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Burke #18
Another Life
When the two-year-old son of a Saudi prince is kidnapped, Burke (lord of the asphalt jungle--Washington Post Book World) is forced into a journey that will change the lives of the urban survivalist and his outlaw family...forever.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published December 30, 2008
52 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Vachss
138 books890 followersAndrew 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 variety of other material including song lyrics, graphic novels, essays, and a “children’s book for adults.” His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, the New York Times, and many other forums. A native New Yorker, he now divides his time between the city of his birth and the Pacific Northwest.
The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is
www.vachss.com. That site and this page are managed by volunteers. To contact Mr. Vachss directly, use the "email us" function of vachss.com.
The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is
www.vachss.com. That site and this page are managed by volunteers. To contact Mr. Vachss directly, use the "email us" function of vachss.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
April 5, 2016
With this book, Vachss puts the cap on the Burke series, and he closes it with a whimper rather than a bang. But . . . that's okay. This series has had more than its share of bangs, and I'm fine with seeing it end with an Though I had trouble getting into the plot of this particular title, it did include Burke's visit with an obsessed book collector, a scene that so delighted me, I read that part twice.
I'm rating the whole series four stars. It takes some interesting characters to keep me sticking around for eighteen books. The stories left many indelible images tattooed on my brain, most of them unwelcome, but still - forewarned is forearmed. There are a lot of sick fucks in this world and ignoring them won't make them go away. Here's to Vachss for using a fictional antihero to call attention to the dark world of child abuse.
I'm rating the whole series four stars. It takes some interesting characters to keep me sticking around for eighteen books. The stories left many indelible images tattooed on my brain, most of them unwelcome, but still - forewarned is forearmed. There are a lot of sick fucks in this world and ignoring them won't make them go away. Here's to Vachss for using a fictional antihero to call attention to the dark world of child abuse.
November 17, 2022
I can’t quite believe that I listen to this book in the audible format just over a year ago and I didn’t remember that this is maybe the major way that I came back to Burke in my effort to read or I should say to listen to the entire series in order. I think I was much more observant and eloquent in most of the initial reviews then I was the second time around and may be that will also be the case in the third time around. In a strange way, but as usual, the main case in the story is really a subplot for most of the book. The story is really about Burke. In the story, he finally comes allegedly to a conclusion about what his birth was all about. It may have been a contrive story, but it was plausible. That may be something you could with a little stretch.call this series. It really didn’t feel very conclusive. Other than Burke says at the very end there is a train coming down the track and it is to take him to a new life. Whatever that could possibly mean. He has focused upon the importance of his family continuously, but now arrangements have been made for many of the newer members so they can live normal lives rather than outlaws like Burke and some of his cohorts.. But he kind of foreshadow the fact that he may not be living with any of them either. There is not even any mention of what is going to happen to his new dog, which he got just at the beginning of this book, and plays a pretty major minor role since we have all been expecting him to get a new dog one day. It seems unlikely that he would leave without her.
Listening to this complete series has made me interested in reading some of his other books, just for the sake of comparison, especially since he has died, and is stopped riding with no apparent posthumous work to come.
So I gave almost all of these books very high ratings, although they mostly are based on nostalgia, and not with a ongoing appreciation of the skill of the stories or the skill of the writer.
———————
7+ years later I am picking up this book again to listen to it in the audible version to see if this series still means anything to me. It is one of the very rear series where I have actually read all of the books and tried to read them in a reasonably correct order. Now at the age of 74 I have switched from reading printed books to reading/listening to audible books. In fact I am trying to sell the printed books on eBay so I hope there are still a few fans of Andrew Vachss out there who will want to buy his books!
Having finished listening to this audible book of the final book in what is an 18 book series, I have boosted the stars from 3 to 4. I think my previous review was probably less sentimental and was probably based on how I thought the book finished this long series. I think it didn’t seem to do justice to the quality of the series at that time. This time my listening was much more sentimental. And I thought the only way this book was the final book in the series was that it allowed Burke to tell again the story that he was trying to sell himself about his mother Who abandoned him at birth. His new story allowed him to forgive his mother as well as to resolve this final story. It was a neat story tellers trick put together quite nicely as I think I had become used to seeing done by this author repeatedly.
I think this series began when the notion of a duel type of detective both good and bad had not yet quite taken off as it has in recent years. Burke is in someways the ultimate of the mixed characteristic. He kills but he only kills really bad people. The characters in these books are more unique and interesting than they are well fleshed out. They are a little bit better than caricatures but not that much better. But they are like a group of actors that work very well together.
•••••••••••••••••
Now, make the kid a baby and you have the nugget of the last book in the Burke series. The baby is kidnapped during one of the lessons and the father wants him back. Or does he? I am betting you might not be interested. But you have been reading the Burke series for a couple of years and this is the last book.
The last series I remember reading right to the end was “The Hardy Boys” and that was probably 55 years ago. I remember that I had most of the books that I had purchased at the Book Worm, the book store a block from home, at a dollar each. One day I decided I was too grown up to read about Frank and Joe any more so I sold the entire collection to the son of one of my mother’s friends. The strange thing is that I had just bought the last book just days before I sold them all. It was a sea change for me. I was just done with these books overnight.
Now the same thing has happened to me with Burke but I don’t exactly know what to do with the stack of books in the series I have accumulated over the past several years. But I have this last book in the series to finish before I have to make that life decision!
What would a Burke conclusion look like? Well, it has some flashbacks to old stories to explain why enemies trust each other and make handshake deals with each other. And it has some fabricated history to show that the current contrived deal fits in with the past. We have Pryce with the webbed hands making fictitious events real and legally exist. We have rulers who manipulate common people into becoming human lab rats: polio in Nigeria, HIV in South Africa. We have a special convoluted version of history with the Japanese banzai pilots and the Nazi scientists. Special Burke history to make weird become the normal where the Prof gets the same medical care as the U.S. President “if he took a bullet.” And for free.
So we need a big time belief in the Burke worldview conjured up to make it all work. This is not uncommon for a Burke story but this is the pièce de résistance. All Burke has to do is a little bit of the impossible. And, for his end of the deal, he just has to do the best he can do – even die trying – because the Prof and the rest of the family are worth it.
Am I on board with this?
No. But I am determined to try to finish this series honestly, like Burke demands. He and I have been through too much to bail out now, I think. Can I do it?
Vachss reminds us something that we learned very early on – at the start – that Prof can stand for Prophet or Professor. And Vachss also reminds us that he is dealing with what he calls “freaks” who use children as a part of their aberrant sex. How does the kidnapped baby of the rich oil sheikh fit into all of this? Since it is Vachss, we can be assured that the answer to that question will not be simple and there will be some prurient interest involved. Also knowing Vachss, there will be some strong sexual allusions but graphic sex will be very limited. Vachss does not write books that lend themselves to masturbatory use. But, since I am flashing around some French superlatives, let me not miss out on saying the obvious: Vachss probably wants Burke to go out with a Tour de Force. He makes opportunities to remind us of Wesley, the killing machine “brother” who just might not be dead. I expect to see every known Burke gesture and verbal parry. He has so much to say that Vachss must take paragraphs of saying nothing so we can understand his omniscience.
What an asshole! Oh, excuse me, Mr. Burke. But two can play this game as you, of course, well know.
With Vachss it is always the challenge of putting the puzzle together. That means you have to enjoy that kind of thing. That is important because you will probably not care too much about who kidnapped the infant son of a Saudi sheikh. You will have to care about watching Burke fit the complex pieces together to solve the puzzle. As I have probably already said too often, the biggest challenge for me in reading this book was to enjoy going through that process with Burke one more time. The balance weighed too heavy too often on the don’t-much-care, the let’s-just-get-on-with-it side.
Although it is obvious by book eighteen in the series:
But since it is book eighteen, Vachss must think it is his last chance to fire with both barrels, to get messy. You can always count on hearing about a wide range of social and political issues. International relations are always fair game.
I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that Burke rides off into the sunrise on a train. I mean, how else could it end?
The wrap up for Burke?
Rating this conclusive book is tough for me. I want to give it two stars because it just tried to do too much. Vachss tried to distill the entire series into one dramatic conclusion where Burke reinvents the beginning of his life that converts his mother from whore to heroine. There are a stunning number of one sentence, one line, one paragraph diamonds in the rough but the setting is too limited and the book is too short to display their full glory. Burke tries to replace his beloved dog and deliver Terry and Clarence to the world of “citizens” while evidently going fully into his trance with the red dot.
My compromise rating is three stars. I think of Vachss in my imagination as a four star writer so I am surprised to find that I rated eight of the eighteen Burke books as only three stars. (The remaining ten are four stars.) Burke’s failing for me has been that he is too often too complex. I say without embarrassment that if I were a reader who retained more detail from his books, I would find Vachss more stimulating and therefore more enjoyable. I am simply not quite up to the intellectual level of the writing. It might also have been a benefit to read the books in their actual historical timeframe. There are many references to news, issues and events that would be more meaningful if they were fresh in my mind.
So, the fact is, I was ready for the Burke series to come to a conclusion before the books stopped coming out. And since I was often reading as much as a decade later, I was not as alert to the out of sync references to events and politics. I was no longer certain that Burke was a progressive political vigilante and feared that he might identify too closely with some Tea Party attributes. All in all, I had met my psychic need to complete the series but had definitely ended with a whimper rather than a bang. Too bad. There were many pages and moments I enjoyed Burke quite a lot in the past several years. But, anyone want a complete 18 book, slightly out of date series?
Listening to this complete series has made me interested in reading some of his other books, just for the sake of comparison, especially since he has died, and is stopped riding with no apparent posthumous work to come.
So I gave almost all of these books very high ratings, although they mostly are based on nostalgia, and not with a ongoing appreciation of the skill of the stories or the skill of the writer.
———————
7+ years later I am picking up this book again to listen to it in the audible version to see if this series still means anything to me. It is one of the very rear series where I have actually read all of the books and tried to read them in a reasonably correct order. Now at the age of 74 I have switched from reading printed books to reading/listening to audible books. In fact I am trying to sell the printed books on eBay so I hope there are still a few fans of Andrew Vachss out there who will want to buy his books!
Having finished listening to this audible book of the final book in what is an 18 book series, I have boosted the stars from 3 to 4. I think my previous review was probably less sentimental and was probably based on how I thought the book finished this long series. I think it didn’t seem to do justice to the quality of the series at that time. This time my listening was much more sentimental. And I thought the only way this book was the final book in the series was that it allowed Burke to tell again the story that he was trying to sell himself about his mother Who abandoned him at birth. His new story allowed him to forgive his mother as well as to resolve this final story. It was a neat story tellers trick put together quite nicely as I think I had become used to seeing done by this author repeatedly.
I think this series began when the notion of a duel type of detective both good and bad had not yet quite taken off as it has in recent years. Burke is in someways the ultimate of the mixed characteristic. He kills but he only kills really bad people. The characters in these books are more unique and interesting than they are well fleshed out. They are a little bit better than caricatures but not that much better. But they are like a group of actors that work very well together.
•••••••••••••••••
“I’m looking for a plot where the guy has sex with women – not romantic sex; with prostitutes, or even rape – and brings his son along to watch, so he can teach the kid how to do it.”
Now, make the kid a baby and you have the nugget of the last book in the Burke series. The baby is kidnapped during one of the lessons and the father wants him back. Or does he? I am betting you might not be interested. But you have been reading the Burke series for a couple of years and this is the last book.
The last series I remember reading right to the end was “The Hardy Boys” and that was probably 55 years ago. I remember that I had most of the books that I had purchased at the Book Worm, the book store a block from home, at a dollar each. One day I decided I was too grown up to read about Frank and Joe any more so I sold the entire collection to the son of one of my mother’s friends. The strange thing is that I had just bought the last book just days before I sold them all. It was a sea change for me. I was just done with these books overnight.
Now the same thing has happened to me with Burke but I don’t exactly know what to do with the stack of books in the series I have accumulated over the past several years. But I have this last book in the series to finish before I have to make that life decision!
What would a Burke conclusion look like? Well, it has some flashbacks to old stories to explain why enemies trust each other and make handshake deals with each other. And it has some fabricated history to show that the current contrived deal fits in with the past. We have Pryce with the webbed hands making fictitious events real and legally exist. We have rulers who manipulate common people into becoming human lab rats: polio in Nigeria, HIV in South Africa. We have a special convoluted version of history with the Japanese banzai pilots and the Nazi scientists. Special Burke history to make weird become the normal where the Prof gets the same medical care as the U.S. President “if he took a bullet.” And for free.
So we need a big time belief in the Burke worldview conjured up to make it all work. This is not uncommon for a Burke story but this is the pièce de résistance. All Burke has to do is a little bit of the impossible. And, for his end of the deal, he just has to do the best he can do – even die trying – because the Prof and the rest of the family are worth it.
“Okay. You tell me what you want; I do it, period. For that, I get the Prof and Terry . . . and that other stuff you mentioned. Done?”
He nodded.
“What if I can’t pull off . . . whatever you want?”
“You still get everything I promised. But you have to go at it with everything you’ve – “
“This is a blood contract.” I cut him off. “I’ll do it, or I’ll die trying.” I gave him a few seconds to scan me, opening myself up to whatever truth-detecting skills he thought he had. “Deal?”
He held out his webbed right hand. I grasped it. Tight, like it was the Prof’s only chance to live.
Am I on board with this?
No. But I am determined to try to finish this series honestly, like Burke demands. He and I have been through too much to bail out now, I think. Can I do it?
Vachss reminds us something that we learned very early on – at the start – that Prof can stand for Prophet or Professor. And Vachss also reminds us that he is dealing with what he calls “freaks” who use children as a part of their aberrant sex. How does the kidnapped baby of the rich oil sheikh fit into all of this? Since it is Vachss, we can be assured that the answer to that question will not be simple and there will be some prurient interest involved. Also knowing Vachss, there will be some strong sexual allusions but graphic sex will be very limited. Vachss does not write books that lend themselves to masturbatory use. But, since I am flashing around some French superlatives, let me not miss out on saying the obvious: Vachss probably wants Burke to go out with a Tour de Force. He makes opportunities to remind us of Wesley, the killing machine “brother” who just might not be dead. I expect to see every known Burke gesture and verbal parry. He has so much to say that Vachss must take paragraphs of saying nothing so we can understand his omniscience.
I said nothing, just tilted my head to show I was listening.
What an asshole! Oh, excuse me, Mr. Burke. But two can play this game as you, of course, well know.
He shifted posture to ask the unspoken question.
I shifted mine, to say I wasn’t going to answer.
With Vachss it is always the challenge of putting the puzzle together. That means you have to enjoy that kind of thing. That is important because you will probably not care too much about who kidnapped the infant son of a Saudi sheikh. You will have to care about watching Burke fit the complex pieces together to solve the puzzle. As I have probably already said too often, the biggest challenge for me in reading this book was to enjoy going through that process with Burke one more time. The balance weighed too heavy too often on the don’t-much-care, the let’s-just-get-on-with-it side.
Although it is obvious by book eighteen in the series:
No matter how the people who live below the underground figured it, any version of the Burke they knew would never pass up the chance to make a pile of cash and take out a couple of babyrapers at the same time. Some people are confused about my motivations, but nobody doubted my hate. If certain humans crossed my path, they were done, Pay me enough, and I’d go out and cross theirs.
But since it is book eighteen, Vachss must think it is his last chance to fire with both barrels, to get messy. You can always count on hearing about a wide range of social and political issues. International relations are always fair game.
I remember the Prof chuckling out loud at the whole idea of arming America’s friend-of-the-moment. “Fools think, just ‘cause they can get a snake to dance, it won’t bit ‘em the second it gets a chance.”
I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that Burke rides off into the sunrise on a train. I mean, how else could it end?
“It’s all done, son,” the Prof said, just before sunrise. But I knew he was only talking about one piece of it.
I don’t know what’s next. I can’t hear the whistle yet, but I can feel the vibrations through the tracks.
A freight train’s coming, and I’m going to hop it blind. I don’t know what it’s carrying, but I know it’ll take me to where I need to go.
Another life.
The wrap up for Burke?
“You live outside the law. You support yourself by crime. You don’t experience guilt as a normal person might. In fact, you find some forms of aggression to be fulfilling, at least temporarily so. You’re filled with rage that you . . . eventually . . . learned to control. Not because you wanted to be a better person; because you wanted to be a more skillful criminal.”
Rating this conclusive book is tough for me. I want to give it two stars because it just tried to do too much. Vachss tried to distill the entire series into one dramatic conclusion where Burke reinvents the beginning of his life that converts his mother from whore to heroine. There are a stunning number of one sentence, one line, one paragraph diamonds in the rough but the setting is too limited and the book is too short to display their full glory. Burke tries to replace his beloved dog and deliver Terry and Clarence to the world of “citizens” while evidently going fully into his trance with the red dot.
My compromise rating is three stars. I think of Vachss in my imagination as a four star writer so I am surprised to find that I rated eight of the eighteen Burke books as only three stars. (The remaining ten are four stars.) Burke’s failing for me has been that he is too often too complex. I say without embarrassment that if I were a reader who retained more detail from his books, I would find Vachss more stimulating and therefore more enjoyable. I am simply not quite up to the intellectual level of the writing. It might also have been a benefit to read the books in their actual historical timeframe. There are many references to news, issues and events that would be more meaningful if they were fresh in my mind.
So, the fact is, I was ready for the Burke series to come to a conclusion before the books stopped coming out. And since I was often reading as much as a decade later, I was not as alert to the out of sync references to events and politics. I was no longer certain that Burke was a progressive political vigilante and feared that he might identify too closely with some Tea Party attributes. All in all, I had met my psychic need to complete the series but had definitely ended with a whimper rather than a bang. Too bad. There were many pages and moments I enjoyed Burke quite a lot in the past several years. But, anyone want a complete 18 book, slightly out of date series?
September 19, 2019
The two-year old son of a Saudi prince is grabbed from his armored Rolls in an area where prostitutes work, with the prince left immobilized by a drug injection. The mysterious Pryce, a shadowy government cut-out is asked to find the toddler, but is completely stumped so he moves an severely injured member of Burke's family out of the care of shady doctors to a top medical facility to get Burke's help. Burke spends much of the novel trying to figure out whether the toddler was grabbed by a pedophile, a political enemy of the house of Saud or a personal enemy of the prince. Apparently, the prince liked to have his son watch as he demeaned prostitutes, which sickened most of Burke's family. Mama and the senior members of the family have plans for the younger members to exit the life, including Clarence, Flower, and Terry. One by one, Burke eventually all possible scenarios, leaving the well-intentioned culprit exposed. Oh yeah, Burke finally finds a replacement for Pansy, who is also beloved by his doorman, Gateman. A fitting end to a good, but very dark, series.
July 26, 2010
Excellent end to an awesome series and all I can say is Good bye Burke you will be missed. Andrew Vachss is for me the best "True Crime Fiction" author out here.
May 14, 2009
I'm giving the 5 stars to the entire series which I found in the early 1990s. Vachss is a totally honest writer - he writes what he knows: and he knows about the children that society and the legal system designed to 'protect' that doesn't protect at all, and the monstrous evil predators that prey on them (whether it's the foster care system or some perv trolling on the internet). This isn't "Made palatable for TV to catch a predator" stuff - this is Revenge in a pimped out Plymouth. And kudos to Vachss for his love of the dogs our society damns as well. This is not the book to start with, Flood, Blue Belle, Hard Candy will do....
March 11, 2019
The final book in the Burke series, given Vachss skills as an author and his obsessions that are well discussed elsewhere, more of the same in terms of subject matter is no surprise.
To be honest he really is getting far too preachy via the voice of Burke, and close to tipping over into way too much, but the writing is still at such a high level you can almost ignore it. The weakest book of the series, however, because we are forced to listen to Burke tells us how stupid we are far too much.
Still a good read, but don't read it first before you read the others!
To be honest he really is getting far too preachy via the voice of Burke, and close to tipping over into way too much, but the writing is still at such a high level you can almost ignore it. The weakest book of the series, however, because we are forced to listen to Burke tells us how stupid we are far too much.
Still a good read, but don't read it first before you read the others!
May 30, 2025
This is a bittersweet review as I finish the last novel in the Burke series. I’ve truly enjoyed this dark & gritty journey that Andrew Vachess created. I haven’t enjoyed the last couple of books as I did the first dozen, but have grown to love the characters in this series Burke, Pansy, Michelle, Max the Silent, the Prof., the Mole, & Mama that have been in the books since the beginning & characters like Clarence, Terry, Rosy & the Gate Man that came along in later books. I’m a bit disappointed as there wasn’t much of an epilogue to the book or the series.
This is my third run through the series & still enjoy it immensely.
This is my third run through the series & still enjoy it immensely.
January 8, 2009
It was tough getting this book as I knew that it would be the last in the Burke series, a series that has helped me both as a fledgling writer and at a deeper, personal level. But it went far beyond what I expected. I don't what to toss any spoilers in here but I will tell you that you find out a lot about Burke that you did not know before and the ending?
Perfect.
Sometimes, when you've let your children go, they come back when you least expect it.
Perfect.
Sometimes, when you've let your children go, they come back when you least expect it.
September 11, 2015
This is the last of the Burke novels and probably wouldn't work for people who are unfamiliar with the series.
As readers of the series know, the Burke novels are dark dark dark. In this one, the child of an heir to the Saudi throne has been kidnapped from his abusive father.
The novel is also a farewell to Burke and his group - a lot of stuff is wrapped up. Fans of the series will want to read it.
As readers of the series know, the Burke novels are dark dark dark. In this one, the child of an heir to the Saudi throne has been kidnapped from his abusive father.
The novel is also a farewell to Burke and his group - a lot of stuff is wrapped up. Fans of the series will want to read it.
June 25, 2009
"Read" is a lie - couldn't read it, couldn't get past Chapter 1 in fact. Sorry. I don't know why but the language, the rhythm, - just ugh. It got a good review from someone at the NYT, or so it says on the back cover.
March 10, 2009
This is the last Burke novel. I have loved this series about a rogue investigator, anti child abuse vigilante. This is not his best book but I will miss him and his particular subgenre.
June 20, 2009
Not my style of detective novel - disjointed writing and a very staccato version of what philosophical thugs are meant to be.
Never really got into it.
Never really got into it.
July 31, 2011
This my favourite Crime author and I've read all of his books. As this being another Burke novel I'm sure it will be as good as the rest.
November 19, 2017
Long on rant - short on action
You have to wade through shibboleths of speechifying to get to any nuggets of action
Gave up at 90%
Last of the Burke novels...
You have to wade through shibboleths of speechifying to get to any nuggets of action
Gave up at 90%
Last of the Burke novels...
September 26, 2025
Another Life is the final chapter of the Burke series -- I've always viewed the entire series as analogous to a single book, with each novel representing a chapter in Burke's story. If you've been a fan of the series, you will of course want to read this book; nobody sets down an engrossing read with the last chapter untouched. You won't be sorry. Burke, and the series, leave our lives on a high (or rather, hopeful) note. The conclusion may or may not leave you reeling, but it's guaranteed to leave you *thinking*.
It seems to me that Vachss' novels always have two simultaneous "themes" -- there are the action points, what most reviewers will tell you the book is "about" -- and then the slightly more subtle, infinitely more meaningful underlying thesis. On one level, Another Life is about Burke agreeing to look for the abducted toddler son of a Saudi royal in exchange for medical care for the Prof, clinging to life after being shot in the last chapter, and a clean slate for other Family-of-Choice members. Another (chance to continue the same) Life. At its heart, though, AL is a book about the things we do, the lengths we will go to, for "those who come after."
I'd heard a couple folks say this book was "predictable," and that frankly surprises me. Burke is in no way an impromptu type of individual, he plans everything he does down to the last detail. He doesn't *want* surprises, and those who've taken this journey with him all the way are likely justified in feeling we know how Burke will react to many given situations. This is where the surprise (on my part) came in. Vachss has written before in the series about people who "do the right thing for the wrong reason," and neither Burke nor Vachss has any problem with that. What I never really expected Burke -- or Vachss -- to address is the other side of that "intent" coin, those who do the *wrong* thing, but do it for the *right* reason, with the best of intentions, hoping to create something better but going terribly wrong. There are two specific instances of that in AL, and they're closely entwined.
Burke's core Family all work with him on this one, along with many characters who've made appearances over the course of the series, so we get a chance to say goodbye to our favorites, both old and newer. As the parent of a fellow adult, I was deeply touched by the themes of growing, moving on ... letting go. When you've put in the work, the day will come when it's time to stand aside and let your kids go to make their own lives, find their own worlds. This book is "about" fathers, and mothers, sons and daughters. It's "about" Family, what we do to make one, the lengths we go to to keep them safe, and (if the job was done right), the bittersweet feeling of seeing them move on being overwhelmed and subsumed by the pride we feel while watching them go.
When I read the last page and closed the book, I felt almost exactly the same way I felt at the end of Shella. So, my own personal response to the question "What is Burke going to do next?" is: He's going to pick up his jacket.
It seems to me that Vachss' novels always have two simultaneous "themes" -- there are the action points, what most reviewers will tell you the book is "about" -- and then the slightly more subtle, infinitely more meaningful underlying thesis. On one level, Another Life is about Burke agreeing to look for the abducted toddler son of a Saudi royal in exchange for medical care for the Prof, clinging to life after being shot in the last chapter, and a clean slate for other Family-of-Choice members. Another (chance to continue the same) Life. At its heart, though, AL is a book about the things we do, the lengths we will go to, for "those who come after."
I'd heard a couple folks say this book was "predictable," and that frankly surprises me. Burke is in no way an impromptu type of individual, he plans everything he does down to the last detail. He doesn't *want* surprises, and those who've taken this journey with him all the way are likely justified in feeling we know how Burke will react to many given situations. This is where the surprise (on my part) came in. Vachss has written before in the series about people who "do the right thing for the wrong reason," and neither Burke nor Vachss has any problem with that. What I never really expected Burke -- or Vachss -- to address is the other side of that "intent" coin, those who do the *wrong* thing, but do it for the *right* reason, with the best of intentions, hoping to create something better but going terribly wrong. There are two specific instances of that in AL, and they're closely entwined.
Burke's core Family all work with him on this one, along with many characters who've made appearances over the course of the series, so we get a chance to say goodbye to our favorites, both old and newer. As the parent of a fellow adult, I was deeply touched by the themes of growing, moving on ... letting go. When you've put in the work, the day will come when it's time to stand aside and let your kids go to make their own lives, find their own worlds. This book is "about" fathers, and mothers, sons and daughters. It's "about" Family, what we do to make one, the lengths we go to to keep them safe, and (if the job was done right), the bittersweet feeling of seeing them move on being overwhelmed and subsumed by the pride we feel while watching them go.
When I read the last page and closed the book, I felt almost exactly the same way I felt at the end of Shella. So, my own personal response to the question "What is Burke going to do next?" is: He's going to pick up his jacket.
July 24, 2018
Vintage Vachss, vintage Burke. Laatste boek met zijn eerste hoofdrolspeler in vertrouwde, grouwe NY onderwereld subcultuur, met de bekende personages om hem heen. Voor wie uit de eerste hand van kinderrechten voorvechter en advocaat Vachss de achterzijde van de menselijke geest beschreven wil zien. Geen vrolijk wereldbeeld, maar ook weer vol staccato dialogen en actie op weg naar het afrekenen met het kwaad. Kennismaken? Begin bij Flood.
January 20, 2024
I thought I was getting some story about a missing Arab prince. Instead, I got a story with a ‘script fixer’, then a street shootout and back. Along the way was the worst slang dialogue I’d ever heard. I had to check to make sure that I had downloaded the correct story!
I listened to it for an hour only because the narrator was great. I assume that the prince eventually got kidnapped? But even with him narrating, I couldn’t take it any more. DNF.
I listened to it for an hour only because the narrator was great. I assume that the prince eventually got kidnapped? But even with him narrating, I couldn’t take it any more. DNF.
April 26, 2025
Great send off for Burke. He finally spells out exactly what happened to him as a child in the foster home and admits to himself that his mom was a product of incest and rape, just like Belle from the start. Few older characters showed up but surprisingly no Wolfe with how much he pined for her over the years. Only negative I had was that the book could have been 50-75 pages shorter, he packed a lot of filler to get it closer to the 300 pages.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 11, 2024
The end of a series of 18 starring Burke, ex-con and career criminal. This one almost telegraphs the final chapter. The actual story in this one takes a back seat to the "summing up". There are pages and pages of flashbacks to previous books and characters. There are a lot of diatribes against big business, government's complicity in global evils, conspiracies, the criminal justice system, child abuse/neglect, and any and all social ills, which were all passions of the late author, which points towards Burke actually being his alter ego.
September 14, 2017
Unsettling, immersive, memorable storytelling.
Read most if not all Burke novels- Vachss is unlike any other author: hard, harsh, ultimately redemptive. Not for everybody, but A favorite of mine for 20 years plus.
Read most if not all Burke novels- Vachss is unlike any other author: hard, harsh, ultimately redemptive. Not for everybody, but A favorite of mine for 20 years plus.
June 3, 2023
Burke fails
Disappointing. Read all the Burke novels. This was the worst one. I don't understand what happened to the author's last book about Burke. Really liked his prior writing.
Disappointing. Read all the Burke novels. This was the worst one. I don't understand what happened to the author's last book about Burke. Really liked his prior writing.
December 23, 2023
The end of the Burke series and a very fitting end.
I'll miss Burke and his family, these books were, pun intended, killers.
This is one of the top 5 easily, with some of the best writing.
And for me, probably the most understandable.
I'll miss Burke and his family, these books were, pun intended, killers.
This is one of the top 5 easily, with some of the best writing.
And for me, probably the most understandable.
December 1, 2017
Another great Burke book
A great conclusion to the Burke series, riveting from start to finish. Vachss provides some incredible closure on Burke's life and that of his family.
A great conclusion to the Burke series, riveting from start to finish. Vachss provides some incredible closure on Burke's life and that of his family.
July 27, 2018
Great wrap up book for Burke..
though I do need to go back and read ones I missed
though I do need to go back and read ones I missed
May 28, 2019
Closure! It's not overrated when reading a series.
February 10, 2022
wow
The final Burke book. What an ending. Man. There are 18 Burke books in all. Just completed my mission to read all of them. Powerful stuff.
The final Burke book. What an ending. Man. There are 18 Burke books in all. Just completed my mission to read all of them. Powerful stuff.
October 12, 2022
Burke vs. douchebag Saudi royalty and the deep state
October 12, 2022
A wonderful end to a gripping series that shakes you to the core.
Still, I will miss them all, Burke, Max, Michelle, the Prof, the Mole, Terry, Clarence and all the others.
Still, I will miss them all, Burke, Max, Michelle, the Prof, the Mole, Terry, Clarence and all the others.
October 16, 2022
Read in 2009. The last novel in the Burke series, starting in 1985 and ending in 2009. A unique detective who used hardcore methods for justice.
September 2, 2024
Grand finale
A great finale to the Burke series. Burke and his team have grown tremendously. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and will miss the characters. I wish it could continue.
A great finale to the Burke series. Burke and his team have grown tremendously. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and will miss the characters. I wish it could continue.
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