Purple Cane Road: Summary and book reviews of Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke, plus links to an excerpt from Purple Cane Road and a biography of James Lee Burke.

From Edgar Award-winner James Lee Burke comes this emotional powerhouse of a novel ... in which everyman hero Dave Robicheaux confronts the secrets of his long-forgotten past in a shattering tale of revenge, murder, and a mother's haunting legacy.... Robicheaux first hears it from a pimp eager to trade information for his life: Mae Guillory was murdered outside a New Orleans nightclub by two cops. Dave Robicheaux was just a boy when his mother ran out on him and his whiskey-driven father. Now Robicheaux is a man, still haunted by her desertion and her death. More than thirty-five years after Mae Guillory died, her son will go to any length to bring her killers to justice. And as he moves closer to what happened that long-ago night, the Louisiana cop crosses lines of color and class to find the place where secrets of his past lie buried ... and where all roads lead to revenge -- but only one road leads to the truth....

Media Reviews

The Denver Post America's best novelist.   Daily News (New York) A thoroughly absorbing mystery packed with the colorful characters and moral dilemmas that have turned Dave Robicheaux into one of the more vivid literary creations of the last 20 years.   The New York Times Nobody writes about the bad old days down South like James Lee Burke. Michael Connelly, author of Void Moon No other living writer has been more influential on the contemporary crime novel than James Lee Burke.... This one is his best.

Recent Reader Reviews

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