Safe House - Burke by Andrew Vachss Paperback

About the Book

A beautiful outlaw hires Burke to shield one of her charges from a vengeful ex with fetishes for Nazism and torture. But the stalker has a protector who can shut down her operation for good.

Book Synopsis

In Burke, Vachss gave readers of crime fiction a hero they could believe in, an avenger whose sense of justice was forged behind bars and tempered on New York's meanest streets. In this blistering new thriller, Burke is drawn into his ugliest case yet, one that involves an underground network of abused women and the sleekly ingenious stalkers who've marked them as their personal victims.

Burke's client is Crystal Beth, a beautiful outlaw with a tattoo on her face and a mission burned into her heart. She is trying to shield one of her charges from a vengeful ex with fetishes for Nazism and torture. But the stalker has a protector, someone so informed, so ruthless, and so connected that he need only make a few phone calls to shut down Crystal Beth's operation for good--and Burke along with it. Sinuous in its complexities, brutal in its momentum, Safe House is Burke at the edge of his nerve and cunning. And it's Vachss at the peak of his form.

Review Quotes

"The hardest-boiled crime fiction this side of Sing Sing"- USA Today

"Vachss makes other noir writers seem like William Saroyan."- Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Scorching... the prose is accomplished, stylized, and flinty; the plot is direct and commanding."- Seattle Times

"Vachss's reverence for storytelling is evident in the blunt beauty of his language."-Chicago Sun-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.