The Louisiana geography is described masterfully, yet the stories are all really set inside Robicheaux’s ravaged and conflicted soul that seeks redemption with a savage hunger. The question that the novels repeatedly confront the reader with is whether there is any chance that there is a higher purpose to existence, whether there is any state a moral person can reach other than absolute despair. And at the end of each novel, Burke answers that question, with a half-empty yet hopeful yes.

The books are very well-plotted too.

But this is not crime fiction. It’s literature on an epic scale, where darkness keeps gaining ground over light, the good are the most confused, there are no really happy endings, yet hope is justified, and salvation possible. I would love to see this man read by more people.

(Sandipan Deb, former editor of The Financial Express, heads the planned magazine venture of the RPG Group)