What are the motifs in Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke?

Parents and children is a recurring idea. Dave is a very introspective character and spends much of his personal time remembering his father. Mr. Robicheaux was an uneducated, Cajun man who liked whiskey, women, and fun. He also was a hard-worker and felt responsible for his son. Dave was raised in the bayou by his single father. Their relationship was exceptionally close and they spent most free time fishing, hunting—especially for waterfowl, and camping. Dave's worldview is largely informed by his father's simple and small conception of the world, where right is simply right and wrong is wrong. Dave has little gray zone of morality and finds the ineffectiveness and strictures of legal due process ridiculous; this is inherited from his father who was a hard-charging man of little remorse. Dave's father died in an oil platform accident when Dave was an adult, but Dave has keenly felt the loss ever since. This theme of the novel is persistent and stands fairly apart from other elements in the narrative. It explains, however, who Dave is and where he comes from.