Mask Market

June 5, 2006
Hard-boiled crime fans will enjoy the latest entry in Vachss's long-running Burke series (Down Here
, etc.). The renegade New York City PI, who operates by an idiosyncratic private moral code, has been lying low since being shot in the face. But a longtime fixer, Charlie, soon sees past Burke's attempt to pose as his own brother and arranges a meeting with a prospective client, who wants to find a missing woman. What should have been a routine setup turns deadly when professional hit men gun down the client as he's attempting to retrieve Burke's retainer from his car. Burke, afraid that the gunmen may come after him and the data-filled CD the dead man gave him, uses his own network of allies and contacts to learn more about the missing woman, Beryl Preston, whom he happens to have saved from a pimp 20 years earlier. Despite a familiar plot, the sharp-edged prose and cutting insights into New York's underbelly elevate this above many similar crime novels.

July 1, 2006
Burke, the shadowy protector of victimized women and children, prowls New York's back alleys and off-the-book joints rebuilding the stake he lost when he was left for dead after avenging the loss of his one true love. Tonight, in a meet set up by a shadowy third party, he deals with a man who needs Burke to find his wife. But when he leaves Burke, he's capped in the street, prompting Burke to search out the killer. Just as Burke survives through an elaborate under-the-radar network, so does his prey. Everyone wears a mask in Burke's world, and it's only by exposing the realities hiding beneath the facades that he can find the killers and understand the limitations he's placed on his own life. Readers of the first few Burke novels--very dark noir tales of abuse, revenge, and retribution--will be surprised at the character's development. The best series characters are welcomed like old friends with each new appearance. Burke is nobody's ol' buddy, but he is a trusted guide to a world we sadly know exists but would be afraid to enter alone.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)