Down in the Zero By Vachss, Andrew H. , The Author's Ninth Novel. The Seventh Title in the Burke Series. "Vachss Has Reinvented Detective Fiction and in the Person of Burke, His Haunted, Hell-Ridden PI, Has Given Readers a New Kind of Hero.

By Vachss, Andrew H. , SIGNED By Author Title Page, DJ Design By Chip Kidd

ISBN 10: 0679433287 / ISBN 13: 9780679433286

Published by Alfred Knopf, NY, 1994

About this Item

HBDJ, 1994, Stated 1st Ediiton, 1st Printing, F/F, Interior Nice Tight Clean, 259 pgs. Seller Inventory # 23453

Bibliographic Details

Title: Down in the Zero By Vachss, Andrew H. , The ...

Publisher: Alfred Knopf, NY

Publication Date: 1994

Binding: Hard Cover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: First Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

"Baby Boy Burke" it says on his birth certificate - Father Unknown. Raised in a series of foster homes, orphanages and "reform" schools, and viciously abused in each. Two prison terms and a lifetime later, Burke is still an outlaw: an urban survivalist who doesn't exist on paper, working the jagged edges of the criminal underworld. He's a man for hire, but you have to earn the right to trust him. The dark heart of six previous novels by Andrew Vachss - Flood, Strega, Blue Belle, Hard Candy, Blossom and Sacrifice - Burke's earned the title "lord of the asphalt jungle" (Washington Post). And now, after a hiatus of three years, he's back.
Still mourning the death of a child whose life he took instead of saved, Burke feels the pull of the Zero - the abyss that lies beyond death. Alone with his sorrow, he's been quiet for a long time when he gets the phone call. It's from a kid named Randy claiming to be the son of a woman Burke once knew, and still owes. The kid's plush Connecticut suburb has been hit with a rash of inexplicable teenage "suicides." He's sure he could be next and he wants a bodyguard. Burke's no professional bullet-catcher, but he goes along for two reasons: Randy's mother did save him a prison stretch years ago. And the kid's neighborhood is lousy with cash.
Lousy with other things too. Burke quickly discovers that the picture-perfect community hides the nerve center of an intense erotic underground where S&M sex is sold, traded...and recorded. As Burke moves down the pipeline to where the cluster suicides began, he finds himself in wealthy homes where the term "emotional abuse" takes euphemism to new heights - and depths.
And when a beautiful dominatrix with an ugly secret introduces him to a hideous new version of "legal" kiddie porn, Burke's rage drags him back from the Zero's edge and into a shadowy war with barely visible, shape-shifting enemies.
Consumed by grave-dancing with his own demons, Burke is quickly cornered. But his trappers are about to discover exactly what kind of quarry they've got...

Review:

"Vachss is in the first rank of American crime writers."- "Cleveland Plain Dealer
""Deliciously scummy... His bad guys arememorably heinous."-"Washington Post Book World
""[Vachss's] short sharp sentences crackle with energy; his plots are satisfyingly elaborate; the narratives are beautifully paced, and the characters... are always pungently individual."- "Chicago-Sun Times
""The characters and events are as sharply defined as if they were etched in steel. The prose is short and choppy, like the ticking of a time bomb."-"Seattle Post-Intelligencer""

"Vachss is in the first rank of American crime writers."- Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Deliciously scummy... His bad guys are memorably heinous."-Washington Post Book World

"[Vachss's] short sharp sentences crackle with energy; his plots are satisfyingly elaborate; the narratives are beautifully paced, and the characters... are always pungently individual."- Chicago-Sun Times

"The characters and events are as sharply defined as if they were etched in steel. The prose is short and choppy, like the ticking of a time bomb."-Seattle Post-Intelligencer