Strega

Andrew Vachss’s implacable private eye has a new client, Strega. She wants Burke to find an obscene photograph and that search will take him into the ocean that flows just beneath the city, an ocean whose currents are flesh and money, the anguish of children and the pleasure of twisted adults. It is a place that Burke can visit only at the risk of his sanity and his life. But between the power of Strega and his own sense of justice, there is no turning back. In Strega one of our most acclaimed crime writers gives us a thriller that might have been imagined by Dante. For this is a tour of hell with no stops left out, conducted by a novelist who writes with the authority of the damned. “It’s wonderful. The words leap off the page. The plot is fresh. The principal character is original. The style is as clean as a haiku.” ― The Washington Post Book World

From AudioFile

Phil Gigante's voice is as deep as the trouble, Burke--Vachss's bad-boy detective--has always lived. Using accents and an edgy tone, Gigante makes Burke's underbelly of New York--with its transvestite hookers, rough ex-cons, explosive experts, and dope dealers--live large in listeners' minds. Gigante's delivery evokes all the tension of Burke's vigilante investigative methods, which make revisiting prison only one slip away. When he succumbs to the seduction of a Mafia-princess called Strega ("witch"), he is plunged into a case that involves hunting down a pedophile who haunts the memory of a child. S.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

Andrew Vachss's implacable private eye has a new client, Strega. She wants Burke to find an obscene photograph?and that search will take him into the ocean that flows just beneath the city, an ocean whose currents are flesh and money, the anguish of children and the pleasure of twisted adults. It is a place that Burke can visit only at the risk of his sanity and his life. But between the power of Strega and his own sense of justice, there is no turning back.In Strega one of our most acclaimed crime writers gives us a thriller that might have been imagined by Dante. For this is a tour of hell with no stops left out, conducted by a novelist who writes with the authority of the damned.From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

"So hard-boiled that it makes Mike Hammer and Sam Spade look like running yolks." —Chicago Sun-Times"An absolute stunner, the toughest crime novel, and one of the most realistic, any American writer has produced." —The Cleveland Plain Dealer"It's wonderful. The words leap off the page. The plot is fresh. The principal character is original. The style is as clean as a haiku." —The Washington Post Book World"A bizarre, fast-paced tour of the criminal psyche.... Has a grim authenticity." —The Philadelphia Inquirer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Streetwise and otherwise smart ex-con Burke narrates this second journey ( Flood ) through New York's garish underworld. The tough, unlicensed private investigator and his memorable cohorts work outside the law, but physically hurt only the true scum: street and subway punks, dope dealers and child abusers. With the help of Max the Silent (deaf-mute Chinese muscle), Michelle (fabulous-looking pre-transsexual hooker), Mole (thick-glassed demolition genius), Immaculata (sympathetic Vietnamese psychotherapist), and Pansy (malevolent Italian guard dog), Burke searches for a kiddie porn picture that will salvage the sanity of a cherubic six-year-old boy. This story fairly crackles with intensity, and the TV/p.i.-type narrator fuels the excitement with wry asides, gangster-wary movements, and cautious self-assurances. Great reading. Rex E. Klett, Anson Cty. Lib., Wadesboro, N.C.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In his first novel, Flood, attorney-turned-novelist Vachss introduced Burke, the ex-con investigator who's not averse to working either side of the law. The book captured the brutal atmosphere of New York's underbelly. This modern-day Robin Hood returns to that seamy world, complete with a merry band that includes a mute Mongolian strongman, a weird genius who lives in a junkyard, a transvestite prostitute and an intimidating dog named Pansy. Hired by a strangely alluring Mafia princess calling herself Strega ("witch" in loose translation ), Burke must find a certain photograph of a child forced into a sex act. Plunged into the world of kiddie porn, he wreaks havoc on the perverts, pimps and pedophiles he despises, the true "bad guys" in his view of things. Despite its action and fast pace, the book is less compelling than the author's first, lapsing into a sort of predictability and short on the pulsing energy a thriller must sustain. 50,000 first printing. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Chicago Sun-Times

"So hard-boiled that it makes Mike Hammer and Sam Spade look like running yolks."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"An absolute stunner, the toughest crime novel, and one of the most realistic, any American writer has produced."

The Washington Post Book World

"It's wonderful. The words leap off the page. The plot is fresh. The principal character is original. The style is as clean as a haiku."

The Philadelphia Inquirer From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"A bizarre, fast-paced tour of the criminal psyche.... Has a grim authenticity."

About the Author

Andrew Vachss is a lawyer who represents children and youths exclusively. His many novels and two collections of short stories have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Esquire, Playboy, and The New York Times, among other publications. A native New Yorker, he divides his time between the city of his birth and the Pacific Northwest. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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