Flood

by Andrew Vachss

Book Overview

Burke's newest client is a woman named Flood, who has the face of an angel, the body of a high-priced stripper, and the skills of a professional executioner. She wants Burke to find a monster for her--so she can kill him with her bare hands. In this cauterizing thriller, Andrew Vachss's renegade investigator teams up with a lethally gifted avenger to follow a child's murderer through the catacombs of New York, where every alley is blind and the penthouses...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679781293
• ISBN13: 9780679781295
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Gritty Urban Revenge Fantasy

What is it about revenge that makes it such a vicariously satisfying experience? While most people would never act on their impulses for it, the desire for vengeance can be an overwhelming pleasure. To read about, or see, characters who follow their baser emotions can make for a thrilling ride.Enter Andrew Vachss. A lawyer who has specialized in crimes against children, Vachss has condensed and distilled all his rage on the subject, and has created a revenge fantasy that may be one of the nastiest stories put to page.FLOOD, Vachss' first novel, introduces the reader to Burke, an anti-hero like no other. Not necessarily a hitman, Burke is more of an avenging angel for hire, if he can be convinced the cause is worthy, and his Neopolitan mastiff Pansy doesn't rip a prospective client to shreds. His existence consists of an odd assortment of hookers, restaurant owners, gambling, and Max the Silent, his spiritual brother, and possibly the most dangerous man on Earth.Into this world enters Flood, a woman with a dilemma. She wants Burke to find a man. When he is found, she will kill him. Burke doesn't immediately jump at the opportunity, but the man Flood wants is, among other things, a pedophile. For reasons that are his own, Burke has a particular intense hatred for child molesters. Soon enough, he agrees to help, for a price.Vachss' novels (this is the first of many Burke novels) are as hard-boiled as they come. The characters can be seen as ridiculous in the light of day, but in Vachss' hands, they take on an eerie nobility. I say eerie, because in most circumstances, you would never sit next to any of his characters on a bus. It's quite a feat to write novels based on people you'd be afraid to even glance at, and still make them entertaining. But Vachss has a genuine empathy for his characters. His novels are not disposable. They are far too well-written to be dismissed as mere 'entertainment'.There are some who might gripe about the uneasy moral tones of the novel. The idea of taking the law into your own hands is a repugnant quality in most aspects of our lives. But almost all literary heroes can be defined as loners who work outside of convention. Is Burke different than any number of fictional characters who do what we cannot, or dare not? Burke himself realizes that his universe is not for everyone. He did not create the world, he only does what he can to survive within it.Burke's world is fictional, to an extent. The underbelly of society he inhabits may be seductive in its way, but it is a heightened reality that is hard to swallow sometimes. But Vachss is an able tourguide. And he understands what makes revenge such an irresistible emotion, and a dangerous one as well.

This is the place to meet Burke

"Flood" is the first novel featuring the anti-hero Burke, and the best place to get to know him and his crew. Especially since later novels build one on top of the other more than is usual for a "detective" series. Burke is not a happy man. He survives despite the vast emptiness he feels inside. Emptiness that he calls "The Zero." Abandoned as a child, he grew up hard in the system. Only now as he approaches middle age has he developed any sort of wisdom. When the femme fatale "Flood" comes into his life with her own tragic background, she does the worst to Burke, she begins to make him feel. In addition to being the first Burke novel, this is also one of the best.

It's Better To Face The Enemy...

...than to turn away because you don't like what you see. Vachss's work is compelling; his stories are the product of what he has seen in his long-standing and ongoing defense of children.I've prosecuted criminal cases for eleven years. Sadly, I can tell you that Vachss's "fiction" is grounded in the real world. That means the man won't be bound by crime fiction convention, and those who live and die by formula will be disappointed. But more importantly, it also means his books are required reading for anyone interested in learning how and why we fight the War to keep our children safe. Highly recommended.