These eight stories from James Lee Burke moves from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival and revenge. A boy and his father watch a German submarine sink an oil tanker as evil forces in the disguise of federal agents try to ruin their family. A girl is beaten up outside a bar as her university-professor father navigates new love and threats from a group of neo-Nazis. A pair of undercover union organizers are hired to break colts for a Hollywood actor, whose “Western hero” façade hides darkness. An oil rig worker witnesses a horrific attack on a local village while on a job in South America and seeks justice through one final act of bravery.

Clete Purcel is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal. Just as Clete starts to trail the culprits, Clara Bow hires Clete to investigate her scheming ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who seems to lurk around every corner. Clete is experiencing shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questioning Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could have imagined.

In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi River. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is retreating toward Texas and being replaced by Red Legs, irregulars commanded by a maniacal figure, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers who prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed --- and did --- as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle’s plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah.

Novelist Aaron Holland Broussard is shattered when his daughter, Fannie Mae, dies suddenly. As he tries to honor her memory by saving two young men from a life of crime amid their opioid-ravaged community, he is drawn into a network of villainy that includes a violent former Klansman, a far-from-holy minister, a biker club posing as evangelicals, and a murderer who has been hiding in plain sight. Aaron’s only ally is state police officer Ruby Spotted Horse, a no-nonsense woman who harbors some powerful secrets in her cellar. Despite the air of mystery surrounding her, Ruby is the only one Aaron can trust. That is, until the ghost of Fannie Mae shows up, guiding her father through a tangled web of the present and past.

The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard finds work on a farm in Denver and meets Joanne McDuffy, a fierce college student and gifted painter. Their soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne’s involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult. When a sinister businessman and his son who wield their influence through vicious cruelty set their sights on Aaron, drawing him into an investigation of grotesque murders, it is clear that this idyllic landscape harbors tremendous power --- and evil.

The Shondell and Balangie families are longtime enemies in the New Iberia criminal underworld and show each other no mercy. Yet their youngest heirs, Johnny Shondell and Isolde Balangie, have fallen in love and run away after Isolde was given as a sex slave to Johnny’s uncle. As he seeks to uncover why, Detective Dave Robicheaux gets too close to both Isolde’s mother and the mistress of her father, a venomous New Orleans mafioso whose jealousy has no bounds. In retribution, he hires a mysterious assassin to go after Robicheaux and his longtime partner, Clete Purcel. In order to defeat the hitman and rescue Johnny and Isolde, Robicheaux will have to overcome the demons that have tormented him throughout his adult life.

Detective Dave Robicheaux has discovered the body of a young woman who’s been crucified, wearing only a small chain on her ankle. She disappeared near director Desmond Cormier’s Cyrpemort Point estate, and Robicheaux is looking for answers. Neither Cormier nor his enigmatic actor friend Antoine Butterworth is saying much, but Robicheaux knows better. As always, Clete Purcel and Davie’s daughter, Alafair, have Robicheaux’s back. Clete witnesses the escape of Texas inmate Hugo Tillinger, who may hold the key to Robicheaux’s case. As they wade further into the investigation, they end up in the crosshairs of the mob, the deranged Chester Wimple, and the dark ghosts Robicheaux has been running from for years.

Between his recurrent nightmares about Vietnam, his battle with alcoholism, and the sudden loss of his beloved wife, Molly, Dave Robicheaux’s thoughts drift from one irreconcilable memory to the next. Images of ghosts at Spanish Lake live on the edge of his vision. During a murder investigation, Robicheaux discovers he may have committed the homicide he’s investigating, one that involved the death of the man who took Molly’s life. As he works to clear his name and make sense of the murder, Robicheaux encounters a cast of characters and a resurgence of dark social forces that threaten to destroy all of those whom he loves.

On its surface, life in Houston is as you would expect. But beneath the glitz and superficial normalcy, a class war has begun, and it is nothing like the conventional portrayal of the decade. Against this backdrop, Aaron Holland Broussard discovers the poignancy of first love and a world of violence he did not know existed. When Aaron spots the beautiful and gifted Valerie Epstein fighting with her boyfriend, Grady Harrelson, at a Galveston drive-in, he inadvertently challenges the power of the Mob and one of the richest families in Texas. He also discovers he must find the courage his father had found as an American soldier in the Great War.

After a violent encounter that leaves four Mexican soldiers dead, Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland escapes the country in possession of a stolen artifact believed to be the mythic cup of Christ. When a bloodthirsty Austrian arms dealer places Hack’s son, Ishmael, squarely in the cross hairs of a plot to recapture his prize, we meet three extraordinary women who will aid Hack in his quest to reconcile with Ishmael, vanquish their enemies and return the Holy Grail to its rightful place. 

On its surface, life in Houston is as you would expect. But beneath the glitz and superficial normalcy, a class war has begun, and it is nothing like the conventional portrayal of the decade. Against this backdrop, Aaron Holland Broussard discovers the poignancy of first love and a world of violence he did not know existed. When Aaron spots the beautiful and gifted Valerie Epstein fighting with her boyfriend, Grady Harrelson, at a Galveston drive-in, he inadvertently challenges the power of the Mob and one of the richest families in Texas. He also discovers he must find the courage his father had found as an American soldier in the Great War.

After a violent encounter that leaves four Mexican soldiers dead, Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland escapes the country in possession of a stolen artifact, earning the ire of a bloodthirsty Austrian arms dealer who then places his son, Ishmael, squarely in the crosshairs of a plot to recapture his prize, believed to be the mythic cup of Christ. Along the way, we meet three extraordinary women, each of whom will aid Hackberry in his quest to reconcile with Ishmael, vanquish their enemies, and return the Grail to its rightful place.

Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland narrowly escapes death at the Battle of the Bulge, saving a young, beautiful prisoner of war named Rosita Lowenstein in the process. The two marry and return to Texas, where Weldon enters the oil business and meets dangerous people hell-bent on destroying his marriage. The prospect of losing his wife prompts Weldon’s wildest and most courageous act yet --- one that takes its inspiration from his encounter years earlier with the notorious Bonnie and Clyde.

Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland narrowly escapes death at the Battle of the Bulge, saving a young, beautiful prisoner of war named Rosita Lowenstein in the process. The two marry and return to Texas, where Weldon enters the oil business and meets dangerous people hell-bent on destroying his marriage. The prospect of losing his wife prompts Weldon’s wildest and most courageous act yet --- one that takes its inspiration from his encounter years earlier with the notorious Bonnie and Clyde.

Louisiana Sherriff’s Detective Dave Robicheaux and his longtime friend and partner, Clete Purcel, are vacationing in Montana when a series of suspicious events leads them to believe that their lives --- and the lives of their families --- are in danger. Robicheaux's daughter, Alafair, thinks she sees a familiar face following her around town. But how could convicted sadist and serial killer Asa Surette be loose on the streets of Montana?

Louisiana Sherriff’s Detective Dave Robicheaux and his longtime friend and partner, Clete Purcel, are vacationing in Montana when a series of suspicious events leads them to believe that their lives --- and the lives of their families --- are in danger. Robicheaux's daughter, Alafair, thinks she sees a familiar face following her around town. But how could convicted sadist and serial killer Asa Surette be loose on the streets of Montana?

Tee Jolie Melton, a young woman with a troubled past, visits Dave Robicheaux in a recovery unit in New Orleans and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song “My Creole Belle” on it. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the vivid memory of Tee Jolie. When he learns that her sister has turned up dead inside a block of ice floating in the Gulf, he believes that putting the evils of the past to rest is more urgent than ever before.

Tee Jolie Melton, a young woman with a troubled past, visits Dave Robicheaux in a recovery unit in New Orleans and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song “My Creole Belle” on it. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the vivid memory of Tee Jolie. When he learns that her sister has turned up dead inside a block of ice floating in the Gulf, he believes that putting the evils of the past to rest is more urgent than ever before.

When alcoholic ex-boxer Danny Boy Lorca witnesses a man tortured to death in the desert and reports it, Sheriff Hackberry Hollan's investigation leads to the home of Anton Ling, a regal, mysterious Chinese woman whom the locals refer to as La Magdalena and who is known for sheltering illegals.