** spoiler alert ** This book doesn't have much of a story, in fact the main 'Mr Big' doesn't get taken down before the book concludes, although we are lead to understand that it is only a matter of time. However, that isn't the point here! James Lee Burke is from the James Ellroy school of fiction in that it is more about the characters than what actually happens to them. The folk populating this book are deeply disturbed and twisted, none more so that the 'hero' Dave Robicheaux who fights (somewhat unsuccessfully) against his alcohol addiction and what he witnessed during his short time in Vietnam. There are few good guys here, some are just not as bad as others and they live their lives out in the seedy, sultry setting of New Orleans which is richly brought to life by the author, you can almost smell the sea salt wafting in off the water and, as someone who lives in the west of Scotland, I enjoy the atmosphere and feeling of location that one can find in books and there is a real ‘sense of place' in 'Neon rain'. The action is often violent and disturbing but the really evil guys are brought to book by one means or another and by the end all is right with Dave Robicheaux's world, or at least, one suspects, as much as it ever will be!