 You can
tell by his face that this guy has led a hard life. While he not quite in Keith Richards
class of wasted, there's a lot of mileage on his mug. He's pumped most of his experiences
into his fiction.The history of the Louisiana / Texas area runs deep throughout his works. Some of his earliest stuff deals with people in the 19th and early 20th Centuries who traversed the area. He also has an interest in western Montana, that's scenic part, not the part where Mary Ann's cousin ranches. Burke and his wife spend their time living in Missoula, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. His Dave Robicheaux novels take place in Louisiana while one of his Billy Bob Holland novels was set in Montana. He and his wife have four children. Burke was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936, and he's held jobs ranging from an oil field roughneck to a college professor. He writes what he knows and his novels are full of details of the hard life of men who work with their hands. Burke is also a recovering alcoholic, just as is Robicheaux.
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| Dave Robicheaux | Dave is an ex-New Orleans cop who had trouble with alcohol and ended up
running a bait shop in the Louisiana bayou country. Through a series of events chronicled
in the novels, he became a sheriff's deputy and detective in New Iberia Parish. The
Robicheaux novels are gritty, compelling, and somewhat depressing. While it's possible to
read several Spenser books in a row with no more ill-effect than metaphorically eating too
much popcorn, the only thing you want to do after reading more than one Robicheaux novel
in a row is stick your head in the oven. Burke pulls Robicheaux through knotholes,
including witnessing his first wife's murder by multiple shotgun wounds. Burke's a fine
writer and the Robicheaux novels are wonderful, but they'd depress a hyena.
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| Billy Bob Holland | Billy Bob Holland isn't Robicheaux Lite, more like Robicheaux Medium.
Billy Bob's life less depressing than Dave Robicheaux's, but he has his share of troubles
as well, including that damned ghost of the partner he accidentally killed.
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| Other Burke Works | The other works of James Lee Burke range from a historical novel set around the Louisiana / Texas border around the time of the Civil War to literary semi-coming-of-age fiction. There probably isn't a laugh in any of 'em, but they're damn fine reads. |
