August 15, 2008 - 12:00 a.m. EST

When you go on vacation, you want to see the countryside, maybe travel a little. You want to sleep in, wear sloppy clothes, do things you don’t normally do and have thoughts that don’t tax your brain, right?

Which means you never want to do anything that remotely resembles work.

Vacation: good.

Work: Don’t even think about it.

But when Dave Robicheaux of the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department gets away from it all, work — and trouble — seems to follow him there. In the new novel “Swan Peak” by James Lee Burke, there’s no rest on this vacation.

When Detective Robicheaux booked his get-away in the Idaho-Montana wilderness near Swan Peak, he meant to spend time with his best buddy, Clete, and do some fly-fishing. They had the use of a couple of cabins, Molly was going to tag along and it was going to be relaxing.

Until Clete got into a little trouble with the locals. The Wellstone family — Ridley, with his aluminum crutches; Leslie, with his half-melted face; and beautiful Jamie Sue — owned most of the area and half the people in it.

The truth was, Clete had no business being in Montana anyhow. Years ago, he had “assisted” an accident in which a major organized-crime figure had been killed. The Feds were still a little angry at Clete for that one.

But no matter. The fish were biting, the water was deep and summer stretched out for miles …

And then the bodies showed up.

The girl was young, and what her killer had done gave hardened agents nightmares. The boy was made to kneel and was shot several times in the face. A few days later, two more corpses were discovered near a rest stop.

Down in Texas, in a privatized prison, Jimmy Dale Greenwood was sweating. Gunbull Troyce Nix wanted some help at his cabin, but Nix was a cruel man and other inmates whispered about the horrible things he did. When Jimmy Dale learns that the rumors are true, he shanks Nix and runs north.

Temporarily deputized, Dave Robicheaux tries to make sense of everything. Why were those kids killed yards from where he and Molly slept? Who is the drifter that showed up at Swan Peak? And what do the Wellstones have against Clete?

I’m really glad I got to read this book. I always forget how much I truly like author James Lee Burke’s work.

“Swan Peak” is one of those novels with so much going on that your brain swirls, compelling you to keep reading. The clues are teased out so slowly and there are so many red herrings that it dawns on you who-done-what at about the time Detective Robicheaux figures it out.

But you won’t mind. You’ll be turning pages so fast that you’ll have to be extra careful not to rip them.

Pick up a copy of “Swan Peak.” Take it to the hammock. Take it to the beach. Take it to the park, to lunch or anywhere on vacation. But don’t take it to bed. You won’t get any sleep.