Strega

In the second entry in the series, Burke continues to live and work just outside the law, scamming the crooked and bringing down the depraved. Here we learn more of Burke’s past and why his bond with the supporting characters we’ve already met is so strong. The novel is anything but streamlined but Vachss is such an excellent storyteller that it doesn’t matter. The only fault, and a minor one at that, is that I was surprised to find Burke still pining over Flood, whom he lost in the previous book. At the time I’d never gotten the sense that that loss was so overpowering. But that might just be me.

Andrew Vachss's implacable private eye has a new client, Strega. She wants Burke to find an obscene photograph--and that search will take him into the ocean that flows just beneath the city, an ocean whose currents are flesh and money, the anguish of children and the pleasure of twisted adults. It is a place that Burke can visit only at the risk of his sanity and his life. But between the power of Strega and his own sense of justice, there is no turning back. In "Strega one of our most acclaimed crime writers gives us a thriller that might have been imagined by Dante. For this is a tour of hell with no stops left out, conducted by a novelist who writes with the authority of the damned. "From the Trade Paperback edition.

Another dark story of Burke, who is hired by a former jailmate to stop a man from harassing his niece, Gina/Strega. She then contacts Burke to find a photo taken of her friend's adorable son, who was sodomized on a school trip. Burke enlists the support of his unorthodox team (Michelle, the prostitute, Max, the Mongolian mute, Mama, the Vietnamese restauranteur, and Mole, the junkyard owner, to track down the perpetrators.

A little jumpy in spots that interrupted the flow at times but otherwise a pretty good read.
Good characters, interesting story. I'll read more of these.

Very dark, very "noir." Also very dumb and "stupid."

child molester quashed by lone wolf Burke

#714 in our old book database. Rated: Good.