Part of Dave Robicheaux, book 7
First published 1995
Detective Dave Robicheaux has carried a dark secret since childhood. Somewhere beneath the Gulf waters off Louisiana lies a sunken Nazi submarine. As a boy, the stories gave him nightmares about evil sailors lurking offshore. Years later, while scuba diving as a teenager, he discovered the wreck himself but told no one about its location. Now decades have passed, and others want to find the submarine. A Jewish activist pushes to have it raised from its watery grave. But Will Buchalter, a neo-Nazi who denies the Holocaust happened, will use any means necessary to force Robicheaux to reveal what he knows. The detective from New Iberia finds himself caught between these opposing forces, each desperate to claim the submarine for their own purposes. In the murky waters and humid bayous of southern Louisiana, Robicheaux must confront both his childhood fears and present dangers. Burke explores how terror and beauty can spring from the same Louisiana soil, weaving a tale where past horrors surface to threaten the present.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, thriller, detective, action
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, secrets
Setting: Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, New Iberia
Period: Childhood, Decades Later, Teenage Years
494 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Hyperion
Content warnings: violence