ROBICHEAUX a new James Lee Burke adventure for fans!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I have enjoyed reading the Dave Robicheaux series for years.  The thoughts, philosophies, and humanity of this character are written almost poetically. Dave Robicheaux is a detective with the New Iberia, Louisiana sheriff and police department.  Dave's life after his wife Molly was killed in an accident has left him vulnerable to the daily struggle with alcoholism. He is also still disturbed about the unsolved cases of the eight murdered women referred to as the Jeff Davis Parish Eight. In this current book there are several problems which Dave becomes embroiled with trying to control or to solve. His best friend Clete Purcel is having more problems and needs a favor. The reader must understand that in Louisiana it reflects on a mans honor to be able to help a friend. It seems Dave has to go ‘around the world’ calling in favors and offering favors to others in order to get Clete out of a gambling jam.  Dave has to maneuver through dirty politics, a crime boss, and other characters he has respect for, but becomes disappointed in through their actions. In the background of the story, a stranger has come to town and is shooting people who have participated in crimes against children and those who can not help themselves.

The most disturbing is that Dave surrenders to a night of drinking and the next morning discovers his knuckles are scraped and he has bumps and bruises on his body. He does remember the bumper of his truck being hit from behind and later a faint and fleeting memory of a mans face in a broken window and blood. Before he is ready to face the day he receives a call to accompany Helen to a crime scene, there is a homicide to investigate...T. J. Dartez, the driver of the vehicle which hit Molly's car!
James Lee Burke has given the readers another visit with Dave Robicheaux and the fans are cheering for him to conquer the addiction, rest easy his great sadness, get another pet, and look forward toward the justice of a new day.
I wish I could share with Dave how the day after I read this book, I went to Shiloh and walked among the hills and down by the river. Later as I walked the trail through the woods at Rhea Springs, I could almost see the bedraggled guys from a different time walking among the falling leaves and looking back at me.

                                                       Shiloh National Battlefield

The Bloody Pond