Critically acclaimed and bestselling crime writer James Lee Burke
returns to Louisiana where his ever-popular hero, Dave Robicheaux,
sleuths his way through a hotbed of sin and uncertainty.
For Dave Robicheaux, life in Louisiana is filled with haunting memories
of the past--images from Vietnam, the violent streets of New Orleans,
and his own troubled youth. In Crusader's Cross, a deathbed confession
from an old schoolmate resurrects a story of injustice, the murder of a
young woman, and a time in Robicheaux's life he has tried to forget.
Her name may or may not have been Ida Durbin. It was back in the
innocent days of the 1950s when Robicheaux and his brother, Jimmie, met
her on a Galveston beach. She was pretty and Jimmie fell for her
hard--not knowing she was a prostitute on infamous Post Office Street,
with ties to the mob. Then Ida was abducted and never seen again.
Now, decades later, Robicheaux is asking questions about Ida Durbin, and
a couple of redneck deputy sheriffs make it clear that asking questions
is a dangerous game. With a series of horrifying murders and the sudden
appearance of Valentine Chalons and his sister, Honoria, a disturbed and
deeply alluring woman, Robicheaux is soon involved not only with the
Chalons family but with the murderous energies of the New Orleans
underworld. Also, he meets and finds himself drawn into a scandalous
relationship with a remarkable Catholic nun.
Brilliant, brooding, and filled with the author's signature lyricism,
Jim Burke's latest novel is a darkly suspenseful work of literature.
