James Lee Burke | The Glass Rainbow

Published: September 12, 2010

New Iberian police detective Dave Robicheaux is reluctantly drawn into the unsolved murders of seven young women, brutally killed in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish. When an eighth young woman shows up dead in his own district, with clues that tie her to the other murders, the hunt is on for the killer.

But as usual in Robicheaux’s world, nothing is quite as it seems. His best friend, the unpredictable private eye Clete Purcel, is in trouble for beating up a local pimp. And Dave’s daughter, Alafair, home from law school to finish up a novel, has fallen in love with a prominent local writer whose name keeps showing up in connection with the murders.

Burke, who divides his time between Missoula and New Iberia, LA, is always a pleasure to read. His evocation of place (“I could see the shadows of banana trees moving on the window screens, the humidity condensing and threading along the fronds like the veins in living tissue”), is tautly spliced with violence and suspense and punctuated with startling gems of wisdom: “If there is any human tragedy, there is only one, and it occurs when we forget who we are and remain silent while a stranger takes up residence inside our skin.”

The Richmond Times Dispatch describes Burke’s 29th novel as “lush and lyrical, brutal and beautiful. But as Burke has aged – he will turn 74 this year – he has added a dimension that most thrillers lack: pensiveness. The result is so powerful, so moving, that the reader is left in awe …”

Burke's latest was published in July 2010 by Simon and Schuster and sells for $25.99 hardcover.

– Kristi Niemeyer