The winter was not really winter at all, and therein may lie Key West's greatest charm. If one does not have to brood upon the coming of winter and the shortening of the days and the fading of the light, then perhaps one does not have to brood upon the coming of death. When the season is gentle and untreatening and seems to renew itself daily, we come to believe that spring and the long days of summer may be eternal after all. When we see the light trapped high in the sky on a summer evening, is it possible we are looking through an aperture at our future rather than at a seasonal phenomenon? Is it possible that the big party is just beginning?

He has won an Edgar Award for Black Cherry Blues (1990) and Cimarron Rose (1998). The MWA awarded its Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel of the year in 1990 for Black Cherry Blues. Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco on November 2 2002 at a ceremony held at the inaugural Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge LA.

The Robicheaux character has been portrayed twice on screen first by Alec Baldwin (Heaven's Prisoners) and then Tommy Lee Jones (In the Electric Mist). He has won an Edgar Award for Black Cherry Blues (1990) and Cimarron Rose (1998). Burke has also written seven miscellaneous crime novels two short story anthologies four books starring protagonist Texas attorney Billy Bob Holland and three books starring Billy Bob's cousin Texas James Lee Burkeriff Hackberry Holland.