"When I closed my eyes and swallowed, I could even taste that black cherry wine. I knew then it wasn't never gonna be any different. I was always gonna be drunk, whether I was dry or out there juicing. So in my head I wrote a song about it. I could hear all the notes, the riffs, a stand-up bass backing me up. I worked out the lyrics for it, too - You can toke, you can drop, Drink or use. It don't matter, daddy, 'Cause you never gonna lose Them mean ole jailhouse Black cherry blues." - Dixie Lee Pugh, herein, remembering a song he wrote after two days' DTs in solitary BLACK CHERRY BLUES, the first Robicheaux novel I ever read but third in the series, makes clear from the first page that the reader is entering a new episode of an ongoing story. Robicheaux mysteries are definitely *novels*, in which characters' personal problems often aren't fixed by the last page. Dave Robicheaux and his adopted daughter Alafair, for example, are still getting through the first year after Annie Robicheaux's death (HEAVEN'S PRISONERS). Robicheaux's former partner from New Orleans Homicide, Cletus Purcel, has found a way around *some* of his problems, but his police career is still lost to him, and he too has more problems than his flippant exterior would at first lead one to believe. Much of the story - as opposed to the mystery - has to do with Dave's commitment to Alcoholics Anonymous while coping with Annie's death. He *has* fallen from grace occasionally, but sticks to the principle of coping with one day at a time, refusing to let one fall be his downfall. As in some other entries of the Robicheaux series, Dave is haunted by the memories of his dead - Annie's memory has joined the ranks of his old platoon mates from Vietnam who visit his sleep. Dixie Lee is another side to the problem, a blues singer who hasn't found a healthy way to cope with his alcoholism or his prison record. Pugh is reminiscent of various real-life music stars with troubled pasts. He even has a cousin who's a player in Louisiana state politics (appearing in a later book). The mystery is really another problem to be solved: finding out what kind of trouble Dixie Lee has gotten into through his ex-cellmate, a mid-level organized crime boss whose thugs roughed up Dixie Lee after he renewed his acquaintance with Dave. Whether or not Dixie Lee needs or deserves rescuing, Dave soon faces a trumped-up murder charge in consequence that he'll have to clear up before it ever gets to court, since he can't afford a private investigator or a really good lawyer. Drive-in totals: - death threat to pet raccoon - at least four dead bodies, including fire and explosion, not counting post-traumatic flashbacks and nightmares - some sexual content - road trip to Montana