Author: James Lee Burke
Genre: Crime
James Lee Burke is one of the most under read, and therefore underrated, crime writers of all time. He’s also, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the best. You haven’t read an American Deep South crime novel until you’re read one of his. It’s a different kind of America. Inhabited by Cajun’s, ‘negro’s’(we’re in the late 80s here), lowlifes, innocents and ‘podna’s’, this is a rich world full of beautiful imagery, vivid characters and heinous crimes. So while these are thrilling crime books they are also, first and foremost, character pieces. An irresistible combination as far as I’m concerned.
This is the 3rd in the Dave Robicheaux series, a series that is soon to be on its 22nd instalment. It is the first to win an Edgar Award. I loved the first two, Neon Rain & Heaven’s Prisoners, but this one ups the ante by putting Robicheaux’s freedom at risk. An old acquaintance drops by claiming to have overheard a possible murder up in Montana. During initial enquires Robicheaux attracts the attention of the suspected murderers who threaten his ward, the little girl rescued from a drowning plane in the last book. This, of course, doesn’t go down well. But after retribution is metered out, Robicheaux is framed for murdering the weaker of the two. Then begins a long, fraught, occasionally hopeless, journey to clear his name.
I’m intrigued to see how Burke continues this series seeing as Robicheaux retired from police work in the first book & suffered a personal tragedy in the second. But even at this stage, I think we can sense he is not at all done with police work. Which is great news for us.
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