After finding himself caught up in one of Louisiana's oldest and
bloodiest family rivalries, Detective Dave Robicheaux must battle the
most terrifying adversary he has ever encountered: a time-traveling
superhuman assassin.
The Shondell and Balangie families are longtime enemies in the New
Iberia criminal underworld and show each other no mercy. Yet their
youngest heirs, Johnny Shondell and Isolde Balangie, rock and
roll-musician teenagers with magical voices, have fallen in love and run
away after Isolde was given as a sex slave to Johnny's uncle.
As he seeks to uncover why, Detective Dave Robicheaux gets too close to
both Isolde's mother and the mistress of her father, a venomous New
Orleans mafioso whose jealousy has no bounds. In retribution, he hires a
mysterious assassin to go after Robicheaux and his longtime partner,
Clete Purcel. This hitman is unlike any the "Bobbsey Twins from
Homicide" have ever faced. He has the ability to induce horrifying
hallucinations and travels on a menacing ghost ship that materializes
without warning. In order to defeat him and rescue Johnny and Isolde,
Robicheaux will have to overcome the demons that have tormented him
throughout his adult life--alcoholism, specters from combat in Vietnam,
and painful memories of women to whom he opened his heart only to see
killed.
A Private Cathedral, James Lee Burke's fortieth book, is his most
powerful tale, one that will captivate readers--mixing crime, romance,
mythology, horror, and science fiction to produce a thrilling story
about the all-consuming, all-conquering power of love.
