The little sticker on the cover of my library's copy of this audiobook says "mystery." Fair enough, there are only so many sticker categories. But Vachss rarely writes "mysteries" per se, and this is especially true given the radical shift of milieu and locale, away from dark urban evil and into ...
Unfortunately, the quality of The Weight by Vachss is just slightly lower than his previous (which was slightly lower than it's previous). Mister Vachss is on the down slide.Having read every book of his beginning in the late 1980's, I believe he (like many artists) lost his drive and anger and ...
I re-read Flood a few months back. Read some other stuff and then started on a Vachss/Burke fest. I have whipped through the next 5 books in this series in a few weeks. A real trip down memory lane for me. I first read Sacrifice int he early nineties. My abiding memory is of reading it whilst on ...
It has been a while since I have read a book in one day. This one I just couldn’t put down. Vachss created something like a textbook about child abuse and promoted Child Trauma Programs at the end of the book. I would say there is a blockbuster conclusion here. This is book #9 in the eighteen boo...
It often pays to follow your instincts. I was in a bookstore one day -- the day itself was nothing special -- when I spotted this book on a rack. I wasn't into any particular genre (I'm still not), and I'll never be able to tell you what one thing drew me to picking up BLUE BELLE. My instincts...
The eighth book of the Burke series Footsteps of the Hawk was published in 1995. I have had mixed reactions to the first seven books of the series with as many three stars as four. For me to continue reading a series I would like to have at least four stars as the norm.Vachss has an aggressive st...
"The first time I killed someone I was scared. Not scared to be doing it. I did it because I was scared. Shella told me it was like that for her the first time she had sex. I Was fifteen that first time. Shella was nine."Yeah that's the opening paragraph to this incredible piece of remorseless no...
I liked Vachss' "Two Trains Running," so I decided to give this other Burke novel a whirl. Unfortunately, the whirl turned into vertigo...That metaphor is typical of the narrator's speech. About halfway through this stale New York noir piece, I looked up the author online. Vachss, an attorney wh...
The book was okay. The chapters in this one were very short which for reasons unknown to me, I tend to be able to get through books like that quicker. What I really didn't like about the book was the fact that it was written in short choppy sentences. It could have used a lot more detail. I had a...
That's the way it is down here. If you can't be counted on, you can't be counted in.Former prosecutor Eva Wolfe is the ONLY woman who seems capable of resisting Burke's rather dubious charms. So, of course, SHE is the not-so-secret love of his life. It just seems to work out that way.Now, Burke's...
Burke is finally back in the city where he belongs, reunited with his "family," and now living in a sweet apartment designed by the Mole. (There are not only panels that flash if someone is sneaking up the stairs, but FREE CABLE as well! This guy thinks of everything!)Running low on cash, Burke...
I read most of these books back about 15-20 years ago, but there were a couple I missed. Honestly, it's a pretty neat "world" this guy has built, and I think the characters and so forth are intriguing. Basically, there's this guy "Burke," who is a thug with a pretty much nonexistent childhood, ...
I am reading short stories for a while because I am having trouble keeping the details of long stories in my mind. Short attention span maybe. Closed head injury maybe. I have recently finished reading the Burke series by Vachss and had some problem with the level of complexity as the series conc...