Affiliates
| Works by
James Lee Burke
(Writer)
[1936 - ] |
Half of Paradise (1965)
Toussaint Boudreaux, a black docker in New Orleans, puts up with his
co-workers' racism because he has to, and moonlights as a prize-fighter in
the hope of a better life - but the only break he gets lands him in penal
servitude. J.P. Winfield, a hick with a gift for twelve-string guitar, finds
his break into showbiz leads to the flipside of the American dream. Avery
Broussard, descendant of an aristocratic French family, runs whiskey after
what remains of his land is repossessed... The interlocking stories of these
three men are an elegy to the realities of life in 1950s, Louisiana, their
destinies fixed by the circumstances of their birth and time. Yet each
carries the hope of redemption.
To the Bright and Shining Sun (1970)
Lay Down My Sword and Shield (1971)
'As I stood there on my front porch that hot,
breathless July day, leaning against the column with the six bullet holes,
now worn and smooth, I could see Hack's whitewashed marker under the pin
oaks in the Holland family cemetery... Four generations of my family were
buried there.'
Hack Holland is a product of the South, both old and new. Hard-drinking
ex-POW and wealthy, progressive Democrat, he stands in the long shadow cast
by his ancestors. When Holland's candidacy for a congressional seat brings
him increasingly into conflict with those around him, his almost unwitting
involvement with a violent civil rights conflict forces him to reassess his
future - and his past...
Two for Texas (1982)
Son Holland arrived in the Louisiana penal camp
determined not to spend the rest of his days suffering in a chain gang - but
he didn't imagine for one minute that in order to escape he would need to
kill a man. Terrified for his life, he flees the state across the river to
Texas, taking with him a beautiful Indian squaw and a fellow prisoner. And
as they make their way towards General Houston's infamous Texas Rangers they
find themselves in the midst of the final tragic battle for the Alamo. TWO
FOR TEXAS has all the lyrical beauty and powerful storytelling of James Lee
Burke at his very best..
Also known as
Sabine Spring.
The Lost Get-Back Boogie (1986)
White Doves at Morning (2002)
Cimarron Rose (1997) --
Winner 1998 Edgar Awards
Best Novel
Texas attorney and former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland has many
secrets. Among them is Vernon Smother's son, Lucas, a now-teenaged boy about
whom few know the truth -- Lucas is really Billy Bob's illegitimate son.
When Lucas is arrested for murder, Billy Bob must confront the past and
serve as the boy's criminal attorney.
Billy Bob knows the propensity of the town, Deaf Smith, Texas, to make
scapegoats out of the innocent and to exploit and sexually use the
powerless. During Lucas's trial, Billy Bob realizes that he will have to
bring injury upon Lucas as well as himself in order to save his son. As a
result, Billy Bob incurs enemies that are far more dangerous than any he
faced as a Texas Ranger.
With the same electric language and hard-edged style that brought James Lee
Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels to the forefront of American crime fiction,
Cimarron Rose explodes with a new, evocative setting that will
establish Billy Bob Holland as James Lee Burke's next great character.
Heartwood (1999)
When Holland takes on the defense of Wilbur Pickett--a man accused of
stealing an heirloom and three hundred thousand dollars in bonds from
Deitrich's office--he finds himself up against not only Earl's power and
influence, but also a past Billy Bob can't will away. A wonderfully realized
novel, rich in Texas atmosphere and lore, and a dazzling portrait of the
deadly consequences of self-delusion, Heartwood could only have been written
by James Lee Burke, a writer in expert command of his craft.
Bitterroot (2001)
And big trouble it is, not just for his friend but for Billy Bob himself --
in the form of Wyatt Dixon, a recent prison parolee sworn to kill Billy Bob
as revenge for both his imprisonment and his sister's death, both of which
he blames on the former Texas lawman. As the mysteries multiply and the body
count mounts, the reader is drawn deeper into the tortured mind of Billy Bob
Holland, a complex hero tormented by the mistakes of his past and driven to
make things -- all things -- right. But beneath the guise of justice for the
weak and downtrodden lies a tendency for violence that at times becomes more
terrifying than the danger he is trying to eradicate.
In the Moon of Red Ponies (2004)
His first client in Missoula is Johnny American Horse, a young activist for
land preservation and the rights of Native Americans. Johnny is charged with
the murder of two mysterious men -- who seem to have recently tried to kill
Johnny themselves, or at least scare him off his political causes. As Billy
Bob investigates, he discovers a web of intrigue surrounding the case and
its players: Johnny's girlfriend, Amber Finley, as reckless as she is
defiant -- and the daughter of one of Montana's U.S. senators; Darrel McComb,
a Missoula police detective who is obsessed with Amber; and Seth Masterson,
an enigmatic government agent whose presence in town makes Billy Bob wonder
why Washington has become so concerned with an obscure murder case on the
fringes of the Bitterroot Mountains.
As complications mount and the dead bodies multiply, Billy Bob is drawn
closer to the truth behind Johnny American Horse's arrest -- and discovers a
greater danger to himself and to his whole family. How Billy Bob strikes
back at evil and protects his kin is the masterful triumph of In the Moon
of Red Ponies.
Beautifully written, with an intriguing plot and characters whose conflicts
seem as real as life itself, this novel shows James Lee Burke again in the
top form that has made him a critical favorite and a national bestseller.
The Neon Rain (1987)
Detective Dave Robicheaux has fought too many battles: in Vietnam,
with killers and hustlers, with police brass, and with the bottle. Lost
without his wife's love, Robicheaux's haunted soul mirrors the intensity and
dusky mystery of New Orleans' French Quarter -- the place he calls home, and
the place that nearly destroys him when he becomes involved in the case of a
young prostitute whose body is found in a bayou. Thrust into the world of
drug lords and arms smugglers, Robicheaux must face down a subterranean
criminal world and come to terms with his own bruised heart in order to
survive.
Heaven's Prisoners (1988)
Movie (Heaven's Prisoners, 1996), Phil Joanou, director with Alec Baldwin
and Kelly Lynch
DVD
VHS
Black Cherry Blues (1989) -- Winner 1990 Edgar
Awards Best Novel
From the Louisiana bayou to Montana's tribal lands, he's running front the
bottle, a homicide rap, a professional killer ... and the demons of his
past.
A Morning for Flamingos (1990)
His partner is dead -- slain during a condemned prisoner's bloodyflight to
freedom that left Robicheaux critically wounded...and reawakened the ghost
of his haunted, violent past.
Now he's trailing a killer into the sordid head of die Big Easy-caught up in
the lethal undercurrents of a mob double-cross...confronting his most
dangerous enemy: himself
A Stained White Radiance (1992)
An assassination attempt and the death of a cop draw Robicheaux into the
Sonniers' dangerous web of madness, murder and incest.
But Robicheaux has devils of his own. And they've come out of hiding to
destroy the tormented investigator--and the two people he holds most dear.
In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead
(1993)
Hollywood has sent its emissaries to New Iberia Parish to film a
Civil War epic in the steaming mists of the Louisiana bayou -- reawakening
the ghosts of a past best left undisturbed.
The restless specters wait in the shadows for cajun cop Dave Robicheaux --
as he hunts a serial butcher who is preying on the less-then-innocent young.
For these spirits are the guardians of Robicheaux's darkest torments -- and
they hold the key to his ultimate salvation...or a final, fatal downfall.
Movie (In the Electric Mist, 2007)
Dixie City Jam (1994)
When the Nazi submarine is discovered lying in sixty feet of water
off the Louisiana coast, some troubled ghosts are ready to be released. A
local businessman is offering Detective Dave Robicheaux big money to bring
the wreck to the surface, but he is not the only one after the submarine and
its mysterious cargo. Neo-Nazis are on the march in New Orleans, a new
spirit of hatred is abroad, and its terrifying embodiment, an icy psychopath
called Will Buchalter, is stalking Robicheaux’s wife. Robicheaux is about to
find out how deep the new current of evil runs – and just how far the crazed
Buchalter will go to get his hands on the Nazis’ legacy.
Burning Angel (1995)
As Dave tries to discover who wants the land so badly, he finds himself in
increasing peril from a lethal, rag tag alliance of local mobsters and a
hired assassin with a shady past. And when a seemingly innocent woman is
brutally murdered, all roads intersect, and Sonny Boy is in the middle.
Cadillac Jukebox (1996)
But it is when Buford LaRose -- scion of an old Southern family and author
of a book on the Crown case -- is elected governor that Dave Robicheaux's
involvement with Aaron Crown deepens to a level he can barely fathom. And it
is Buford's social-climbing wife, Karyn, with whom Robicheaux had an affair
years before, who proves to be his most poisonous adversary.
Sunset Limited (1998) -- Winner 1998 Dagger
Awards Best Novel
The townspeople of New Iberia, Louisiana, didn't crucify Megan Flynn's
father. They just didn't catch whoever pinned him to a barn wall with
sixteen-penny nails.
Decades later, Megan, now a world-famous photojournalist, has come back to
the bayou, looking for cop Dave Robicheaux. It was Dave who found the body
of labor leader Jack Flynn. The sight changed the boy, shaped him as a man.
And after forty years, Robicheaux is still haunted by the bizarre unsolved
slaying.
Now Megan's return has stirred up the ghosts of the long-buried past,
igniting a storm of violence that will rip apart lives of blacks and whites
in this bayou county. And for a good cop with bad memories, hard desires,
and chilling nightmares, the time has come to uncover the truth.
Purple Cane Road (2000)
Robicheaux first hears it from a pimp eager to trade information for his
life: Mae Guillory was murdered outside a New Orleans nightclub by two cops.
Dave Robicheaux was just a boy when his mother ran out on him and his
whiskey-driven father.
Now Robicheaux is a man, still haunted by her desertion and her death. More
than thirty-five years after Mae Guillory died, her son will go to any
length to bring her killers to justice. And as he moves closer to what
happened that long-ago night, the Louisiana cop crosses lines of color and
class to find the place where secrets of his past lie buried ... and where
all roads lead to revenge -- but only one road leads to the truth....
Jolie Blon's Bounce (2002) -- Nominee 2003 Edgar
Awards Best Novel; Nominee 2003 Macavity Awards Best Novel; Nominee 2002
Dagger Awards Best Novel
Last Car to Elysian Fields (2003)
When Robicheaux, now a police officer based in the somewhat quieter
Louisiana town of New Iberia, learns that an old friend, Father Jimmie
Dolan, a Catholic priest always at the center of controversy, has been the
victim of a particularly brutal assault, he knows he has to return to New
Orleans to investigate, if only unofficially. What he doesn't realize is
that in doing so he is inviting into his life -- and into the lives of those
around him -- an ancestral evil that could destroy them all.
The investigation begins innocently enough. Assisted by good friend and P.I.
Clete Purcel, Robicheaux confronts the man they believe to be responsible
for Dolan's beating, a drug dealer and porno star named Gunner Ardoin. The
confrontation, however, turns into a standoff as Clete ends up in jail and
Robicheaux receives an ominous warning to keep out of New Orleans' affairs.
Meanwhile, back in New Iberia, more trouble is brewing: Three local teenage
girls are killed in a drunk-driving accident, the driver being the
seventeen-year-old daughter of a prominent physician. Robicheaux traces the
source of the liquor to one of New Iberia's "daiquiri windows," places that
sell mixed drinks from drive-by windows. When the owner of the drive-through
operation is brutally murdered, Robicheaux immediately suspects the
grief-crazed father of the dead teen driver. But his assumption is
challenged when the murder weapon turns up belonging to someone else.
The trouble continues when Father Jimmie asks Robicheaux to help investigate
the presence of a toxic landfill near St. James Parish in New Orleans, which
in turn leads to a search for the truth behind the disappearance many years
before of a legendary blues musician and composer. Tying together all these
seemingly disparate threads of crime is a maniacal killer named Max Coll, a
brutal, brilliant, and deeply haunted hit man sent to New Orleans to finish
the job on Father Dolan. Once Coll shows up, it becomes clear that Dave
Robicheaux will be forced to ignore the warning to stay out of New Orleans,
and he soon finds himself drawn deeper into a viper's nest of sordid secrets
and escalating violence that sets him up for a confrontation that echoes
down the lonely corridors of his own unresolved past.
A masterful exploration of the troubled side of human nature and the darkest
corners of the heart, and filled with the kinds of unforgettable characters
that are the hallmarks of his novels, Last Car to Elysian Fields is James
Lee Burke in top form in the kind of lush, atmospheric thriller that his
fans have come to expect from the master of crime fiction.
Crusader's Cross (2005)
Her name may or may not have been Ida Durbin. It was back in the innocent
days of the 1950s when Robicheaux and his brother, Jimmie, met her on a
Galveston beach. She was pretty and Jimmie fell for her hard -- not knowing
she was a prostitute on infamous Post Office Street, with ties to the mob.
Then Ida was abducted and never seen again.
Now, decades later, Robicheaux is asking questions about Ida Durbin, and a
couple of redneck deputy sheriffs make it clear that asking questions is a
dangerous game. With a series of horrifying murders and the sudden
appearance of Valentine Chalons and his sister, Honoria, a disturbed and
deeply alluring woman, Robicheaux is soon involved not only with the Chalons
family but with the murderous energies of the New Orleans underworld. Also,
he meets and finds himself drawn into a scandalous relationship with a
remarkable Catholic nun.
Pegasus Descending (2006)
In Pegasus Descending, James Lee Burke again explores psyches as much as
evidence, and tries to make sense of human behavior as well as of his
characters' crimes. Richly atmospheric, frightening in its sudden violence,
and replete with the sort of puzzles only the best crime fiction creates,
Burke's latest novel is an unforgettable roller coaster of passion,
surprise, and regret.
The twists begin when Trish Klein -- the only offspring of Robicheaux's
Vietnam-era buddy -- starts passing marked hundred-dollar bills in local
casinos. Is she a good kid gone bad? A victim's child seeking revenge? A
promiscuous beauty seducing everyone good within her grasp? And how does her
behavior relate to the apparent suicide of another "good" girl, an ace
student named Yvonne Darbonne, who apparently participated in a college frat
orgy before her death?
Can Robicheaux make his peace with the demons that have haunted him since
his friend's murder so many years ago? Can he figure out how a local mobster
fits into all the schemes and deaths? Can Robicheaux's life be whole again
when it has been shattered by so much tragedy?
The Tin Roof Blowdown (2007)
The Convict and Other Stories
(1985)
Texas City, 1947 (1992)
Jesus Out to Sea (2007)
In this moving collection of short stories, James Lee Burke elegantly
marries his flair for gripping storytelling with his lyrical writing style
and complex, fascinating character portraits. The backdrop of the
hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast is a versatile setting for Burke's stories,
which cover the scope of the human experience -- from love and sex to
domestic abuse to war, death, and friendship.
Ohio's Heritage (1989)
Presents Ohio's history, with suggested activities and
projects, and information on ethnic composition, state government, and life
in Ohio today.
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