Sukey's favorite

Detective Dave Robicheaux usually hangs out in New Iberia, Louisiana, but in Swan Peak, his 17th appearance in a novel by James Lee Burke, he and his larger-than-life, semper-combative cohort Clete Purcell have left the steamy bayous for a fishing vacation under the brilliant sky of Montana's Bitterroot Mountains. But trouble, in many guises, follows them north and neither one of them can turn away from a fight for right and justice. The air may be clean, but the thugs driving a van for the nasty oil billionaire who lives in the mansion on the hill with his severely scarred brother and his beautiful, country singer wife, are as dirty as they come and had ties to Clete's mob nemesis, Sally Dio. Add the vicious murders of two local college kids, and a toxic Texas gunbull here to track an escaped inmate who, with good reason, buried a shiv in his chest. Burke weaves these disparate threads together, taking you on a wild ride into the seamier side of the wild West and into Dave's demon-drenched need to set things right in a world gone mostly wrong. As before, Will Patton's finely nuanced reading is the perfect match for Burke's strong, lyrical prose. An A-plus audio!