America’s best novelist” (The Denver Post) and “the reigning champ of nostalgia noir” (The New York Times Book Review) introduces his most evil character yet in the twentieth thriller in the outstanding Dave Robicheaux series. Famously lauded by his peers – Connelly, Crais, Hall, – this edition contains a personal and deeply felt appreciation by George Pelecanos. He touches on why this writer is held in such affection, it also combs the career of Jim Burke to remind us that he was one of the first of a group of writers that re-modelled the crime thriller from the dusty and stagnant cul-de-sac of the 80s thriller. It is a stand out appreciation and a stand out association.

George Pelecanos

James Lee Burke has become the foremost American crime writer of his time. Although an entertainer Burke’s Robicheaux series (now extending to twenty odd dense novels) marks out an outstanding achievement in creating a much followed flawed character with real depth and in extending the crime genre into areas of wider social concern. Recent novels, The Tin Roof Blowdown, Swan Peak, Rain Gods, Glass Rainbow, Feast Day of Fools and Creole Belle received ecstatic notices and with Light of the World it would appear to once more to hit the bulls eye.  This Scorpion Press edition contains an appreciation by the highly regarded crime realist novelist from Washington George Pelecanos.  It was issued as an edition of  65 numbered and signed copies.

“The best tribute I have had”, James Lee Burke said of the George Pelecanos appreciation (only to be found in this edition). A New York Times bestselling author many times over, is a two-time Edgar Award winner whose every book is a cause for eager anticipation, especially the popular Dave Robicheaux series. Associated Press review: “Burke’s boldest and most complex novel to date, at once a superb crime story and a literary masterpiece.