ex-cons, and the ghosts of his own checkered past, Woodrell's three seminal novels pit long-entrenched criminals against the hard line of the law, brother against brother, and two vastly different sons against a long-absent father.
The Bayou Trilogy highlights the origins of a one-of-a-kind author, a writer who for over two decades created an indelible representation of the shadows of the rural American experience and steadily built a devoted following among crime fiction aficionados and esteemed literary critics alike.
“What people say about Cormac McCarthy ... goes double for [Woodrell]. Possibly more.” —New York magazine
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Collected in a single volume for the first time, Woodrell's three stellar novels featuring Det. Rene Shade, an ex-boxer turned cop, provide entr e into the Louisiana swamp town of Saint Bruno, a place where "tempers went on the prowl and relief was driving a hard bargain." Woodrell (Winter's Bone) injects Shade's life and various cases with both humor and brutal violence. In Bright Lights (1986), the investigation into a city councilman's murder mushrooms into a corruption scandal, with Shade feeling pressure from above for a quick and predetermined result. Muscle for the Wing (1988) finds Shade up against a gang of ex-cons, hell-bent on wrestling control of Saint Bruno's less-than-legal action. Shade and his two brothers bar owner Tip and district attorney Francois are reunited with their long-absent paterfamilias, John X., in The Ones You Do (1992), in which John X. returns to Saint Bruno with a 10-year-old daughter and a killer on his trail. There's poetry in Woodrell's mayhem, each novel and scene full of gritty and memorable Cajun details.
Customer Reviews
Gritty
I really liked this book. Three awesome stories with an unpredictable ending. The last story was definitely my favorite. Funny & gritty. Not a book that I couldn't put down, but it was very creative. Reminded me of the movie No Country for Old Men, which scared me quite a bit. The book didn't haunt me as much as the movie but I controlled that... I think men would enjoy this book. Nothing cheesy about it! I also read Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell and enjoyed that too!