James Lee Burke Novels & Stories

Fix. Restart. “You’re staring.” I didn’t look away from Lyra, but I was aware of the voice beside me. Ronan—no. Rowan? No I am Rowan. So speaker is another character. Use Tomas? No he's there. Use another warrior: Jarek maybe. Let's fix. Continue. “You’re staring.” I shifted my attention slightly to the side, where Jarek stood with his arms crossed, watching me with mild interest. “I’m observing,” I said.

The site had once served as a military water reserve, storing liquid silver bombs during the civil war, but it had long been abandoned. The seal had cracked open, revealing a woman's body. Rotting flesh was tangled in foul sludge, and the stench of decay was overwhelming. The police flooded the scene. Behind them came Dad, the werewolves' top officer, and my brother, the medical examiner. They assumed this was just another rogue attack. It never crossed their minds that the body might belong to their own daughter or sister. Floating above my lifeless body, I watched as my brother, Jacob Rosen, crouched down. He deftly shifted my shattered finger bones, pried open my jaw, and examined the str

No wonder he reeked. “Father . . . Father Pow . . . I mean Kit,” he said panting, as much from panic as from the run. “There are things out there . . . in the cemetery. They’re under the ground, they come from the graves, the ones Sloman was worried about. They’re killing people, Sloman and Cundle and . . . and . . . It’s horrible, they’ve been chasing me.” “I know all about them, lad.” Jim was incredulous. “You do?”

“As for Lord Burke Lutgen, he should be close to 200 years old, and he’s very powerful. He just broke through from partial Universe Realm to Universe Realm not long ago, so now, he is a beginner Cosmos Ranker. His father, Ramos Lutgen, is an important figure in the Milky Way Empire’s military. “But I don't actually like Burke. This is mainly because he has a cruel temperament. He has developed many kinds of torture methods by himself and finds joy in torturing humans and animals. He loves finding joy in other people’s pain. Moreover, he is also someone who will seek revenge for the smallest grievance, and he values his prestige a lot.” “If you don’t like this, why are you going to help him c

The fact that she always removed her jewelry the moment she returned to her room. The fact that she preferred sitting by windows. The fact that she missed New York more than she admitted. Every small observation accumulated until they became impossible to ignore. One evening she casually mentioned a bookstore she loved near Washington Square. Three weeks later, a first-edition copy of one of her favorite novels appeared on her desk. Another time she complained that nobody in the palace understood sarcasm. The following day Rudra delivered an entire list of relatives who definitely deserved sarcastic commentary. The list contained detailed explanations.

The wind howled and the breeze that followed rattled the stool, the noise jerked the drunken old man back into consciousness. Old Adam opened his sleepy eyes a little. He wiped the saliva from the bottom of his lips where he sat hunched over in his lounge chair. Everywhere in the cemetery was pitch black. How come the night came so suddenly? The old man thought in his mind. It was barely hours ago when the sky was painted in hues of different colors...

Unfortunately, I was right, Zack is not having any of it. I need to do something and fast, so, I calmly walk over to the nightstand next to the bed and pull out the bottom drawer. Reaching in, I grab my laptop, gently opening the screen and immediately see the words, "The Celestial Order" pop up. I purposely kept the browser on the doomsday cult website-the same religious cult where Emily and her husband were members, just in case. Now, if we can only get Zack to read it, maybe he'll finally listen.

His voice wavered slightly, betraying the doubt that gnawed at him. Burke scoffed, his lips curling into a sneer. "You're getting soft, Xavier. Soft." He took a long drag from his cigarette, the smoke curling around his face like a ghostly shroud. "You wanna let this bastard go? Huh? You wanna risk letting a murderer walk free?

The scratchy voice continues. My head whips towards the speaker and he grins at me. His dirt-white beard twitches and that's a good hint at who I'm meeting. I try to stand but my body doesn't obey. He orders a bottle of their cheapest bourbon and extends a hand to me, “Detective Burkely James, you can call me Burke.”