A decade ago, brilliant Irish author John Connolly stood on stage at the Sydney Writers’ Festival and while discussing the foremost proponents in the genre said, ‘James Lee Burke is our greatest living crime writer. You can disagree, but you’d be wrong.’

Now, even as he approaches his 88th birthday and new stars like SA Cosby seem poised to take the baton, Burke is still putting out top-shelf tales. Last year’s Civil War saga Flags on the Bayou won the Edgar Award, making Burke the first American to ever win the ‘Oscar of Crime Writing’ thrice. Last month he was honoured with the Diamond Dagger for a lifetime of excellence, and now in Clete the grand master brings us a fresh take on his beloved series starring ageing Cajun sleuth Dave Robicheaux.

In Clete, Burke takes us inside the viewpoint of Robicheaux’s longtime friend Clete Purcel. After his car is ransacked, Clete decides to trail the culprits; meanwhile he’s hired to investigate a slippery ex-husband and deaths linked to a heavily tattooed man. A hallucinating Clete and Robicheaux hear rumours of a lethal new drug perhaps tied to the men who destroyed his car. While Clete centres the sidekick, as with Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch crossovers, Burke’s change-up gives readers a new perspective on both Clete and Dave.

Vivid and violent, Clete skitters along on Burke’s lyrical prose, soaks us in its Louisiana setting and is another brilliant read.

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author, three-time winner of the Edgar Award as well as the Grand Master Award from Mystery Writers of America, winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger and Gold Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction.

James Lee Burke was born in Houston in 1936, and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast.

Burke has been a Breadloaf Fellow and Guggenheim Fellow, and has been awarded two Edgar Awards for best novel, as well as the Grand Master Master Award, by the Mystery Writers of America.

Visit James lee Burke’s website

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