The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke

 

This is a grimly violent crime novel, as one might--probably should--expect from Burke, at least when he's writing a crime novel. There's some real dark noir stuff going on, just about everyone except the mains and a small circle around them is some shade of corrupt, and there's outright evil that makes that seem like sunshine and light. And the mains are deep and complex themselves and not entirely the sorts of police officers most people would want protecting them from criminals. It's interesting seeing a writer as good as Burke nail certain trends in literary culture to the wall, I find myself wondering now much of that in the novel is Burke himself and how much is his narrator. Wonderful turns of phrase, paragraphs that make you want to read them aloud. A story that boils as dark as a tropical storm.