Pain Management - (Burke) by Andrew Vachss (Paperback)

About the Book

Vachss's previous novel, "Dead and Gone, " was "like putting a vial of nitroglycerine into your pocket and going for a jogS ("Rocky Mt. News"). With his latest, Vachss turns the heat up by dropping his career criminal and ultimate urban survivalist, Burke, in the middle of some dangerously determined humans.

Book Synopsis

Burke is back, but still lurking in the shadows, unable to return home. He is prowling the unfamiliar streets of Portland, Oregon, in search of a runaway teen. By all accounts, Rosebud Carlin is a happy, well-adjusted girl. She doesn't fit the profile of the runaway kids Burke knows so wellÉand once was. But there's something about her fatherÉ

Burke knows the street script, but the actors are all strangers. Cut off from his family and his network of criminal contacts, Burke is forced into a dangerous alliance with a renegade group dedicated to providing relief to those in intractable pain by any means necessary. A bargain is struck, and the fuse is lit. Heart-stopping and hard-hitting, Pain Management is the latest bout in Andrew Vachss's thrilling reign as undisputed champ of brass knuckles noir.

Review Quotes

"Some of the cleanest, meanest, stripped-down-and-sparkling prose ever penned." -Austin Chronicle

"A beautifully brutal combination of pulpy noir and social commentary. . . . Vachss's writing remains raw and hungry, with an epidermis of rage barely containing an infinite core of sadness." -The Miami Herald

"Andrew Vachss could send his hero Burke to Mayberry, and he'd still
manage to uncover a dark underbelly of sin and corruption." -Capital Times

"Gritty, fast-paced . . . One of the most hard-boiled and important crime series ever published." -Huntsville Times

About the Author

Andrew Vachss's many books include the Burke novels and two previous collections of short stories. His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, and The New York Times, among other publications. He died in 2021.