Purple Cane Road - Hardcover

Robicheaux is here plunged into his most painful and personal odyssey yet. He learns that his mother, Mae, was a prostitute who ended up drowned in a mud puddle by crooked cops in the pay of the Mob. As Dave and his partner Clete Purcell investigate, they encounter State Governor Belmont Pugh, a fundamentalist preacher; the terrifying Remeta, a super-intelligent hit man, and, most significantly, Jim Gable, owner of the mansion in Purple Cane Road, who knows more about Dave's wife then Dave himself.

As Robicheaux struggles through a morass of intrigue and double-dealing, he finds that coming to terms with his own troubled past becomes as important as identifying the his mother's killers. Burke's strategy is to subtly subvert the standard detective narrative, creating a seamy panoply of the darker side of American society. Alongside the customary imperatives of bloody violence and dangerous sexuality, Burke is able to address such issues as the growing chasm between black and white and the inequalities that have riven American society. He is a storyteller of prodigious ability and his use of language remains nonpareil:

I returned to New Orleans and my problems with pari-mutuel windows and a dark-haired, milk-skinned wife from Martinique who went home with men from the Garden District while I was passed out in a house boat on Lake Pontchartrain, the downdraft of US Army helicopters flattening a plain of elephant grass in my dreams.

Don't miss James Lee Burke's sensational bestsellers:
Heartwood
"A heartfelt, passionate book ... powerfully bittersweet."
-- "The Seattle Times
Sunset Limited
"Splendidly atmospheric ... with dialogue so sharp you can shave with it."
-- "People
Available from Dell

" America's best novelist."
-- "The Denver Post"
" A thoroughly absorbing mystery packed with the colorful characters and moral dilemmas that have turned Dave Robicheaux into one of the more vivid literary creations of the last 20 years."
-- "Daily News" (New York)
" Nobody writes about the bad old days down South like James Lee Burke."
-- "The New York Times"
" No other living writer has been more influential on the contemporary crime novel than James Lee Burke.... This one is his best."
-- Michael Connelly, author of Void Moon

Don't miss James Lee Burke's sensational bestsellers:
Heartwood
" A heartfelt, passionate book ... powerfully bittersweet."
-- "The Seattle Times"
Sunset Limited
" Splendidly atmospheric ... with dialogue so sharp you can shave with it."
-- "People"
Available from Dell

"America's best novelist."
-- "The Denver Post"
"A thoroughly absorbing mystery packed with the colorful characters and moral dilemmas that have turned Dave Robicheaux into one of the more vivid literary creations of the last 20 years."
-- "Daily News" (New York)
"Nobody writes about the bad old days down South like James Lee Burke."
-- "The New York Times"
"No other living writer has been more influential on the contemporary crime novel than James Lee Burke.... This one is his best."
-- Michael Connelly, author of Void Moon

Don't miss James Lee Burke's sensational bestsellers:
Heartwood
"A heartfelt, passionate book ... powerfully bittersweet."
-- "The Seattle Times"
Sunset Limited
"Splendidly atmospheric ... with dialogue so sharp you can shave with it."
-- "People"
Available from Dell

"America's best novelist."
-- The Denver Post