Book Review: Swan Peak by James Lee Burke

Librarian Tim wrote: Louisiana police detective Dave Robicheaux and his friend, private investigator Clete Purcell need a break from post-Katrina southern Louisiana, so the decamp to a friend's cabin in the Montana wilderness to fish and rest. That rest is short lived however, when Purcell accidentally wades into a trout stream owned by a wealthy family, and stirs up a hornets nest of trouble. When two students from the local college are murdered behind their friends property, Robicheaux and Prucell are pulled even deeper into a story involving a mysterious drifter, a lawman looking for revenge, a crooked preacher and a wealthy family that isn't all it is cracked up to be. It's interesting to read about Robicheaux and Purcell outside of their usual environment of the swamps and bayous of Louisiana. But the story is a familiar one for the series, actually tying up a loose end that has been fluttering since an earlier story. Burke is a natural storyteller whose affinity for the outdoors nearly borders on the poetic, with wonderful descriptions of the mountains and streams of Montana evoking the stories of C.J. Box. Fans of thought provoking crime fiction should enjoy this novel. Grade:B.