Burke, James Lee (1936-…), is a popular American novelist best known for his series of detective stories featuring a former New Orleans police officer named Dave Robicheaux. The series has been praised for the complexity of its characters, the beauty of its prose, and its vivid re-creation of the culture and geography of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou country.
Burke was born in Houston on Dec. 5, 1936. He grew up on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana and began writing short stories while attending Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) from 1955 to 1957. After receiving a B.A. degree in 1959 and an M.A. degree in 1960 from the University of Missouri, Burke held several jobs before completing his first novel, Half of Paradise (1965).
Burke wrote several more novels before introducing Robicheaux in The Neon Rain (1987). Later novels in the Robicheaux series include Heaven’s Prisoner (1988), Black Cherry Blues (1989), A Morning for Flamingos (1990), A Stained White Radiance (1992), In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (1993), Dixie City Jam (1994), Burning Angel (1995), Cadillac Jukebox (1996), Sunset Limited (1998), Purple Cane Road (2000), Jolie Blon’s Bounce (2002), Last Car to Elysian Fields (2003), Crusader’s Cross (2005), Pegasus Descending (2006), The Tin Roof Blowdown (2007), Swan Peak (2008), The Glass Rainbow (2010), Creole Belle (2012), Light of the World (2013), Robicheaux (2018), and The New Iberia Blues (2019).
In addition to the Dave Robicheaux series, Burke has written many action short stories and stand-alone novels about several generations of the Holland family. The story of the patriarch (founder) of the family, Son Holland, was told in Two for Texas (1982). Burke also has written historical novels. For example, White Doves at Morning (2002) is set in Louisiana during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
