Dead and Gone: A Burke Novel - Hardcover

Vachss, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375411216 ISBN 13: 9780375411212

Publisher: Knopf, 2000

Synopsis

It's not an unusual job for Burke  -- ex-con, career criminal, and ultimate urban man-for-hire  -- to act as middleman in an exchange of cash for a kidnapped child. But this time the only things exchanged are bullets. Burke loses his beloved partner, and lies in a hospital bed close to  -- or maybe even past  -- death, hovering in a netherworld of nightmares and hallucinations. When he finally escapes from the hospital, his appearance has changed radically  -- and so has he.

Burke's religion is revenge, and he is eager to begin worship. Without the slightest clue as to who ordered the hit, he goes back to his original contact. When that meeting ends in homicide, Burke goes even deeper underground than ever before. He vanishes off every radar screen, and starts his hunt. In order to connect the dots, Burke enlists the aid of a pilot he worked with during the war in Biafra, a Russian-speaking Cambodian woman named Gem, and a mystical childhood friend  -- the police would call him a "co-defendant"  -- who finds patterns where others see chaos. Burke's search starts in Chicago and ends in the Pacific Northwest  -- a foreign country to the New York City-bred orphan.

When a pattern finally emerges, Burke discovers truly foreign territory  -- a  place where pedophiles, neo-Nazis, abortion clinic bombers, and kiddie porn manufacturers expect immunity from prosecution, a safe harbor for predatory degenerates. And when he learns who is running the show, Burke must call upon a lifetime of training in the dark arts to do what he does best: survive.

Stunning in its execution, shocking in its conclusion, Dead and Gone gives us a new Burke, trapped out of his element  -- and more dangerous than ever.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Red-hot and serious as a punctured lung."
--Playboy

"Dead and Gone opens enough narrative veins--and introduces enough colorful new characters--to insure that Burke will live on as one of contemporary crime fiction's most durable creations."
--New York Post

About the Author

Andrew Vachss, an attorney in private practice specializing in juvenile justice and child abuse, is the country’s best recognized and most widely sought after spokesperson on crimes against children. He is also a bestselling novelist and short story writer, whose works include Flood (1985), the novel which first introduced Vachss’ series character Burke, Strega (1987), Choice of Evil (1999), and Dead and Gone (2000). His short stories have appeared in Esquire, Playboy, and The Observer, and he is a contributor to ABA Journal, Journal of Psychohistory, New England Law Review, The New York Times, and Parade.

Vachss has worked as a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a caseworker in New York, and a professional organizer. He was the director of an urban migrants re-entry center in Chicago and another for ex-cons in Boston. After managing a maximum-security prison for violent juvenile offenders, he published his first book, a textbook, about the experience. He was also deeply involved in the relief effort in Biafra, now Nigeria.

For ten years, Vachss’ law practice combined criminal defense with child protection, until, with the success of his novels, it segued exclusively into the latter, which is his passion. Vachss calls the child protective movement “a war,” and considers his writing as powerful a weapon as his litigation.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375411216
• ISBN 13: 9780375411212
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352