Languishing in a recovery unit on St. Charles Avenue in New
Orleans, Dave Robicheaux is fighting an enemy more insidious
than the one who put a bullet in his back a month earlier in
a shootout on Bayou Teche. The morphine meant to dull his
pain is steadily gnawing away at his resolve, playing tricks
on his mind, and luring him back into the addict mentality
that once threatened to destroy his life and family.
With the soporific Indian summer air wafting through the
louvered shutters of his hospital room, and the demons
fighting for space in his head, Dave can’t be sure whether
his latest visitor is flesh and blood or a spectral reminder
of his Louisiana youth. Tee Jolie Melton, a young woman with
a troubled past, glides to his bedside and leaves him with
an iPod that plays the old country blues song “My Creole Belle.”
What Dave doesn’t know is that Tee Jolie disappeared weeks
ago, and no one believes she reappeared to comfort an old
man with a bullet wound. Dave becomes obsessed with the song
and the vivid memory of Tee Jolie, and when he learns that
her sister has turned up dead inside a block of ice floating
in the Gulf, he believes that putting the evils of the past
to rest is more urgent than ever before.
Meanwhile, an oil spill in the Gulf brings back intense
feelings for Dave of losing his father to a rig explosion
years ago. As the oil companies continue to risk human lives
in pursuit of wealth and power, Dave begins to see links to
the Melton sisters, even when no one else shares his
suspicions. Dave’s expartner Clete Purcel helps him search
for Tee Jolie, though Clete fears for his friend’s mental
health and safety. But Clete has his own troubles, too; he’s
discovered an illegitimate daughter who may be working as a
contract killer—and may have set her sights on someone he loves.
Creole Belle is a resurrection story for the ages, with
James Lee Burke at the peak of his masterful career and Dave
Robicheaux facing his most intense and personal battle yet,
against the known and unknown forces that corrupt and
destroy even the best of men.