THE THRILL FACTOR.

(From Irish Independent)

Last Car To Elysian Fields

By James Lee Burke

Orion, stgGBP12.99New Iberia policeman Dave Robicheaux returns but in a much more sombre andtroubled mood than ever before. The death of his beloved wife Bootsie has left him even more rootless and angry, the touch-paper of his violent temper fizzing fiercely.

As he tries to find out who savagely assaulted his friend, the controversial campaigning priest Father Jimmie Dolan, Robicheaux finds himself knee-deep in trouble with his NewIberia Police Chief, the New Orleans police, a crazed Catholic hit man and an old flame called Theo LeJeune.

There's also the 50-year-old mystery of what happened to bluesman Junior Crudup. The answer shakes the complacency of a number of the leading business dynasties inRobicheaux's patch, as does the death of three teenage girls in an alcohol-fuelled carcrash.

James Lee Burke, one of the most powerful and evocative voices in American literature of any genre, manages to effortlessly weave the injustices of class, race and wealth thatprevailed in the Southern states of half-a-century ago into a contemporary story of greed,amorality and environmental destruction that reveals the dark corners of the heart of American society.