This is worth consuming either if you have never read one of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels, or if you are such a die-hard fan that you want to read them all. It entertained me as I read it, but I could have just as easily skipped it.

Burke is one of the best, but I think his more recent books just rehash the plots of some of the other ones. Crusader’s Cross felt like I had read it all before: Dave Robicheaux acts holier than thou, Clete Purcell beats someone up, a shoot out in a hunting cabin on stilts, colorful mob characters, a drunk/insane lady hits on Dave, a serial killer, Dave’s wife is kidnapped, the three-legged dog . . . .

It’s like all the components are on the computer and a program rearranges them, picks new names, and prints it out. Maybe Roald Dahl was right—these books are all written by The Great Automatic Grammatizator!