'Swan Peak' by James Lee Burke
BOOK REVIEW
When two college students are murdered in Montana's Bitterroot Valley, vacationing Louisiana private eye Dave Robicheaux is invited to help find their killers.
EVERY year about this time, I eagerly await the latest novel from the pen of James Lee Burke, and if I'm lucky, it will be an adventure featuring the New Iberia, La., deputy sheriff Dave Robicheaux, for my money the best continuing American character today, a counterpart on these shores to Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard, the masterful creation of the incomparable P.D. James.
As writers of crime fiction, Burke and James are a cut above the competition because both transcend the artistic boundaries of the genre and, as entertainers, they always manage to please. "Swan Peak," the 17th installment in the Robicheaux series and Burke's 29th book since "Half of Paradise" in 1965, is another triumph for the two-time Edgar Award winner.
Dave Robicheaux made his first appearance in 1987 in "Neon Rain"; in the 21 years since then, we've mourned with him the untimely loss of two wives; rejoiced at the development of his adopted daughter Alafair; vicariously enjoyed his friendship with the ferociously loyal Clete Purcell, whose tie dates back to when both were no-nonsense cops in the "Big Sleazy," their affectionate nickname for New Orleans.
Like his signature character, the author has a strong Bayou background, attends Mass regularly and has successfully battled alcoholism through 12-step programs. Burke allows his personal views on the state of the world and where it is headed to enter the discourse, but never at the expense of plot or character. The devastating impact that hurricanes Katrina and Rita had on New Orleans, for instance, and the inept government response, was the unsettling back story last year for "The Tin Roof Blowdown," an experience so traumatic that Burke chose western Montana for the setting of "Swan Peak."
The Gulf Coast might seem a world apart from the Bitterroot Valley, but Burke aficionados know that he maintains homes in both places. The transition from the Deep South to Big Sky Country is no problem for an author who relies so heavily on atmosphere and nuance. As the novel opens, Dave, his third wife Molly -- a former nun in El Salvador -- and Clete are taking it easy as ranch guests of Albert Hollister, an eccentric English professor and writer who first appeared in one of Burke's short stories.
