Haiku

August 31, 2009
Vachss, author of the long-running Burke series that concluded with 2008’s Another Life
, introduces an engaging if damaged new hero in this soulful thriller. Ho, an elderly martial arts teacher who once was the master of a successful dojo, renounces all worldly goods after one of his students dies because of something he said. He takes to the mean streets of an unnamed American city to atone, joining a ragtag group of homeless men: Michael, once a high-flying stockbroker; Ranger, a Vietnam war vet; Lamont, an ex-gang leader and poet; Brewster, a psychotic; and Target, who speaks only in repetitive verbal explosions. A mystery involving a white Rolls Royce emerges early on, but as the book progresses, this plot is abandoned for another concerning Brewster’s book collection. Despite compelling prose, the author’s failure to follow through on the Rolls Royce business leads to a disappointing conclusion.

September 1, 2009
Vachss takes a break from Burke (Another Life, 2008, etc.) to spin an unlikely tale of redemption through renunciation.

Abandoned by his prostitute mother to a better life in a monastery, Ho joined the Sun Emperor's Army at 13. After Japan's defeat, his growing fame as a sensei led him to America, where his arrogance caused a favorite martial-arts student's death. Now he wanders the streets with a ragged band of outcasts,"fishing" for handouts during the day and sleeping in coffin-sized dugouts carved into the base of the Hudson River's Pier Nine. Ranger, a shell-shocked veteran who naturally thinks Ho is Vietnamese, gives him his street name, short for Ho Chi Minh. Michael, a compulsive gambler, lives in hope of finding the"mortal lock," a sure thing that will restore his fortune. Lamont, an ex-con poet whose brief fame ended with a crash, knows there's no sure thing, only a fickle public's whims. What Target knows is anyone's guess. Speaking only in rhymes ("Bunny! Sunny! Honey! Funny!"), he desperately seeks company, though he refuses to be left alone with any one other person. Brewster, the most domesticated of the tribe, provides their mission: to move and preserve the vast collection of vintage detective fiction he's stashed in a derelict building slated for demolition. If he can't save Brewster's lifeline to sanity, Ho knows his own life, and his internal haiku, will lack a respectful ending.

Covers much of the same felonious ground as Burke's adventures, but with less violence and more compassion.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2009
In his first post-Burke book, Vachss ("Another Life") pens the story of a ragtag band of homeless men living on the streets of a cold, unnamed city. Ho is an elderly sensei who walked away from a successful life as a martial arts instructor after the death of one of his students, and the band includes damaged veteran Ranger, degenerate gambler Michael, ex-con and ex-gang leader Lamont, the mentally ill Target, and Brewster. Ho leads them around the city, scrounging for money, food, and shelter. One night a woman in a Rolls Royce dumps something in the river, and they decide to try to identify what it is and blackmail her. But that plot is soon forgotten in favor of a story line about the demolition of the abandoned building that houses Brewster's pulp fiction collection. VERDICT Lots of description and character development slow the pace of this bleak look at living on the street, and the story just meanders along without ever really getting anywhere. Fans of the grittier Burke series may miss the rapid pace and violence they've come to expect. An optional purchase. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 7/09.]Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2009
Ho is the nominal octogenarian leader of a quintet of New York City street people. He was a martial-arts instructor who came to believe his own seemingly profoundbut ultimately vapidpronouncements. One such declaration led to the death of a student. The group decides to help a peripheral member save his obsessively collected library of crime fiction, stored in an abandoned building scheduled for demolition. The main plot thread of Vachss latest crime novel is this street caper by a ragtag gaggle of miscreants, but the heart of the story is the struggle of each character to understand what led him to live on the street. They seek not to get back to the straight life necessarily but to rekindle the internal peace that can make any life worth living. Vachss, author of 18 novels in the Burke series, has devoted his career to empathetic portrayals of the lives of societys least advantaged and of the vicious predators who exploit them. But sometimes the demons exist within, and its up to us to exorcise them. An intriguing variation on the authors familiar themes, more character study than crime novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)