James Lee Burke is in a class of his own for his highly acclaimed, award-winning noir fiction, most notably the Dave Robicheaux series set in Louisiana. Now the very best of his recent short stories have been gathered together in one collection. Burke paints a vivid picture of 1940s and 1950s Texas and Louisiana, from heartbreaking childhood reminiscences to death on an oil drilling barge and betrayal within a rock 'n' roll band. And as you would expect of a writer who cares passionately about his fellow man as well as the environment, the more contemporary stories deal with the devastation left by a hurricane - the despair of those stranded or left widowed by the disaster. Here is the first collection for ten years of stories by a modern master. Become lost in the melancholy beauty of James Lee Burke's writing in this remarkable assortment of tales.