Detective Dave Robicheaux first met Desmond Cormier on the backstreets of New Orleans. He was a young pretender who dreamt of stardom whilst Robicheaux had his path all figured out.

Now, twenty-five years later, their roles have reversed. When Robicheaux knocks on Cormier's door, he sees a successful Hollywood director.

It seems dreams can come true. But so can nightmares.

A young woman has been crucified, wearing only a small chain on her ankle, and all the evidence points to Cormier. Robicheaux wants to believe his old friend wouldn't be capable of such a crime - but Cormier's silence is deafening.

And he isn't the only ghost from Robicheaux's past which comes back to haunt him...

"A gripping thriller from a master of the form" - I paper

"One of crime fiction's great creations. He's like no other cop. Haunted by the Vietnam War, prone to violence, heavy drinking and fits of depression, he emerges as a flawed man of honour, an enemy of injustice and of racial hatred. And Burke is like no other crime writer, his prose is lyrical, swirling and nostalgic." - THE TIMES

"After 22 books, Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels have established their own unforgettable world ... Utterly unique" - MAIL ON SUNDAY

"James Lee Burke is a wonderful writer with a particular talent for describing the light and landscape of Louisiana" - LITERARY REVIEW

"Once again James Lee Burke has created a phantasmagoric fable set amid the rank luxuriance of the Louisiana bayous ... The fact that this gruesome, stunningly beautiful novel ends on a note of hope is testament to Burke's narrative genius" - EVENING STANDARD

"The New Iberia Blues should be greeted with a fanfare of trumpets: it is a masterpiece" - THE SPECTATOR

"The prose is, as always, dreamily fabulous as Robicheaux, one of American crime fiction's great knight errants, embarks on one last tilt against evil's windmills." - IRISH TIMES

"The prose is, as always, dreamily fabulous as Robicheaux, one of American crime fiction's great knight errants, embarks on one last tilt against evil's windmills." - The Irish Times