"James Lee Burke returns to his bestselling Dave Robicheaux series, bringing Dave's partner and friend Clete Purcel to the forefront for the first time as Clete and Dave attempt to stop the ruthless smugglers of a dangerous new drug. Clete Purcel-private investigator, former cop, and war veteran with a hard shell covering just a few soft spots-is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete...

In Light of the World, sadist and serial killer Asa Surrette narrowly escaped the death penalty for the string of heinous murders he committed while capital punishment was outlawed in Kansas. But following a series of damning articles written by Dave Robicheaux's daughter Alafair about possible other crimes committed by Surette, the killer escapes from a prison transport van and heads to Montana-where an unsuspecting Dave happens to have gone to take...

Dave helps a journalist investigate rumors of police brutality in the Iberia Parish jail. It becomes difficult to proceed when he learns that her father was also murdered in that jurisdiction.

Detective Dave Robicheaux's world isn't filled with too many happy stories, but Desmond Cormier's rags-to-riches tale is certainly one of them. Robicheaux first met Cormier on the streets of New Orleans, when the young, undersized boy had foolish dreams of becoming a Hollywood director. Twenty-five years later, when Robicheaux knocks on Cormier's door, it isn't to congratulate him on his Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Robicheaux has discovered...