About the Author

James Lee Burke is the author of many novels, and the critically-acclaimed, bestselling Detective Dave Robicheaux series. He won the Edgar Award for both Cimarron Rose and Black Cherry Blues, and Sunset Limited was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger. Two For Texas was adapted for television, and Heaven's Prisoners and In the Electric Mist for film. Burke has been a Breadloaf Fellow and Guggenheim Fellow, has been awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America and has been nominated for a Pulitzer award. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in Missoula, Montana.www.jamesleeburke.com

Reviews

James Lee Burke is the heavyweight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed.
*Michael Connelly*

Richly deserves to be described now as one of the finest crime writers America has ever produced.
*Daily Mail*

The king of Southern noir.
*Daily Mirror*

One of the finest American writers.
*Guardian*

When it comes to literate, pungently characterised American crime writing, James Lee Burke has few peers.
*Daily Express*

The intimations of mortality that have hovered over this series for 30 years have never been sharper or sadder.
*Kirkus*

The novel's murders and lies-both committed with unsettling smiles-will captivate, start to finish.
*Publishers Weekly*

An epic story of greed, lust and power told with consummate skill.
*Daily Mail*

Gripping.
*Evening Standard*

Outstanding ... rewarding and superbly written. Burke's greatest talent lies in offering up some of the most memorable antagonists in contemporary fiction - crime or otherwise. Robicheaux doesn't disappoint.
*Belfast Telegraph*

James Lee Burke may be 82 this year, but his story-telling powers are not dimmed and he writes with the vigour and lyricism that make him one of America's finest novelists in any genre. This 21st Dave Robicheaux tale grips like a python.
*Irish Independent*

On the level of style alone, James Lee Burke is the greatest crime writer currently at work ... his descriptions of both the Louisiana landscape and of the darkest aspects of human behaviour are without parallel ...utterly convincing characters, a unique atmosphere, and a whole parade of ghosts haunting the land, and Robicheaux's skull. A deep romantic impulse burns away like mist over the bayou, leaving only the traces of hope. And in this writer's hands, that's enough. We cling on.
*Spectator*

James Lee Burke is widely considered to be the most significant writer of American crime fiction. This epic investigation has a teeming, vividly drawn cast, with the mortality of the central character casting a dark shadow over the visceral narrative.
*Guardian*