Burke's peerage

The wonderfully-titled Last Car To Elysian Fields (Orion, £12.99) sees the welcome return of Vietnam veteran and reformed alcoholic Dave Robicheaux, of the New Iberia sheriff's department in Deep South Louisiana.

But it's a very different Robicheaux to the one we have grown to admire and trust from novels such as Purple Cane Road, In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead and Jolie Blon's Bounce.

His beloved wife, Bootsie, has died, his home has been burned to the ground, his adopted daughter, Alafair, has moved to a college out of state and he's sold his fishing business.

He's living on his own in a rented home, and seriously thinking of hitting the bottle again. Luckily, there are plenty of wrongdoings in and about New Iberia to keep his demons at bay, at least for a while.

He learns that his old friend Father Jimmie Dolan, a Catholic priest, has been the victim of a brutal assault.

Assisted by his great pal, the private investigator Clete Purcel (who should really get his own series), Detective Robicheaux heads to his old stalking ground of New Orleans to confront the man he believes to be responsible for Dolan's beating.

Meanwhile, in New Iberia, three local teenage girls are killed in a drink-driving accident.

Robicheaux traces the source of the alcohol to one of New Iberia's daiquiri windows, drive-by shops selling alcohol.

The owner of the drive-by operation is murdered, and Robicheaux suspects the grief-crazed father of the dead driver. Or he does until the murder weapon turns up belonging to someone else.

While all this is going on, Robicheaux is also investigating a toxic landfill site, which in turn leads to a search for a legendary blues musician who disappeared from prison many years previously.

Tying together all these threads is an assassin, a former IRA man called Max Coll, who has been sent to kill Father Dolan, and a wealthy plantation owner, the father of Robicheaux's old flame, Theodosia LeJeune.

As is the norm with Burke's novels, all hell breaks loose when past and present collide.

Elysian Cars is a hard-hitting, moody and atmospheric thriller full of unforgettable characters with unforgettable names.

If you've never read Lee Burke, then it's about time you did. You won't be disappointed.

Another literary icon making a return is Alex Cross, the Washington detective turned FBI agent and hero of novels such as Cat And Mouse and Kiss The Girls.

In Big Bad Wolf (Headline, £17.99), James Patterson's most famous creation is on the trail of a master criminal, a Russian known simply as The Wolf.

Cross, in his first case with the Bureau, discovers that all over the United States men and women are being kidnapped in broad daylight and then being bought and sold on the Internet.

Despite now being part of a team, Cross is forced to go it alone in order to catch the Wolf and try to rescue some of the slave trade victims while they are still alive.

Meanwhile, Cross's ex-fiance, Christine Johnson, who herself was kidnapped and held hostage in a previous Patterson book, comes back into Alex's life. She wants custody of their little boy, Alex Jnr - something Alex Snr just can't allow to happen.

Although enjoyable in parts, Big Bad Wolf fails to delivers. As a great fan of Patterson and his Alex Cross novels in particular, I felt short changed.

Perhaps writing the obligatory three books a year is beginning to take its toll on Patterson's creativity.

Maybe he should take a few tips from British horror writer James Herbert, whose latest novel, Nobody True (Macmillan, £17.99), has one of the most unusual plotlines of the year.

It centres on successful advertising man Jimmy True who enjoys out-of-body experiences. But while off on one of his regular astral adventures, he is brutally murdered.

When he returns to his body, he discovers that his body is no more, but his soul lives on.

After coming to terms with his death, True realises that his unique position (no one can see him and no one can hear him) enables him to discover uncomfortable truths about almost everyone he knows, including his wife, business partner and a serial killer whose victim he appears to be.

Our hero then embarks on a quest to find his killer, a task easier said than done.

Nobody True is one of those books with a little bit of everything - suspense, drama, romance all wrapped up in a blanket of black humour.

Another cracking novel, one which will, no doubt, appear in many stockings this Christmas, is Heretic (Harper Collins, £17.99) by Bernard Cornwell, who is perhaps better known for Napoleonic Wars series featuring Richard Sharpe.

The third, and probably the last, in Cornwell's Grail Quest series sees Thomas of Hookton, a deadly archer employed by the Earl of Northampton, go in search of the most sacred relic in Christendom, the Holy Grail.

Following the capture of Calais in France in 1347, and the war with France suspended by a truce, Thomas, and a small army, travels to Gascony, home of his ancestors and evil cousin, Guy Vexille. Thomas believes the Grail is almost certainly to be found in the province, and he's not the only one.

Soon he and his small army find themselves fighting for their lives against a variety of French aristocrats, churchmen, bandits - and the plague.

To top it all, Thomas falls in love with a heretic, who he rescues from being burned at the stake.

It's real boy's own adventure stuff - bloody, brutal, and brilliant. If you can't wait till Christmas, buy it now.

Updated: 08:52 Wednesday, November 19, 2003