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Down in the Zero (Burke #7)
by
Andrew Vachss (Goodreads Author),
Phil Gigante
Andrew Vachss has reinvented detective fiction for an age in which guilty secrets are obsolete and murder isn't even worth a news headline. And in the person of his haunted, hell-ridden private eye Burke, Vachss has given us a new kind of hero: a man inured to every evil except the kind that preys on children.Now Burke is back, investigating an epidemic of apparent suicide...more
MP3 CD, 0 pages
Published
July 28th 2010
by Brilliance Audio
(first published July 4th 1994)
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Burke, Vachss' anti-hero, is a quasi-detective, part vigilante, who has a soft spot for protecting children. We learn during the course of the novel that he grew up in an orphanage, has no memory of either parent, has served time in prison, where he learned much of his "trade" from the "Prof" who speaks in bizarre rhymes, and was a mercenary in Africa.
In this novel (basically your good, fun, fast, read - great for trains, planes or buses), he is summoned to help p...more
In this novel (basically your good, fun, fast, read - great for trains, planes or buses), he is summoned to help p...more
Sub par installment in the Burke series (2.5 stars is more accurate) that finds the "private eye" once again leaving the familiar confines of New York City, this time for the neatly manicured lawns of Fairfield County, CT. Burke's there to look into a rash of suicides that have been affecting the children of the wealthy and, of course, to find an angle to make a buck. He develops a relationship with Randy, the child of an old associate that hires Burke to investigate the suicides. R...more
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I happen to like Andrew Vachss very much. Burke is his own man, a unique individual who isn't someone with whom anyone can really identify. His world is peopled by characters as disparate as the invisible rejects and crazies who are all around us in any city these days, and somehow as connected and interwoven as any tightly-knit family. And Burke's world is the icy, raw and brutal city of New York, where the relentless evil is like a deadly poison, flowing through the streets and the veins of i...more
The trouble with hardboiled fiction is that it's so ripe for parody. Even at its best this style of writing is so very unselfconscious, so glaringly stripped down--yeah, I know the all the words, it seems to be saying, but I'm so tough I only need to use a few of them. Sometimes that works. Chandler. Cain. Hammett. The guys who invented the genre and worked in its first generation.
And the trouble with neo-hardboiled fiction is that layered on top of that lurking urge to parody ...more
And the trouble with neo-hardboiled fiction is that layered on top of that lurking urge to parody ...more
I liked all of the Vachss books. I guess I read most or all of them. But they are really dark; darker than Michael Connelly, modern LA, "noir" detective books where the hero, detective Heironymous Bosch's prostitute mother is an unsolved murder case. In Vachss' (I think it's pronounced "vash") novels EVERYONE's mother is a prostitute--his characters won't even hang out with you if you never blew anybody for money! So it's a bit over the top, but basically Vachss' dark ave...more
Down In The Zero (Burke #7) by Andrew Vachss (Vintage Crimes 1994)(fiction - mystery) opens with a series of suicides by priveleged young people that leads back to a sadomasochistic underground lef by a pair of gorgeous twins Fancy and Charm. 4/10, finished 7/4/11.
Burke is out of his natural element again, this time called to a wealthy Connecticut suburb by the son of a former acquaintance who is scared about the rash of apparent suicides among his peers. When Burke investigates, he finds more than he bargains for, including sexual exploitation, blackmail and murder. This was a strange Burke novel, not only was he out of his usual New York setting, but it was as if Vachss was trying to have him establish a father-son relationship between him and his clien...more
Vachss is a true advocate for children and a wonderful writer. He lives the life he writes about in his books. His website is a treasure
Dark detective fiction, with a protagonist who is gritty, forceful and lost. Once you start you cannot put down.
I'm still reading this of course, but it might as well be already read. Vacchs is so good. Awesome.
Teen suicides in upscale Connecticut aren't like those where Burke has been.
A tad on the dark side!!! but interesting.
More from the master.
Jennie
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
James Ellroy, Lee Child fans, crime fans
Shelves:
crime
I really respect Andrew Vachss and I enjoy the brutality of his writing.
This Burke novel was pretty good, but I now have to admit that the way his associate, The Prof, always has to rhyme everything...it kinda bugs me.
At any rate, not the strongest entry in the series, but a quick read that holds your interest pretty well.
This Burke novel was pretty good, but I now have to admit that the way his associate, The Prof, always has to rhyme everything...it kinda bugs me.
At any rate, not the strongest entry in the series, but a quick read that holds your interest pretty well.
I really wanted to love this book because of my profound respect for Vachss. I simply found the writing to be weak and unimpressive. It's not a bad read, it's just not a good one.
IT WAS AN OVER ALL GOOD FUN BOOK, IT HAS ALL THE GOODIES A KID LIKE ME WANTS, AND ITS EDGE TONE AND VOICE MAKE IT A GOOD READ FOR ANYONE, SEPT MAYBE NOT GIRLS.
Hate. Another one of those "I'll finish reading it because of art." Nah, not worth it.
Ugh. I gave it a try but couldn't finish it.
I have started from the beginning of this series and this was my least favorite so far. I understood that he (Burke) is haunted by the ending of book 6 (Sacrifice). I know it troubles him. However, the whole point of him heading to Connecticut to help Randy because of the suicides was strange, but what was stranger were the people he met there and what went down. For some reason, I just couldn't get into it. I think I like the setting in New York more and when he travelled to Indiana and now to ...more
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Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for “aggressive-violent” youth. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youths exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, two collections of short stories, and a wide varie...more
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