Best of
Hard-Boiled

1986

Robicheaux: The Early Years: "The Neon Rain", "Heaven's Prisoners", "Black Cherry Blues"


James Lee Burke - 1986
    Neon Rain is the first highly acclaimed novel in the Dave Robicheaux series. Heaven's Prisoners: Dave Robicheaux is trying to put a life of violence and crime behind him, leaving homicide to run a boat-rental business in Louisiana's bayou country. But one day a small two-engine plane suddenly crashes into the sea and Robicheaux dives down to the wreckage to find four bodies and one survivor: a little girl miraculously trapped in a pocket of air. When the authorities insist only three bodies were recovered from the plane, Robicheaux decides to investigate the mystery of the missing man. But it is a decision that will exact a chilling retribution of terror, torture and sudden death. Black Cherry Blues: Personal tragedy has left Dave Robicheaux close to the edge. Battling against his old addiction to alcohol and haunted nightly by vivid dreams and visitations, Dave finds his only tranquillity at home with his young ward Alafair. But even this fragile peace is shattered by the arrival of Dixie Lee Pugh who brings with him a brutal trail of murder and violence.