"It's impossible to think of the Louisiana bayou without conjuring up James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux books" (Chicago Tribune), including this early masterwork that pits the Cajun police detective against one of the New South's most twisted and powerful forces. Oil speculator Weldon Sonnier is the patriarch of a troubled family intimately bound to the CIA, the Mob, and the Klan. Now, the murder of a cop and a bizarre assassination attempt pull Robicheaux into the Sonniers' hellish world of madness, murder, and incest. But Robicheaux has devils of his own-- and they may just destroy the tormented investigator and the two people he holds most dear.