Mask Market (2006)

by Andrew Vachss

Series: Burke (16)

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200	2	53,585	(3.57)	4

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▾LibraryThing recommendations

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Another Life by Andrew Vachss (PansyBurke)
PansyBurke: The 18th and final Burke novel. A fantastic conclusion to a brilliant series!

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Showing 2 of 2

A story that is not as interesting as some of the others that I have read, or a lot more commentary than crime, in this case.

Burke discovers the grown up version of a young girl that he had supposedly helped in the past, and wants to see if he can do better for her this time.

Given the usual backgrounds for this crew, this involves a different predator than was involved in the first go-round, someone closer to home.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2009/04/mask-market-andrew-vachss.html (

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bluetyson | Apr 1, 2009 |

I love Burke stories and was not disappointed with Mask Market. It's Burke himself who is so compelling as a truly admirable antihero. In this one we get more of Burke's family: Prof, Max, Michelle, the Mole, etc., all extraordinary, all freakish, all with something to teach, and all adhering to an us vs. them moral code that reads as completely natural.

Burke revisits one of his earlier "rescues" when an erstwhile teen runaway pops up in the middle of his current investigation, whereabouts unknown. As usual, Vachss uses the circumstances to express Burke's unrelenting emotional pain and his own scathing views on the American justice system and the children who fall through its cracks. (

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citygirl | Jun 20, 2008 |

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Series (with order)

Burke (16)

Canonical title

Mask Market

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2006

People/Characters

Burke

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Important events

Related movies

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Epigraph

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Disambiguation notice

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Blurbers

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0375424229, Hardcover)

They meet in a no–name diner. A shadowy man hands Burke a CD dossier of someone he wants found. Minutes later, as Burke watches from an alley, his client is gunned down by a professional hunter–killer team. Burke slips away, unsure if he’s been spotted. Later, when he examines the dossier, he discovers that the missing woman is Beryl Preston, a girl he’d rescued from a brutal pimp twenty years earlier—when she was only thirteen—and returned to her father. Now he has to find her again—not only because she might be in danger, but also because he has to prove to himself that his rescue mission hadn’t been financed by a predator who wanted his “property” returned. His search will force him to confront a new kind of human ugliness and, finally, to practice the survivalist triage that has marked—and cursed—his life since childhood. In Mask Market, Burke the outlaw investigator finds himself searching for the truth: not only about a girl named Beryl, but also about himself.

This is classic Burke: dark, dangerous, and galvanizing, from the opening scene to the explosive climax.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:50:16 -0500)

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"They meet in a no-name diner. A shadowy man hands Burke a CD dossier of someone he wants found. Minutes later, as Burke watches from an alley, his client is gunned down by a professional hunter-killer team. Burke slips away, unsure if he's been spotted. Later, when he examines the dossier, he discovers that the missing woman is Beryl Preston, a girl he'd rescued from a brutal pimp twenty years earlier - when she was only thirteen - and returned to her father. Now he has to find her again - not only because she might be in danger, but also because he has to prove to himself that his rescue mission hadn't been financed by a predator who wanted his 'property' returned. His search will force him to confront a new kind of human ugliness and, finally, to practice the survivalist triage that has marked - and cursed - his life since childhood. In Mask Market, Burke the outlaw investigator finds himself searching for the truth: not only about a girl named Beryl, but also about himself. This is classic Burke: dark, dangerous, and galvanizing, from the opening scene to the explosive climax" -- from publisher's web site.… (more)