Light of the World

Light of the World, by James Lee Burke, (Simon & Schuster 2013) his latest in the Dave Robicheaux series.  Still beautifully written, rich with the heavy Louisiana and bayou imagery with which Burke imbues each of his books , now a touch frail with a slightly jagged gait, Light of the World's characters move through their own exhausting personal trials - for Dave, it's an apparition - or is it? - of a Creole woman and her sister, victims of crimes unsolved, mixed with his long looks back and fevered dreams filled with the jungles of Southeast Asia.  And there's his buddy Clete Purcell, also tormented and stricken, but powerfully drawn to the right side of a woman's heart.  Where this all takes them - the apparition, the mystery deaths, the bayou, the disturbed dreams - is the makings of yet another masterpiece from my second most favorite writer - no one can beat Robert Parker, not even some guy his wife hired to write posthumous Spencer novels, like she needed the money arreddy!