Heaven's Prisoners

With his new wife, Annie, and a small fishing business on the bayou, Dave Robicheaux seems to have found the peace that eluded him in his former life as an alcoholic homicide detective. But when a small plane crashes near his boat, leaving a refugee child as its only survivor, tragedy intrudes upon his happiness. Mark Hammer's slow, gritty drawl captures the complexities of Robicheaux's character--idealist and cynic, peacemaker and gunfighter, victim and avenger--and the many moods of Burke's writing, from languid, poetic descriptions of the heat-glazed geography to up-close depictions of violence and violation. A perfect marriage of the written and spoken word. J.E.T. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

April 1, 1988
First met in Burke's excellent mystery, The Neon Rain, Dave Robicheaux is a driven mandriven by his constant battle with alcoholism; by memories of his past as a detective on the New Orleans police force; by his need for order; by his obsession with the seedy, aberrant side of New Orleans life. Trying to put his own life together again, Dave has married Annie and now runs a small fishing rental business in the Louisiana bayou. When he and Annie witness the crash of a small plane, in which four peopleobviously illegal aliensdie, and only a little girl survives, Robicheaux is drawn to the trail of a network of crimes that suggests a Central American dope-running ring operated with the connivance of federal agents. Violence ensues, and Robicheaux, no stranger to tragedy, must confront it again when Annie becomes a victim. Haunted by guilt, deeply depressed, in constant danger, Robicheaux trusts no one, including the cops, for he knows that they too, are capable of skirting the law. Burke beautifully evokes New Orleans and the mysterious bayous, and he skillfully depicts the different lifestyles that distinguish the Gulf region. Robicheaux is a complex character whose integrity and high principles are always in conflict with the darker side of human nature. This is a mystery fans will savor for its ruminating intelligence and graceful prose as well as for its heart-stopping suspense.