Swan Peak by James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke's mystery series stars New Orleans' Dave Robicheaux. Burke has won the Edgar Award twice, and the quote on the book cover states he's "America's best novelist."

Dave has been played in films by Alec Baldwin and Tommy Lee Jones, and Swan Peak is 17th of the 24 books in the series.

Burke has been awarded for his enduring contribution to the "literary intellectual heritage of Louisiana." So, of course, I choose to begin at Swan Peak, which finds Dave and his wife leaving Louisiana on a Montana vacation.

Staying on a friend's ranch, Dave is quickly involved with two double murders near the property. He helps local law enforcement and encounters the wealthy and belligerent Wellstone family. Their secretive ways and bodyguards keep the town off their property and make them suspect. Meanwhile, his buddy Clete becomes involved with a Wellstone wife, Jamie Sue, a former country singer trapped in a loveless marriage. Her former lover, Jimmy Dale, has broken out of a Texas prison and hitchhiked up to Montana to reunite with her. Jimmy is being tracked by a former Abu Ghraib prison director, Troyce Nix. Troyce is a wild card, the least evenly drawn character who moves from being a violent, sociopathically volatile prison guard who cannot stop himself from beating and raping prisoners and random men on the way to Montana, to falling in love with a former roller derby girl and running a café.

This is a man's book; it was not written by a woman. The murders by torching were gruesome, and the action was rough. It rolls on like a juggernaut with side stories involving tent preachers, corruption, gambling, and pimping.

The characters were less than flawed, without a drop of warmth. Dave seemed to be the only character with a moral compass, though near the end his alcoholism gets to him, and he's not above smashing someone's head into a gas range. Clete is even more of an out-of-shape alcoholic, who may have good intentions, but they are hidden under a train wreck.

In another book, Troyce Nix would be the sadistic villain who gets off on torture, but here he blends in. His violent outbursts are on the same level as other characters who molest young girls or throw acid in someone's face. He even shows up at the finale in the woods, where all the characters are forced to gather, to kill or be killed and dumped in a pit, and becomes somewhat of a hero! Troyce has a line that typifies the general level of the characters, "Have you ever been in a nocturnal environment where snipers lurk inside the foliage?"

Sure, we all have!

Swan Peak was grittier and darker than I thought it would be. Action without emotion.

I am sure in Louisiana the locale would bleed into the pages. This was northern Montana, where big trucks, gun collections, drinking, and fishing are the cultural events.

Not recommended.

2009 / Paperback / 592 pages