Standing up to evil …

… Bayou Noir | Richard T. Whittington | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Robicheaux derives a hopeful message: Evil is not inevitable. Evil is enabled by indifference, corruption, or fear. Evil endures because too many people wage war with their God-printed natures. Robicheaux himself exemplifies this inner conflict. His struggle with alcohol perennially threatens to wreck his life and hurt his family and friends. Pure evil marks an extreme, but psychopaths are not the only people in Burke's fiction who tend toward violence and self-destruction