Part of Dave Robicheaux, book 20
First published 2013
Detective Dave Robicheaux travels to Montana for a peaceful summer retreat with his family and partner. His daughter Alafair has just published articles exposing additional crimes by convicted serial killer Asa Surrette, a sadist who barely avoided execution when Kansas abolished capital punishment. Surrette breaks free during a prison transport and tracks the Robicheaux family to Montana. Dave finds himself protecting not only Alafair and his wife Molly, but also his partner Clete Purcel and Clete's recently discovered daughter Gretchen Horowitz. The killer brings his twisted methods to the Montana wilderness, turning what should have been a family vacation into a deadly game of survival. Burke delivers his most malevolent antagonist yet in this twentieth Dave Robicheaux thriller, pitting the veteran detective against pure evil in an unfamiliar landscape far from his Louisiana home.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, family-secrets, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Kansas, Louisiana, Montana
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
548 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: violence