Interesting …

… Reckoning with Addiction in Crime Fiction | CrimeReads. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux did not need five books before he got sober. When the series opens, with 1987’s The Neon Rain, Dave is already in recovery. His best friend, partner, and archetypal trickster, Clete Purcel, is decidedly not. He’s an unapologetic alcoholic, and a violent one. In chapter one of The Neon Rain, he asks:
‘Dave, when does a guy know he’s got a drinking problem?’‘When it starts to hurt him,’ replies Dave.
There might be more wisdom summarized in those six words than in any self-lacerating / self-congratulatory memoir.