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.
Series
Books
Cadillac Jukebox
1996
Wayfaring Stranger
2014
Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie
2025
The Best American Noir of the Century
2010
Cimarron Rose
1997
Robicheaux
2018
Dixie City Jam
1994
A Dust Bowl Tale of Bonnie and Clyde
A Short Story
2014
Jolie Blon's Bounce
2002
In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead
1993
Burning Angel
1995
Another Kind of Eden
2021
The Neon Rain
1987
Harbor Lights
2024
The Best American Mystery Stories 2008
2008
A Stained White Radiance
1992
Texas City, 1947
1992
The Glass Rainbow
2010
A Morning for Flamingos
1990
Lay Down My Sword And Shield
1971
Heartwood
1999
Bitterroot
2001
Crusader's Cross
2005
In the Moon of Red Ponies
2004
James Lee Burke Collection Uk
1994
Swan Peak
2008
Pegasus Descending
2006
Flags on the Bayou
2023
Purple Cane Road
2000
Last Car to Elysian Fields
2003
Black Cherry Blues
1989
The Tin Roof Blowdown
2007
Clete
2024
Heaven's Prisoners
1988
House of the Rising Sun
2015
Light of the World
2013
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
1986
The New Iberia Blues
2019
The Jealous Kind
2016
To The Bright And Shining Sun
1970
A Private Cathedral
2020
Sunset Limited
1998
Two for Texas
1982
Feast Day of Fools
2011
White Doves at Morning
2002
Every Cloak Rolled in Blood
2022
Half of Paradise
1965
Rain Gods
2009
Jesus Out to Sea
2007
Creole Belle
2012
The Convict and Other Stories
1985
