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Trouble Trails Robicheaux

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By BETTIE JOHNSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 17, 2008

"Swan Peak," by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster, $25.95)

The plot of this novel can be summed up in one of the character's version of karma. Candace Sweeny believes everyone has certain people they are destined to meet. When they intersect, they make a choice and that results in their fate.

In "Swan Peak," James Lee Burke gives us a variety of characters who intersect. Some are evil. Most are seriously flawed. They converge in western Montana in a complicated story of murder, retribution and ghosts of the past.

When these characters get together, things become violent. It is deadly for some. And a near-death experience for the rest.

In the 17th novel in the Dave Robicheaux series, the main character leaves Louisiana with his wife, Molly, and best friend, Clete Purcel, after the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Robicheaux took a leave of absence from his job as a detective-grade sheriff's deputy to help his friend, who had not recovered from seeing the city he was born in devastated from the storm. Pills and booze no longer dull the pain Purcel feels.

Their plan to spend the summer fishing the Blackfoot and Bitterroot rivers is interrupted when Purcel runs into two thugs who threaten him and claim he is trespassing on the Wellstone Ranch. One of the thugs recognizes Purcel from his former association with a mobster who died in a plane crash in the third novel in this series, "Black Cherry Blues."

He rightly thinks Purcel caused the crash and wants him to admit it and pay for the crime.

Robicheaux begins to investigate Ridley Wellstone, the wealthy owner of the ranch, in the death of two college students. Their bodies are found near property owned by novelist and retired English professor Albert Hollister, who hosts the Robicheaux party. A strong conservationist, Hollister is also Wellstone's antagonist. Wellstone soon becomes a suspect in the deaths of another couple involved in the pornographic trade who are found dead near the interstate.

No stranger to murder investigations, Robicheaux is briefly deputized to help the local officers in the deaths. While searching for clues and motives, Robicheaux meets a number of people whose lives strangely intersect. The more Robicheaux investigates, the more all clues somehow connect to the Wellstone brothers, Ridley and Leslie.

Leslie Wellstone's wife is a country singer with a secret, born to a blind mother and Texas oil-field roustabout who used her beauty as currency to move up the social ladder.

She has a child by a former lover who is sent to prison after stabbing a pimp who was brutally beating one of his employees in a bar parking lot. Although the pimp pulled the knife on her boyfriend Jimmy Dale Greenwood, the pimp is also the judge's nephew, and Greenwood is charged with leaving the scene of the crime.

While in prison, Greenwood is sodomized by the prison director, Troyce Nix, who left the military because of his involvement in the scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Greenwood escapes prison after almost killing Nix and heads to Montana to reclaim his former lover and child.

Not entirely healed from the serious stab wounds, Nix goes to Montana in his search to find and destroy Greenwood. On that trip Nix runs into tattooed Candace Sweeney, described as a "honkey-tonk-in-your-face-piece-of-work," by the author. Sweeney, on her own since she was 13, teaches a valuable lesson on why to never judge a character by her past. Wise and caring, she cares for Nix and eventually convinces him to abandon his quest for revenge.

Robicheaux meets Nix and Sweeney at a revival meeting held by another shifty character, Rev. Sunny Click, who is also tied to the Wellstones. Supporting characters include the sheriff, the Wellstones' retinue of thugs and FBI Special Agent Alicia Rosecrans.

Meanwhile, Purcel spirals into self-destructive mode. He is no stranger to violence. In his past, Purcel survived a mob contract and attempts by fellow members of the New Orleans Police Department to kill him when he worked on the force. A sniper put two .22 caliber bullets in his back while he carried another officer to safety. He fought the death squads in El Salvador after skipping the country in a homicide beef. Can Purcel survive his greatest enemy ... himself?

As the mystery unfolds, several of the characters are targeted for death by the serial killer.

The plot may be complex, but it is worth it to see where Burke takes his characters. And the investment in time reading the book pays off when several secrets are revealed.

Bettie Johnson of Brooksville is a freelance writer.

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