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Content snapshot
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Violence
A lot
A murder staged with religious iconography; criminal violence in the Louisiana bayou setting
Language
A lot
Very strong language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild sexual content; the film world's exploitation of women is a theme
Substance Use
A lot
Heavy drinking
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The specific corruption of power and celebrity; the bayou as a place that reveals what people think they can hide
What this book is about
A young woman is found crucified on a wooden cross floating in the bayou near New Iberia. The investigation reaches from the Louisiana criminal world into the film industry that has come to shoot in the area — including a character based on a famous director who carries his own darkness. James Lee Burke's twenty-second Robicheaux novel is one of his most explicitly Hollywood-critical, and the contrast between the film world's performed morality and the actual violence around it is pointed. Dave is older; the landscape is as beautiful and as haunted as always.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
very strong language
disturbing murder staging
twenty-second of the Robicheaux series
Reader Verification
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