Why do I have a picture of a guy wearing a Stetson in a science fiction column? Well, my friends, this guy (Figure 1) is James Lee Burke who, I believe, lives in Missoula MT, and generally writes mysteries (although that’s not all he writes) about a Louisiana detective named Dave “Streak” Robicheaux. This is the sixth book of 25 he’s written (including one which will be published in February) in this series—and at least one is or could be genre. Two of these books have been made into movie—this one and Heaven’s Prisoners, from the book of the same name, starring Alec Baldwin as Dave. This column is mostly about this movie (Figure 2), from the book In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead, starring Tommy Lee Jones as Dave (by the way, in case you don’t know, his name is pronounced ROW-bi-show.)
One of the things that first attracted me to Burke’s writing was the lyrical way he describes Louisiana: the bayous, the old oak trees heavy with Spanish moss; the people, good and bad, white and Black, who inhabit both cities, like New Orleans, and the backwoods areas. There is a fair amount of violence, both personal and transaction-related (i.e., drug, prostitution,etc.) in these books, but it doesn’t bother me—except for my having some sympathy for the deaths or injuries of fictional characters. As a pre-teen, I lived in Florida, and have felt the oppressive heat and humidity, met people who maintain the antebellum attitudes that still prevail in parts of the Deep South; and as a former police dispatcher and auxiliary officer, I’ve seen some of the kinds of things people do to each other.
Besides, a lot of SF/F readers also read mysteries; I’m one of them. As you’ve probably guessed, I really like movies in many genres, so some time after I’d read the book, this movie came out, with Tommy Lee Jones (Figure 4) as Dave Robicheaux. And in my opinion, as an actor, Tommy Lee can do no wrong. I’ve never seen him make a misstep as an actor, so even though I think he’s a bit too old for this character, he makes Dave human and believable. As a forner New Orleans homicide detective, Dave works for the sheriff of Iberia Parish ( “Parish” is Louisiana’s version of county, if you didn’t know). Dave has a wife, Bootsie, played by Mary Steenburgen, and an adopted daughter, Alafair (named after his real-life daughter, who is also a mystery writer). Dave is a recovering alcoholic, and owns a bait shop (his place borders on the Atchafalaya (pronounced “At-CHA-fa-lye-ah”) Swamp, and he has a Black friend and handyman named Batist. He also has a friend, also an alcoholic, named Lou Girard (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who works for the Sheriff in a neighbouring Parish.
A young woman named Cherry Leblanc is found murdered and mutilated, and Dave sets out to try to find her killer. At the same time, a movie company, partially funded by local rich guy Julie “Baby Feet” Balboni (John Goodman), who is the kind of bad guy the locals can’t get enough on to prosecute, is filming in and around the Atchafalaya Swamp, where Cherry’s body was found. Dave arrests the film’s star, Elwood Sykes (Peter Sarsgaard) for drunk driving, and Sykes tells him he’ll tell him where abody is in the Atchafalaya in exchange for being let go. He also tells Dave that he’s seen and talked to Confederate soldiers in the fog, or mist, and that their general, General John Bell Hood (Levon Helm, Figure 5), who walks with a crutch, told him (Sykes) that Dave has the pistol that belonged to the general’s adjutant. Both things are found to be true.
It is found that someone in Iberia Parish is abducting, mutilating, and killing young women, and during the investigation of these killings, Dave comes up against local sugar magnate Twinky Lemoyne (Ned Beatty). He also gets information from local bluesman Sam “Hogman” Patin (Buddy Guy), who tells him some of what he needs to know—but Hogman doesn’t want to run afoul of the local white power structure, so there are things he can’t tell. He also runs into an ex-Iberia Parish deputy sheriff, Murphy Doucet (Bernard Hocke), who now runs a security service, in partnership with Twinky Lemoyne, whose current client is the movie company. At a party for cast and locals given by Baby Feet Balboni, someone puts LSD in Dave’s Dr. Pepper, and he meets General John Bell Hood, who knows Dave was a Lieutenant in the Army, and tells him that venal and evil people are destroying the world he was born in. General Hood gives Dave some vague clues and tells him the he should look inside because he already has some answers.
I’m not going to tell the whole movie, because if what I’ve written already doesn’t attract you, you won’t care—and if it does sound good to you, I don’t want to remove your incentive to look for it. I know it’s available on Amazon, because that’s where I got our copy. It’s on both DVD and Blu-Ray. It’s an excellent period piece (well, it is now; it was pretty current for 2009), with a stellar cast and a terrific translation from book to screen. The movie never clarifies whether Dave actually meets Confederate soldiers, or whether it’s LSD or tiredness. But even the minor characters are well acted, and it’s one of my all-time favourites. (It’s even filmed in New Iberia Parish, which is great for book fans, as they can now see some of what Burke describes for real.) It might even prompt you to pick up the book and become a Burke/Robicheaux fan!
By the way, Buddy Guy is a famous blues guitarist and singer, and there’s some good blues and lots of Cajun music in this movie. Buddy sings and plays with a band called The Zydeco Cha-Chas, (Buddy is still acting, and has a part in the multi-Oscar nominated film of 2025, Sinners. And he plays a bit in that one, too.)
NOTE: This column is in no way written, edited, proofed or composed by AI, though some of my photo editing software uses it in some capacity. This is a human column and will remain so.
If you liked this column. I’m on Facebook, or you could email me (stevefah at hotmail dot com), so let me know—if you hated it, please let me know too! My opinion is, as always, my own, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Amazing Stories or its owner, editor, publisher or other columnists. See you next time!
Steve has been an active fan since the 1970s, when he founded the Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association and the more-or-less late MosCon in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, though he started reading SF/F in the early-to-mid 1950s, when he was just a sprat. He moved to Canada in 1985 and quickly became involved with Canadian cons, including ConText (’89 and ’81) and VCON. He’s published a couple of books and a number of short stories, and has collaborated with his two-time Aurora-winning wife Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk on a number of art projects. As of this writing he’s the proofreader for R. Graeme Cameron’s Polar Borealis and Polar Starlight publications. He’s been writing for Amazing Stories off and on since the early 1980s. His column can be found on Amazing Stories most Fridays.
