James Lee Burke

In the summer, I like to do a lot of reading that I don't normally have time for in the course of the regular school year. I'm particularly fond of mysteries. But not all mysteries are equal. I find these days that a lot of published authors—whether writing in the mystery genre or some other—can tell a darn good story. And that's good. If they construct their stories well enough, I don't find it that difficult to overlook the fact that too few of them write well. Take John Grisham for example. I don't know what he's writing these days, but at the height of his popularity a few years ago, he was telling some of the most enthralling stories on the market. But I found him to be such a bland—at some level unskilled—writer that I couldn't read him. I tried. I really did. But I think I made it all the way through only one of his books. The movies made from them, however, were exciting because of the stories they told.

Not so with James Lee Burke. While he goes a little bit over the top from time to time, Burke can write well and tell great stories. His stuff is gritty, tough and violent, but he always pulls it off well. He has two main characters that he works with. The longest running of these is Dave Robicheaux, a lawman in New Iberia Parish, down Louisiana way, near New Orleans. Robicheaux is an alcoholic in recovery, and he works his way through tough crimes in a tough world. A lot of underbelly shows up in this character's life and milieu.

More recently, Burke created Billy Bob Holland, a former Texas Ranger, now a lawyer in Missoula, Montana, one of my favorite places. Although Billy Bob doesn't isn't haunted by the alcoholic self that Dave Robicheaux is, he has his own ghosts to deal with. Whereas Robicheaux's world seems old and corrupted, Holland's feels younger, dark and violent in a different way—the lawlessness of the Old West and its wide open spaces.

I've read several more Robicheaux novels that Holland novels. My favorites are In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead and Dixie City Jam (Robicheaux) and In the Moon of Red Ponies (Holland). I'm currently beginning my summer reading with another Holland novel, Bitterroot.