Clete

Clete Purcel — private investigator, forner cop, and war veteran with a hard shell covering just a few soft spots — is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete finds his beloved Caddy ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade, it feels personal — his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

Just as Clete traces the connections in this far-reaching criminal enterprise, Clara Bow, a woman with a dark past, hires Clete to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who lurk around every corner. Clete experiences shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questions Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed Clete’s car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could’ve imagined.

Gripping and violent, yet interlaced with Clete’s humor and fierce drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to an iconic series. James Lee Burke proves yet again that he is the “heavyweight champ” and “great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed” (Michael Connelly).