Bayou boys in Montana? Yes, it works in Burke’s new novel

Published 5:00 am Sunday, July 27, 2008

Poor old Clete Purcell. He can’t even go fishing without running into trouble.

Or, actually, having it come up the road after him. In James Lee Burke’s gripping new novel, “Swan Peak,” that’s just what happens to lawman Dave Robicheaux’s more-than-half-crazy sidekick. Once trouble gets Clete between its teeth, it doesn’t let go and he, of course, bites back.

Burke makes a bold move in “Swan Peak”: sending Clete and Dave to Montana for the 17th Robicheaux novel. These are characters born and bred in Louisiana, and taking them away from their natural habitat in New Orleans and New Iberia is mighty risky.

But it works.

What draws Dave and Clete into their tangled orbits is the ghastly murder of two college students. As always, Burke is an absolute master of bringing a setting to life. And Clete and Dave in the West? What has their code of violence in the name of justice ever been but the cowboy way?