Mysteries

In a year filled with many outstanding volumes of mystery fiction (as, happily, most years are), it is absurd to pick one as the "best." Books are so different from each other that choosing just one is an exercise in futility. But it is possible to pick a favorite, recognizing that it is a purely subjective reaction to a book that resonates long after it was read.

James Lee Burke's "The Tin Roof Blowdown" (Simon & Schuster, 373 pages, $26) is the perfect book for that perfect storm known as Hurricane Katrina. A resident of the New Orleans area for much of his life, Mr. Burke knows the region and its people as no other crime writer does, and has enormous affection for it and them, as he makes exquisitely clear.

A shocking and vivid landscape of a double tragedy fills the pages of this superb novel. First, there is the unimaginable destruction of a force 5 hurricane, followed by the floods of ruptured levees, exacerbated by the dysfunction of the local, state, and federal governments. The situation quickly descends to barbarism as gangs of local thugs prey on their own helpless neighbors, looting, raping, and murdering them almost on whim, then attempting to do the same to those who come to their rescue.

A vigilante with a high-powered rifle refuses to take it anymore, opening the door for Dave Robicheaux, a sheriff in nearby New Iberia, to be called in to investigate. Hunting the shooter is only one of the problems faced by Mr. Burke's thoughtful and decent hero, who must also try to cope with a pair of serial rapists, a drug-addicted priest who lives with a prostitute, the Mafia, and a sociopath who threatens his own daughter.

Robicheaux is not exactly a fresh discovery, this being the 16th volume in a series that dates back 20 years. I have often been reluctant to read a book in the middle of a series if read the earliest titles, but you may feel comfortable picking up this one, the best of an exceptional contribution to mystery literature — a series of novels as devoted to a portrayal of the American condition as it is to providing memorably entertaining stories.

"The Tin Roof Blowdown" is the mystery of the year — unless you wonder why the president of Columbia thought it was a good idea to invite Iran's fascist thug for a chat.