A 2020 Audie Award Finalist
Named one of the best crime novels of 2019 by The New York Times Book Review.
The shocking death of a young woman leads Detective Dave Robicheaux into the dark corners of Hollywood, the mafia, and the backwoods of Louisiana in this New York Times bestselling mystery from “modern master” (Publishers Weekly) James Lee Burke.
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 the body of a young woman who’s been crucified, wearing only a small chain on her ankle. She disappeared near Cormier’s Cyrpemort Point estate, and Robicheaux, along with young deputy, Sean McClain, is looking for answers. Neither Cormier nor his enigmatic actor friend Antoine Butterworth are saying much, but Robicheaux knows better.
As always, Clete Purcel and Davie’s daughter, Alafair, have Robicheaux’s back. Clete witnesses the escape of Texas inmate, Hugo Tillinger, who may hold the key to Robicheaux’s case. As they wade further into the investigation, they end up in the crosshairs of the mob, the deranged Chester Wimple, and the dark ghosts Robicheaux has been running from for years. Ultimately, it’s up to Robicheaux to stop them all, but he’ll have to summon a light he’s never seen or felt to save himself, and those he loves.
Stephen King hailed New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke “as good as he ever was.” With The New Iberia Blues, Burke proves that he “just keeps getting better” (Booklist, starred review), and is “one of a small handful of elite suspense writers whose work transcends the genre, making the leap into capital-L Literature” (BookPage).
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“You don’t have to get past the opening paragraph of The New Iberia Blues to see his mastery of the craft…[with] the first-rate prose, the atmospheric bayou setting, and the complex interactions of people I feel I have known for thirty-plus years.”
— BookPage
“Burke offers great characters, including Bella Delahoussaye, a blues singer with intimate knowledge of Big Mama Thornton’s mournful ‘Ball and Chain,’ and Dave Robicheaux, a sheriff’s deputy given to moody pensées.”
— New York Times"[Burke’s] latest exploration of good and evil offers a cast of southern grotesque characters worthy of Flannery O’Connor.”
— New York Journal of Books“[Burke’s] prose is as powerful as ever, his engagement with the dark corridors of America’s past and the light of enduring friendships just as deep.”
— Tampa Bay Times“With his lush, visionary prose and timeless literary themes of loss and redemption, Burke is in full command in this outing for his aging but still capable hero.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Many of the character types, plot devices, and oracular sentiments are familiar from Burke’s earlier books. But the sentences are brand new, and the powerful emotional charge they carry feels piercingly new as well.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“At 82, Burke just keeps getting better, his familiar theme of an idyllic past at war with a demon-drenched present taking on more subtle levels of meaning…[With] an all-stops-out finale with the power of cannon fire in the 1812 Overture.”
— Booklist (starred review)James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author of forty novels and two short-story collections. He has won the Edgar Award, the CWA Gold Dagger, and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policièr. He was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. His novel The Lost-Get Back Boogie was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and two of his books, Heaven’s Prisoners and Two for Texas, have been made into motion pictures.
Will Patton is an award-winning actor and narrator. HIs narrations have earned the prestigious Audie Award for Best Fiction Narration and also won dozens of AudioFile Earphones Awards. His numerous film credits include Remember the Titans, The Punisher, The Mothman Prophesies, Armageddon, and The Spitfire Grill. He starred in the TNT miniseries Into the West and on the CBS series The Agency and won Obie Awards in the theater for his performances in Fool for Love and What Did He See.