Light of the World by James Lee Burke

Light of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke --- 548 pages

This in the nineteenth novel in Burke's series about Louisiana Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux. In one sense these books can be characterized as suspense or crime thrillers, but Burke's work is far more complex than the usual genre thriller, digging into the circumstances that complicate determinations of guilt and innocence and cautioning against any rush to judgement.

The usual setting has also shifted, as Burke sets this story amid the towering beauty of Montana's Big Sky country, contrasting the starkly defined and beautiful physical environment with the dark, murky and self-destructive lives of the characters --- as "though every prospect pleases and only man is vile," in the words of Reginald Heber's well-known hymn.

Burke's wonderfully evocative descriptive passages are one of the great pleasures of reading his fiction, at a time when most authors are exhorted to cut it out and get on with the action. There is also plenty of action, as Dave and his friend Clete become convinced that a serial killer is orchestrating a series of attacks on their families and friends, and that all this is tied to the wheeling and dealing of Love Younger, a ruthless oil tycoon, and the unsolved murder of his adopted granddaughter, Angel Deer Heart. Clete complicates matters by falling hard for the murdered girl's mother, and Clete's long-lost-now-found daughter Gretchen (who comes with her own set of problems) complicates them further by her intent to film a documentary exposing the environmental damage done by the oil tycoon's company. As always, Dave and Clete find themselves struggling with their own ghosts and demons as they try to separate truth from lies and stop the killer once and for all.

This one may be long, but it reads fast and is hard to put down.