Dixie City Jam  - James Lee Burke James Lee Burke is an especially fluid and descriptive writer. Dixie City Jam is loaded with wonderful phrasing and exquisite descriptions. Being a mystery thriller, it is also full of action and lively characters that intrigues the reader. Burke doesn't seem to know how to write a one-dimensional character. Even the most minor ones are many layered and full of surprises. On top of this, add a close and personal knowledge of the Louisiana delta and New Orleans. The only other writer I can think of that brings this type of cultural intimacy to the literary thriller is Tony Hillerman in his Navajo mysteries.

Dixie City Jam is the seventh book in the series that feature police officer David Robicheaux. The nominal plot features a Nazi submarine sunk off of the Louisiana coast and a group of seedy people who want Robicheaux's help in recovering it. But this is a bit of a "MacGuffin", as Hitchcock would say. The true interest is in the complex relationship of persons as far afield as crooked detectives to Irish gangsters to psychotic Nazis. The novel is a melting pot of ethnic angst and corrupt dreams. I was thoroughly entranced with this novel and will no doubt devour the entire series. Four and a half stars.