Dead and Gone (Burke Series #12)

by Andrew Vachss

Overview

From the modern master of noir, Andrew Vachss, comes this heart-topping and bestselling new thriller that completely reinvents the Burke series.

Urban Outlaw Burke barely survives an attack by a professional hit squad that kills his partner. With a new face, Burke goes into hiding. And on the hunt. Dead and Gone takes him from the streets of New York City through a cross-country underground, and deep into his own tortured past. The violent journey ends in a place that exists only in the dreams of the darkest degenerates on earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375413612
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/25/2001
Series:	Burke Series , #12
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	2 MB

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.

Editorial Reviews

Our Review
A Dead End or a New Beginning?
Few literary characters are as remarkable or memorable as Andrew Vachss's indomitable antihero, Burke, a career criminal who kills with ease but has a huge soft spot in his heart for kids and dogs. In Vachss's latest effort, Dead and Gone, Burke is in more trouble than ever, which is saying a lot for a man who lives on the fringes of society and often looks death in the face.

It starts when Burke agrees to act as middleman for the ransomed return of a kid who was kidnapped a decade before. The child was only four when he was taken from his Russian immigrant parents, and the case, while still open, has long been cold. Burke takes every precaution in arranging the trade, but when it comes time to make the actual swap, he finds himself the victim of an unexpected ambush. His beloved dog, Pansy, is shot down in a hail of bullets, and Burke himself is shot several times -- once in the face -- and left for dead.

Days later, Burke awakens in a hospital with part of his brain shattered and his face altered so much by the bullet's impact that he's unrecognizable. But while he may be weak and disoriented, he has enough of his wits to remember who he is and that someone tried to kill him. Feigning a memory loss and pretending to be weaker than he is, Burke gradually rebuilds his strength and escapes from the hospital, eventually hooking up with his usual cadre of "family."

Swearing revenge, Burke sets out to find the man responsible for the ambush. At first he focuses on the only fact he has: that the killer knew and used Burke's greatest weakness -- endangered children -- to lure him into the trap. Several deaths, a score of dead ends, and a cross-country trip later, Burke finally solves the mystery and finds his man. But the outcome is one that no one -- particularly Burke -- could have foreseen or even imagined.

Once again mixing a thriller plot with social commentary, Vachss expands on the Burke legend in a whole new way. With a dozen books already out in this series, one might think the character of Burke is at risk of getting stale. But with Dead and Gone, Vachss finds a way to take the character and the stories in a totally new direction, one that is sure to keep fans delighted and devoted for many books to come.

--Beth Amos

Beth Amos is the author of several novels, including Second Sight, Eyes of Night, and Cold White Fury.

bn.com

After his longtime partner is killed by a professional hit squad, urban outlaw Burke goes underground to hunt a degenerate killer with links to Burke's past.

bn.com editor

"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

From the Publisher