Black Cherry Blues

Having read most of Burke’s stories, I found this early one, his 3^rd of 20 novels in the Dave Robicheaux series, Black Cherry Blues. Dave is trying to raise his adopted daughter, 6-year-old Alafair, and recover from the nightmares about the brutal murder of his wife. But he runs into some trouble when he runs into an old friend, his college roommate, Dixie Lee Pugh. Dixie was a rock and roller, who had been talented, but fell on rough times, most of that having been driven by his own alcoholism and drug abuse. Dave, a former cop, was also an alcoholic, but one who had found AA and long-term sobriety. Dixie has aligned himself with some bad people, notably Sally Dio, who is connected to the mob and is doing some land deals in Montana that don’t’ make sense to Dave.

I won’t review the plot except to say that Dave is always the stubborn yet honorable guy even though his life and Alafair’s are both threatened by the bad guys. I don’t think this is Burke’s best work, but it is still better than most crime novels. Burke’s prose is always the real treat. His descriptions are unusual, fluid, and beautiful, whether he is writing about his cast of characters, or the landscape in Louisiana and Montana. He is firmly placed in my power rotation of authors.