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Book Cover for: Clete: A Dave Robicheaux Novel, James Lee Burke

Clete: A Dave Robicheaux Novel

James Lee Burke

Reader Score

85%

85% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 3 reviews on

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The New York Times Best Seller
2024 The New York Times Best Seller

In the latest installment in his famous Detective Dave Robicheaux series, New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings Dave's partner and friend Clete Purcel to the forefront for the first time as Clete and Dave attempt to stop ruthless smugglers of a dangerous new drug


Clete Purcel - private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spots - is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal - his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.


Just as Clete starts to trail the culprits, Clara Bow, a woman with a dark past hires Clete as a detective to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who seems to lurk around every corner. Clete is experiencing shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questioning Clara's ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could've imagined.


Gripping, violent, yet interlaced with Clete's humor and consistent drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to a truly iconic series. James Lee Burke proves yet again that he is the "heavyweight champ" and "great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed" (Michael Connelly).

Book Details

  • Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
  • Publish Date: Jun 11st, 2024
  • Pages: 336
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.10in - 6.00in - 1.40in - 1.05lb
  • EAN: 9780802163073
  • Categories: Thrillers - SuspenseLiteraryThrillers - Crime

About the Author

James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author, two-time winner of the Edgar Award, winner of the CWA Gold Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. He has authored forty novels and two short story collections. He lives in Missoula, Montana.

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Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"A stunning work... Get this now. It will take you apart and
heal you. Lord, what a magnificent book!" --Nils Lofgren, Member of Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and Member of Neil
Young's Crazy Horse Band

"James Lee Burke is the reigning champ of nostalgia noir."--New
York Times
Book Review

"You can always count on Burke to deliver a white-hot
page-turner."--AARP Magazine

"Burke's evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce
wonder."--Entertainment Weekly

"One of the finest novelists in North America."--Margaret
Cannon, Globe and Mail

"James Lee Burke is one of a small handful of elite suspense
writers whose work transcends the genre, making the leap into capital-L
Literature."--Bookpage