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Swan Peak

Series: Dave Robicheaux
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( 8,734 ratings, 565 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Swan Peak by James Lee Burke is a gripping crime thriller featuring detective Dave Robicheaux. Set against the backdrop of Montana's rugged landscapes, Robicheaux grapples with unresolved personal demons while unraveling a complex web of crime involving murder, money, and morally ambiguous characters. The book explores themes of redemption, justice, and the dark intricacies of human nature.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate gritty crime thrillers set against a vivid and atmospheric backdrop. The story offers complex characters and intense, intertwining plots, all infused with a touch of the Southern Gothic. Ideal for readers who enjoy deeply layered mysteries and a strong sense of place.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A mesmerising Dave Robicheaux novel from one of American crime fiction's greats.

'James Lee Burke is a genius' Guardian. He has won the Gold Dagger once and the Edgar Award twice. His previous novel, THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN, increased is readership even further, and received superb reviews: 'It's been a long time since a crime novel made me cry. It's been a long time since a crime novel made every hair on my body stand on end. THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN did both' Independent on Sunday. 'THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN is the novel James Lee Burke was born to write ... the passages describing the actual flooding are tremendously powerful but Burke also weaves a fully satisfying novel into this extreme event' Evening Standard. 'The story, about greed and murder and redemption, contains some of Burke's most brilliantly realised characters ... a compelling and moving narrative, punctuated by his devastating descriptions of the ravaged city' Sunday Telegraph. Shortlisted for the Galaxy British Book Awards, Best Crime Novel 2008.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

After the devastating events recounted in The Tin Roof Blowdown, Dave Robicheaux and his ex-partner in Homicide, Clete Purcel, head for the mountains and trout streams of Montana for some much-needed healing.

However, while Montana might seem an unspoilt paradise peopled by men and women from an earlier, more innocent time in American history, Dave and Clete soon find that there are plenty of serpents in the garden too. The deaths of a couple of hikers suggest a perverted serial killer may be at work, while an escaped jailbird and his former tormentor are locked in a savage dance of revenge that is ultimately connected to the fortunes of a wealthy oil family hiding a terrible secret...

Series: Dave Robicheaux

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  • A Private Cathedral
    Detective Dave Robicheaux is caught in the crossfire of Louisiana's oldest and bloodiest gangland feud... From the wreckage of Louisiana's oldest family rivalry, Detective Dave Robicheaux faces his most sinister enemy yet. Isolde and Johnny - the star-crossed teenage heirs to New Iberia's criminal empires - have run away together, and Robicheaux is tasked with finding them. But when his...
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  • Burning Angel
    Sonny Boy Marsallas, a New Orleans street hustler, entrusts Detective Dave Robicheaux with a mysterious notebook, kicking off a series of violent incidents and raising questions that need answers, and fast... What did Sonny's girlfriend know that got her murdered? Why is Sonny known as Red Angel by Central American guerrillas? And what do the Mafia want with a desolate...
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  • Clete
    In the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcelβ€”veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans copβ€”takes centre stage for the first time. Clete Purcelβ€”private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spotsβ€”is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete...
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  • The Hadacol Boogie
    When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux's property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks...
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  • Heaven's Prisoners
    Dave Robicheaux is trying to put a life of violence and crime behind him, leaving homicide to run a boat-rental business in Louisiana's bayou country. But one day, while fishing in the Gulf with his wife Annie, he witnesses an event that will change his life forever. A small two-engine plane suddenly crashes into the sea, and Robicheaux dives down...
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  • Cadillac Jukebox
    The call from ex-Klansman Aaron Crown couldn't have been more unexpected. Sentenced to forty years for the decades-old shooting of a civil rights activist, Crown should have been out of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, for good. Election candidate Buford LaRose wants Detective Dave Robicheaux to ignore Aaron's calls, promising Robicheaux a lucrative job when he makes governor. Worse still, Buford's wife,...
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  • Last Car To Elysian Fields
    It is a rainy late-summer's night in New Orleans. Detective Dave Robicheaux is about to confront the man who may have savagely assaulted his friend, Father Jimmie Dolan, a Catholic priest who's always at the centre of controversy. But things are never as they seem and soon Robicheaux is back in New Iberia, probing a car crash that killed three...
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  • Creole Belle
    Creole Belle begins where the last book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow, ended. Dave is in a recovery unit in New Orleans, where a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton visits him and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song 'Creole Belle' on it. Then she disappears. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the...
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  • Light of the World
    James Lee Burke's legendary detective Dave Robicheaux returns to try to save his daughter from a sadistic killer. When Detective Dave Robicheaux's daughter, Alafair, declares her intention to interview a convicted serial killer called Asa Surette, he does all he can to dissuade her. Dave has always encouraged her ambitions as a writer, but as a father he doesn't want...
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  • A Morning For Flamingos
    'No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists' DAILY MAIL A routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong, leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded and his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge, Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans, a volatile...
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  • A Stained White Radiance
    A bullet shot through the window of Weldon Sonnier's house propels Dave Robicheaux back into the lives of a family he's not sure he wants to be reacquainted with. Weldon Sonnier's CIA-influenced past has led to dangerous connections and commitments, including debts to local mob boss Joey 'Meatballs' Gouza. As Weldon puts himself in the line of fire, Lyle Sonnier,...
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  • In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead
    Hunting a sadistic killer who targets young prostitutes, Detective Dave Robicheaux has no mind to be sidetracked into persuading ex-schoolmate mobster Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni to leave town. And it turns out that Balboni is the money behind a Civil War movie that's bringing in good business. But then the film crew stumbles on a skeleton out in the bayou,...
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Swan Peak by James Lee Burke has garnered praise for its blend of intense narrative and poetic prose, with comparisons to literary giants like Zola. Critics commend Burke as a masterful crime novelist, celebrated for his atmospheric depictions of the Gulf Coast and intricate exploration of the human condition. His striking prose and profound character analysis affirm his status as a leading figure in Southern noir and American crime writing.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780753826027

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 25 June 2009

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 38.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 360g

Pages: 512

About the Author

James Lee Burke is the author of many previous novels, many featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux. He won the Edgar Award in 1997 for 'Cimarron Rose', while 'Black Cherry Blues' won the Edgar in 1989 and 'Sunset Limited' was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger in 1998. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in Missoula, Montana and New Iberia, Louisiana.

Also by James Lee Burke

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  • Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie
    Bestselling author James Lee Burke tells his most thrilling and insightful story yet through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Bessie Holland. At the beginning of the twentieth century, as America grapples with forces of human and natural violence more powerful than humanity has ever seen, Bessie Holland yearns for the love that she has never known. She finds a soulmate and...
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  • Another Kind of Eden
    New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings readers a captivating tale of justice, love, brutality, and mysticism set in the turbulent 1960s. The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding...
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  • A Private Cathedral
    Detective Dave Robicheaux is caught in the crossfire of Louisiana's oldest and bloodiest gangland feud... From the wreckage of Louisiana's oldest family rivalry, Detective Dave Robicheaux faces his most sinister enemy yet. Isolde and Johnny - the star-crossed teenage heirs to New Iberia's criminal empires - have run away together, and Robicheaux is tasked with finding them. But when his...
    Paperback
    $2499
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    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Burning Angel
    Sonny Boy Marsallas, a New Orleans street hustler, entrusts Detective Dave Robicheaux with a mysterious notebook, kicking off a series of violent incidents and raising questions that need answers, and fast... What did Sonny's girlfriend know that got her murdered? Why is Sonny known as Red Angel by Central American guerrillas? And what do the Mafia want with a desolate...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Clete
    In the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcelβ€”veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans copβ€”takes centre stage for the first time. Clete Purcelβ€”private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spotsβ€”is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete...
    Paperback
    $2799
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  • The Hadacol Boogie
    When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux's property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
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    Ships today
  • Cadillac Jukebox
    The call from ex-Klansman Aaron Crown couldn't have been more unexpected. Sentenced to forty years for the decades-old shooting of a civil rights activist, Crown should have been out of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, for good. Election candidate Buford LaRose wants Detective Dave Robicheaux to ignore Aaron's calls, promising Robicheaux a lucrative job when he makes governor. Worse still, Buford's wife,...
    Paperback
    $2699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Heaven's Prisoners
    Dave Robicheaux is trying to put a life of violence and crime behind him, leaving homicide to run a boat-rental business in Louisiana's bayou country. But one day, while fishing in the Gulf with his wife Annie, he witnesses an event that will change his life forever. A small two-engine plane suddenly crashes into the sea, and Robicheaux dives down...
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  • Harbor Lights
    A story collection from one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella. These eight stories move between the marshlands of the Gulf of Mexico, the sweeping plains of Colorado, and the prisons, saloons, and trailer parks of the South, weaving together quiet acts of love and survival with shocking eruptions of violence...
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  • Creole Belle
    Creole Belle begins where the last book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow, ended. Dave is in a recovery unit in New Orleans, where a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton visits him and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song 'Creole Belle' on it. Then she disappears. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the...
    Paperback
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  • A Morning For Flamingos
    'No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists' DAILY MAIL A routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong, leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded and his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge, Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans, a volatile...
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    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Light of the World
    James Lee Burke's legendary detective Dave Robicheaux returns to try to save his daughter from a sadistic killer. When Detective Dave Robicheaux's daughter, Alafair, declares her intention to interview a convicted serial killer called Asa Surette, he does all he can to dissuade her. Dave has always encouraged her ambitions as a writer, but as a father he doesn't want...
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    Ships in 4-6 weeks

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