From New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke comes his definitive, must-read first title in his famous Dectective David Robicheaux series. New Orleans Detective Dave Robicheaux has fought too many battles: in Vietnam, with police brass, with killers and hustlers, and the bottle. Lost without his wife's love, Robicheaux haunts the intense and heady French Quarter—the place he calls home, and the place that nearly destroys him when he beomes involved in the case of a young prostitute whose body is found in a bayou. Thrust into the seedy world of drug lords and arms smugglers, Robicheaux must face down the criminal underworld and come to terms with his own bruised heart and demons to survive.

100 American Crime Writers features discussion and analysis of the lives of crime writers and their key works, examining the developments in American crime writing from the Golden Age to hardboiled detective fiction. This study is essential to scholars and an ideal introduction to crime fiction for anyone who enjoys this fascinating genre.

Mysteries and detective stories are among the most popular of books but the writers of such genre fiction suffer from a perception that their work is to be taken less seriously than so-called literary fiction. The novels of James Lee Burke, one of the most distinguished writers of crime novels, challenge that notion, as do the 12 essays in this collection. This work examines Burke as a writer who has expanded the mystery-detective genre with an astonishing diversity of themes, imaginative language and descriptions, and unforgettable characters. He seems unbounded by limitations of genre. An interview with Burke is included.

The creative writing courses at Adelaide University have been in place for six years, and this is the third anthology to emerge from the Masters Degree course. Each year the students, many of them established writers, select a theme around which to write poetry and stories. These writers have wrapped up the very essence of Christmas with words.

The imaginative literature of the Vietnam War participates-both overtly and covertly-in a struggle for national memory. First-generation Vietnam War literature, focusing on representations of combat and life in the battlefield, strove to give testimony, to write history. Later writings, in their range of genre and style, investigate and interrogate the very meaning of war. To reflect these two stages, Philip Jason divides his newest book of literary criticism into two sections: 'acts' and 'shadows.' In 'Acts, ' Jason provides formal and cultural readings of combat narratives-by such authors as James Webb, Larry Heinemann, and Joe Haldeman-and explores the meaning of 'authenticity' as applied to Vietnam War texts. 'Shadows' looks both forward and backward from the combat zone, challenging the parameters of what we define as 'Vietnam War literature.

A pinball wizard stars in this urban romance, set where the blues meet jazz in London, Ontario's historic York Hotel.

The works of Louisiana authors differ from the works of other Southern writers in significant ways. Strong French, Spanish, Native American, and African American traditions shaped Louisiana culture, and Louisiana writers reflect that cultural diversity in their works. So too, historical and religious influences caused Louisiana to develop in a distinct way, and these influences have similarly affected Louisiana writers. The narrative styles employed by these writers generally differ from the styles of other Southern authors. While contemporary Louisiana writers have contributed a substantial body of work to Southern literature, their writings have not received adequate scholarly attention. This book provides a critical introduction to Louisiana literature and gives special attention to how Louisiana literature and culture depart from the rest of the South. The volume is the first collection of scholarly studies focusing on Louisiana writers from the 1930s to the present. Drawing together discussions of 15 of Louisiana's current premier fiction writers, the collection is organized into three broad sections. The first examines Louisiana narratives and folk traditions; the second, influences of religious traditions on Louisiana writers, including Protestantism, Catholicism, and Paganism; and the third, the construction of gender and race in Louisiana culture. Included are discussions of such writers as Ernest J. Gaines, Anne Rice, James Lee Burke, Moira Crone, John Dufresne, Michael Lee West, Rebecca Wells, and Robert Olin Butler.