Main Content
Louisiana Native, Dave Robicheaux has fought too many battles: in Vietnam, with killers and hustlers, with police brass, and with the bottle. His best friend, Clete Purcel, has been alongside Robicheaux to help him fight the demons -- and bring along his own.
See the books
We first meet the Hollands in Two for Texas. The Holland series reflects the same themes about violence, racism, the residual influences of the War Between the States, alcoholism, and concern for the Earth that we find in the standalone books and the Robicheaux series.
See The BooksLatest News
ROBICHEAUX, the novel
ROBICHEAUX, released January 2, 2018. Available now in all formats from your favorite booksellers.
Also available now at the Literary Hub - Chapter 1. Read it here!
James Lee Burke’s most beloved character, Dave Robicheaux, returns in this gritty, atmospheric crime novel set in the towns and wetlands of Louisiana.
DAVE ROBICHEAUX IS A HAUNTED MAN.
Between his recurrent nightmares about Vietnam, his battle with alcoholism, and the sudden loss of his beloved wife, Molly, his thoughts drift from one irreconcilable memory to the next. Images of ghosts at Spanish Lake live on the edge of his vision.
During a murder investigation, Dave Robicheaux discovers he may have committed the homicide he’s investigating, one which involved the death of the man who took the life of Dave’s beloved wife. As he works to clear his name and make sense of the murder, Robicheaux encounters a cast of characters and a resurgence of dark social forces that threaten to destroy all of those whom he loves. What emerges is not only a propulsive and thrilling novel, but a harrowing study of America: this nation’s abiding conflict between a sense of past grandeur and a legacy of shame, its easy seduction by demagogues and wealth, and its predilection for violence and revenge. James Lee Burke has returned with one of America’s favorite characters, in his most searing, most prescient novel to date.
The Sequel to Robicheaux
The Robicheaux novel due out in January of 2019 has been re-titled The New Iberia Blues. Actually, it is a continuation of the novel titled Robicheaux. You might remember Smiley Wimple. If you are a Smiley fan, I’m happy to announce that Smiley is back in E-major, full-tilt, code-red overdrive.
The center of the story is a bit different from the rest of my work. We meet Desmond Cormier, a poor boy from the reservation who becomes a street artist in the French Quarter, then a director in Hollywood. Desmond is obsessed with John Ford’s work in general and his 1946 masterpiece My Darling Clementine in particular.
While visiting Desmond’s beautiful bayside home, Dave peers through a telescope and sees the body of a woman who has been nailed to a cross, the body bobbing in the chop, her damp hair curled in tendrils on her face and throat. At that moment Dave realizes he is about to step into the heart of darkness, and that his friend Desmond, lost in his obsession with light and shadow, may be his escort across the Styx.
This book may be the best in the series. If it’s not, it’s awful close. I hope you enjoy it.
Best wishes,
Jim
Preorder the book now!
The New Iberia Blues
"Robicheaux" Reviews from January 2018
James Lee Burke On Creating “Robicheaux” By Shanna P. Dickensiew
We would like to thank Acadiana Lifestyle magazine for the years of support for Jim's work. They have done creative maps and tours of some of the sites mentioned in the Robicheaux books, and have brought attention to the historical value of so many of the locations used in the novels. We have always enjoyed our friendship and working relationship with the fine people of this magazine. -PB/admin/JLB
New York Times - 11 Books We Recommend this Week
Denver Post by Sandra Dallas - Book review: Burke’s Robicheaux is back, and is as good as ever
The News & Observer BY SALEM MACKNEE Three new mysteries include a ‘Robicheaux’ and a scandal straight from the headlines...
The Seattle Times BY Adam Woog James Lee Burke’s “Robicheaux” revisits the author’s best-known figure: Dave Robicheaux, a Cajun sheriff’s deputy in Iberia Parish, Louisiana.
The StarTribune BY Carole E. Barrowman 5 new mysteries provide thrills and chills on long winter nights
December Interviews About and Reviews of "Robicheaux''
A Celebration of Words by Kasey Kowars "Part One" on December 16 and "Part Two" on December 29, 2017.
Tampa Bay Times - "James Lee Burke talks about the return of ‘Robicheaux’" By Colette Bancroft, Times Book Editor, Published: December 29, 2017
The Return of Robicheaux - A Missoulian Interview
James Lee Burke has published three novels spotlighting other characters over the four years it’s been since we last had a mystery featuring his signature character, Dave Robicheaux.
That book was 2013’s “Light of the World.” In the interim, fans clamored for more, but if Burke had intentions to bring the character back — and after 20 novels over 26 years featuring the detective, who could blame him for not wanting to? — he was keeping the plan close to his vest... read the full article here
AARP - 2018 Books Preview: Chills and Thrills
If you're into suspense, you're in luck: This season's new thrillers offer top-notch tension — with some seriously twisted villains, many mysterious disappearances, a few creepy husbands, several tormented detectives and lots of simply great storytelling. Our picks: Robicheaux
A stellar review from BookPage: ROBICHEAUX is their Top Pick in Mystery for January!
To read a Dave Robicheaux novel is to get the distinct sense that author James Lee Burke has personal experience with every feeling or characteristic portrayed on the pages therein, be they heartwarming or excruciating: an alcoholic’s demon-plagued life; the love and loss of a good woman; friendships that transcend conventional explanation; and a strong, if not always accurate, moral compass. This time out, in the 21st installment of the series, titled simply Robicheaux (Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 464 pages, ISBN 9781501176845), the embattled (and “embottled”) detective must come to terms with the distinct possibility that he is responsible for the very murder he is investigating. Conflict of interest, you say? Not so much in rural Louisiana, where corruption is the blue-plate special of the day, and it’s served up with hefty side orders of racism, ignorance and crippling poverty. Burke paints conflicting pictures of his beloved adopted state, sometimes as a romantic, Maxfield Parrish-esque, Spanish moss-covered utopia awash in shades of cobalt and amber. Other times it’s a stark, black-and-white expressionist woodcut laden with social disarray. And in doing so, he completely rises above the genre for which he is best known. That Burke can convey all of this and still craft a hell of a mystery driven in equal parts by character, plot, history and milieu is nothing short of incredible.
Check out James Lee Burke on BookPage
Publishers Weekly Review - Robicheaux
Reviewed on: 11/27/2017 
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke, a rare winner of two Edgar Awards, and named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, is the New York Times Best Selling Author of more than thirty novels and two collections of short stories. He lives in Missoula, Montana.