James Lee Burke is a multiple award winning mystery writer and a nominee for a Pulitzer and one of the finest writers I read. Heaven’s Prisoners is the second in the series in which, former beat cop, Dave Robicheaux is entangled in a crime investigation in the bayous of southern Louisiana. Robicheaux is further ensnared by nightmares from his days in Vietnam killing undeserving civilians, a bottomless desire to return to abusing alcohol, and a blue-collar, Cajun, and deeply ingrained commitment to justice.
While motoring his fishing skiff with his new wife in the Gulf of Mexico a small plane flies over, bursts into flames, and crashes into the water. The cockpit contains a Central American refugee, her five-year-old daughter, and a pair of drug smugglers (or worse). The US Drug Enforcement Agency deletes the announcement of the death of one of the smugglers suggesting he is an undercover agent supporting dictators whose repression is driving hordes of refugees to sneak into the United States. (Has anything changed since the book’s publication in 1988?)
Within the first several chapters wind, waves, and sunlight on the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi’s inlets are described in fifty different shades without repetition. That attention to the fallen leaves from pecan trees in the front yard, the crunch of oyster shells in the parking lot at a Cajun fish shack, and Robicheaux’s moods provide a sense of place unparalleled by even the best travel memoirs. Mark Hammer’s delivers a gritty southern drawl perfect for the audiobook.