Safe House - Softcover

Vachss, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841951080 ISBN 13: 9781841951089

Publisher: Canongate Books, 2001

Synopsis

Burke - hard-core criminal and man-for-hire - is up against a new breed of predator: stalkers. Some obsessed, some deranged, all dangerous. A beautiful outlaw hires Burke to shield one of her charges from a vengeful ex with a fetish for Nazism. But the stalker has a protector who can shut down her operation for good.
When Burke learns that the extortionist might be government-issue, and that the stalker is a member of a neo-Nazi cell with plans to make Oklahoma City look like a pipe-bomb, his survivalist instincts go on full alert. And when it comes down to making his own house and his family-of-choice safe, Burke turns lethal.

About this title

Review:

Vachss' hero Burke is as much an urban terrorist as a professional criminal, dedicated to smashing away at the world of sexual abuse and making a profit in the process; he and his dedicated crew of driven men and women are not entirely like any other characters in crime fiction...In Safe House, Burke is persuaded by two of his lovers to involve himself in the affairs of a woman whose Nazi ex-boyfriend wants to snatch their child and disappear into the Master Race underground--things are not that simple, because the unpleasant Lothar is playing a complicated game in which he has powerful protectors. Vachss writes with a crystalline intensity that at times almost becomes too much to believe in or bear; at his best, he captures the high adrenaline of people on the street and on the edge as well as far more distinguished writers. The touches of Hollywood and of melodrama here are part of his attempt to make us see that these things matter; Vachss is a passionate crusader whose thrillers are a fierce argument for righteous vigilantism as well as an impressively, and worryingly, enjoyable read. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

"brutal beauty" (The Guardian)

"Burke is an acquired taste but an addictive one, and if you like your crime hard-boiled than he's your man." (Mail on Sunday)

"Andrew Vachss's protagonist Burke is a remarkable creation, unrepentantly criminal yet burning with outrage at the evils that men do...His fiction has always challenged taboos, tackling such issues as paedophilia and child prostitution, giving voice to the impotent and disenfranchised who struggle against a tide of indifference to their plight." (The Herald)

"It's rare to find a thriller as unfalteringly taut and suspenseful as this, let alone one as intelligent and psychologically perceptive ... in the best hard-boiled tradition." (The Scotsman)

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1841951080
• ISBN 13: 9781841951089
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304