Special thriller section: 'Swan Peak'

By Peter Mergendahl, Special to the Rocky

Published July 10, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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* Fiction. By James Lee Burke. Simon & Schuster, $25.95. Grade: A

Plot in a nutshell: In this story, Burke's recurring characters, Louisiana sheriff's deputy Dave Robicheaux, his wife, Molly, and Dave's buddy Clete Purcel, are spending a quiet summer in the mountains of western Montana. As usually happens with Dave and Clete, no matter where they are, trouble is just around the corner.

Sure enough, a badly disfigured and very wealthy man named Leslie Wellstone is having troubles with his philandering wife. Clete suspects that Wellstone is a gangster named Sal Dio that he had dealings with years earlier and who was supposedly killed in a plane crash. When the bodies of two murdered teenagers turn up, and then other gruesome crimes are committed, Dave and Clete become convinced that Wellstone is involved.

When Clete is nearly immolated by a mask-wearing psychopath, it all becomes personal. Clete and Dave have to save Mrs. Wellstone from her murderous husband and avoid getting done in themselves.

Sample of prose: "Clete Purcel was the bane of his enemies and feared in New Orleans by pimps, drug dealers, cops on a pad, jackrollers, scam artists who victimized old people, and sexual predators of all stripes. Paradoxically, his closest friends included whiskey priests, strippers, stand-up cons, hookers on the spike, badass biker girls, button men, Shylocks, and mind-blown street people who claimed they had seen UFOs emerging from the waters of Lake Pontchartrain."

Pros: No one writes better noir detective stories than Burke. His characterizations and whip-sharp dialogue are incomparable.

Cons: There have been a number of Dave Robicheaux novels, and though all are top-notch, Burke's sense of morality is strong and sometimes repetitive. If you've read all of the Robicheaux stories, you might have the feeling you've read this one before.

Final word: Swan Peak is a sequel of sorts to a 20-year-old Robicheaux book called Black Cherry Blues - one of the finest stories in one of crime fiction's best series. For that reason alone, this one is not to be missed.

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