In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead
Lynn Higgins, Israel Evans Professor in Oratory and Belles Lettres, French and Comparative Literature; Chair, Department of French and Italian
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I read this novel as background for studying the 2009 film adaptation by Bertrand Tavernier, Dans La Brume Electrique, and in the process, I discovered a wonderful American crime writer. Burke's protagonist, Dave Robicheaux, is a Cajun Vietnam War veteran and police detective in the New Orleans area. His frustration with the social ills of contemporary Louisiana takes us through the heritage of slavery and the Civil War. Burke's writing packs a wallop.  He's an artist with words and sentences and a powerful storyteller and creator of characters, with a deep understanding of American society.