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Summary: This book is the truth!
Review: I LOVE Burke. And the way these books are written, I believe he would know why I do. Vachss is the realest writer alive.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and intense!
Review: I read everything in the so-called "hardboiled" genre, and none of them can lay a glove on Burke and his crew. Vachss is cold, bold, and never gets old.
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Summary: Now you can listen to the music Burke listens to
Review: If you go to Amazon.com's CD database and search for the album title "Safe House," you'll find a soundtrack to this novel, featuring fifteen tracks by such artists as Judy Henske, Muddy Waters, Son Seals, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, and Bazza. The album also includes a never-before-published short-story by Vachss. If you've ever wondered what it sounds like in Burke's grey Plymouth as he cruises down the Eastside Highway, here's your answer!
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Summary: Vachss' urban paladin Burke confronts a crazed stalker.
Review: If you take Andrew Vachss at his word, and I know no reason not to, he is an accidental author, a man whose passionate hatred of child abuse and the various adult pathologies by which it is perpetuated has led him (driven him?) to the serendipitous creation of art. Safe House, the eleventh Burke novel, continues Vachss' relentless exploration and exposure of the cyclical yet preventable evil of molestation. Each of the previous Burke novels has focused thematically on one or another manifestation of how, for lack of a better phrase, monsters are made. In Safe House, Vachss turns his attention to the stalker. Burke and his extended family-of-choice are called to help an old prison friend framed for the death of one such stalker. As a result, they are drawn into a web of extortion and mayhem surrounding a safe house for battered women run by Crystal Beth, a woman whose own will to survive in turn threatens Burke and those he loves. It is probably impossible to review a Burke novel without using the phrase "hard boiled," for Vachss without question writes the darkest, hardest suspense fiction of this generation. The staccato prose style, abrupt violence and (from a safe and comfortable middle class perspective) amoral attitude of Burke and his cohort create a palpable atmosphere of urban evil and human depravity. Yet Burke is a very moral man, at least within his own frame of reference, and there is a redemptive grace in his underground loyalties. If Vachss' agenda is ethically unambiguous (and it is), his characters are human beings, and that is the benchmark of art, whether intended or not. Safe House is perhaps not the strongest Burke novel, but it is well up to par. Of course, fans of Miss Marple and her ilk should probably give Vachss a pass altogether, while Burke's devotees could care less about reviewers' musings in any case. Anyone else seeking solid entertainment from an authentic voice in the noir tradition will be delighted, however, to discover Burke and his 'fami! ly' through Safe House. Andrew Vachss may be an attorney at law and a polemicist at heart; but whether he knows, or cares, he is also a writer of literature.
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Summary: Vachss again presents astonishing depth of observation
Review: In Safe House, Andrew Vachss again offers the reader the benefit of his astounding observational powers. This novel is a thrilling and suspenseful detective story that pits Vachss' ferocious and loyal Burke against white-supremacist gangsters who seek to bomb targets enough to start world war three. But the fierce plot is only the frosting on the cake. The true heart of this book is its unflinching report on the wrenching reality of domestic violence in America. And if you think those two themes have nothing to do with each other, buy this book right away. Once you have finished reading what Vachss has to tell, you will understand domestic violence for the form of terrorism it truly is. I read many new books this year, but this was the one I know will stay with me.
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Summary: Safe House is ingenious.
Review: Is that blatant enough? Yes. Is it true? Yes. But, is it all I have to say? Not by a long shot. Burke is back in this latest Andrew Vachss novel, and he has returned in the same powerful style that has carried Mr. Vachss' past books far beyond the realm of being mere novels. These books don't just tell a story, they tell about life. And as we all know life can be down right dirty, and often ugly. Still, it is a compelling read in more ways than that. Burke's "family" is again found in this story and we can enjoy a look at how people should expect, even demand, to be treated to be worthy of trust and friendship. To tell you the plot would be to repeat all you have read in previous reviews, but I will say this: To any and all who may claim that Safe House is "relatively derivative and unoriginal" is to not have understood a word Mr. Vachss has written. Safe House is powerful and poignant, a book read for both the way it is written and the truth of what it has to say. To say it's "another Burke novel" is true, but hardly covers the strength of its message, or the point of its being written. To tell you to "read it" is fabulous advice (and you should do so), but to say "it's a learning experience" is more to the point. And it's the kind of learning we all had better start doing.
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Summary: Andrew Vachss is excellence.
Review: Mr. Vachss has done it again and Burke is so real one feels as if you can reach out and touch him . All our friends are back dealing with the scum of the earth in a fashion that only Burke/Vachss can pull off. One of his best books yet.
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Summary: A tourniquet of truth
Review: Rather than write a line-by-line verbatim account of this author's latest work, it should suffice to say that it is Burke, Vachss' antihero protagonist, at his most focused. Why the subject is stalking is like asking why the subject is sexual abuse of children. Same theme, same ugliness, same truth. And, truth is what Vachss does better than all else who have ventured in these past years into the same arena. The other authors that have picked up the "child-abuse" issue have done it with the aplomb and finesse of ham-handed neoliths; Vachss' latest in his series of Burke books is a road that leads to an amalgam of data that few could glean from any other source. And, the reason is because Vachss has been a warrior in this real-life battle against predators, stalkers, and just plain ugly people for more years than most have even been aware of the problem. If one has an appetite that can handle a full plate of the grotesque yet real world of how mean spirits make a mean world, Vachss' cuisine will fit that bill, and the reward will be a full-plate ride filled with a canny poetry and knife-edged prose sure to please the seeker's palate. Otherwise, the shame lies in that those who "should" be reading his novels to gain insight into the origination of most criminal activity on our planet, won't read this; they won't read this for the same reasons they will continue to look the other way as our species and our children go down the proverbial toilet. It is yet another wake-up call from a brave and ardent truth-sayer; Vachss speaks it like no one else can or does. Do yourself a favor, and dig in.
Rating: 
Summary: Not that bad!
Review: The street word on this Burke novel was that it, like FALSE ALLEGATIONS and CHOICE OF EVIL, was spoiled by an excess of didacticism and a paucity of plot and action. When I finally located and read a copy, which was not easy, by the way, I found the word to be exaggerated. There is indeed a plot, which blends white-supremacist movements with the societal problems of stalking and spousal abuse. To help out old friend Herk and new friend Crystal Beth, Burke and his "family" find themselves needing to murder a couple of bad guys in cold blood and put all their lives on the line to derail a plan to level a Federal building in NYC with half a dozen truckloads of explosives. Burke finds himself working with an enigmatic undercover figure who calls himself Pryce, and who is multiply connected to the local and state police, and Feds, in extraordinary ways. There is a hint that Pryce may enter Burke's life again, once he gets a new face; let's hope he does. In summary, this is another chilling Vachss tour of the underbelly of our society. If you have a strong stomach, it's a tour you won't regret taking.
Rating:
Summary: Not that bad!
Review: The street word on this Burke novel was that it, like FALSE ALLEGATIONS and CHOICE OF EVIL, was spoiled by an excess of didacticism and a paucity of plot and action. When I finally located and read a copy, which was not easy, by the way, I found the word to be exaggerated. There is indeed a plot, which blends white-supremacist movements with the societal problems of stalking and spousal abuse. To help out old friend Herk and new friend Crystal Beth, Burke and his "family" find themselves needing to murder a couple of bad guys in cold blood and put all their lives on the line to derail a plan to level a Federal building in NYC with half a dozen truckloads of explosives. Burke finds himself working with an enigmatic undercover figure who calls himself Pryce, and who is multiply connected to the local and state police, and Feds, in extraordinary ways. There is a hint that Pryce may enter Burke's life again, once he gets a new face; let's hope he does. In summary, this is another chilling Vachss tour of the underbelly of our society. If you have a strong stomach, it's a tour you won't regret taking.
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