Tames Lee Burke's first detective novel I featuring Dave Robicheaux, The Neon Rain, begins with an interview between Robicheaux and a death row inmate. Robicheaux returns to the question of capital punishment in Purple Cane Road, the eleventh novel in the series, and his comments on the evils of placing social expedience over respect for individual people remain strong. Purple Cane Road opens with a description of Vachel Carmouche, an executioner referred to in official government documents as "the electrician." Thus, in the opening lines of the novel Burke also introduces another of his main themes: the ability of both society and individuals to blind themselves to the reality of a cruel, sometimes random world, mitigated only by the warmth of friendship and family.

Burke makes his attitude towards capital punishment clear in the novel by carefully choosing its supporters and detractors.

Carmouche, clearly a villain...