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James Lee Burke

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James Lee Burke is an American author best known for his mysteries, particularly the Dave Robicheaux series. He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for
Black Cherry Blues
in 1990 and
Cimarron Rose
in 1998.

Burke was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Missouri, receiving a BA and MA from the latter. He has worked at a wide variety of jobs over the years, including working in the oil industry, as a reporter, and as a social worker. He was Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, succeeding his good friend and posthumous Pulitzer Prize winner John Kennedy Toole, and preceding Ernest Gaines in the position. Shortly before his move to Montana, he taught for several years in the Creative Writing program at Wichita State University in the 1980s.

Burke and his wife, Pearl, split their time between Lolo, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. Their daughter, Alafair Burke, is also a mystery novelist.

The book that has influenced his life the most is the 1929 family tragedy "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner.

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James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke

Books from James Lee Burke

The Neon Rain

Black Cherry Blues

The Glass Rainbow

In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead

Heaven's Prisoners

Swan Peak

A Stained White Radiance

Purple Cane Road

Pegasus Descending

Dixie City Jam (Dave Robicheaux, #7)

Sunset Limited

The New Iberia Blues

Robicheaux

The Lost Get-Back Boogie

Another Kind of Eden

Creole Belle

New Hope for the Dead

Every Cloak Rolled in Blood (A Holland Family Novel)

To The Bright And Shining Sun

The Tin Roof Blowdown