Sacrifice [Hardcover]

Andrew Vachss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 11, 1991

What--or who--could turn a gifted little boy into a murderous thing that calls itself "Satan's Child"? In search of an answer, Burke travels from a festering welfare hotel to a neat frame house where a voodoo priestess presides over a congregation of assassins.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest assault on sexual abusers of children, super-tough Manhattan maverick PI Burke works both sides of the law to save Luke, an eight-year-old suspect in a series of baby murders. His roster of eccentric friends (familiar from Blossom, Flood et al.) includes Max the Silent, the huge, mute master of martial arts, Elroy the forger and the Mole, a scientist with a high-tech laboratory hidden in a Bronx junkyard; all help keep the city's bureaucracy, including a beautiful Amazonian DA named Wolfe, at bay while Burke arranges the best treatment for Luke, whose personality has been fragmented by repeated violent trauma. New on the seamy scene are voodoo Queen Thana, a highly organized West Indian crime gang and a collection of extraordinary dogs, all fierce, powerful and unfailingly loyal to their masters. Each time we meet him, Burke becomes more personally anguished by the propensity of adults to mistreat children. Although he is remarkably well served by his friends (all equal in loyalty to the admirable canines), especially in the explosive finale, he remains emotionally withdrawn, his obsession verging on craziness. That, along with his terse, cryptic observations about the world around him, makes him more a scary caricature than a man with a mission.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A routine sixth outing for Vachss's dark knight Burke--that is, a bitter cup overflowing with satanic child-rape, multiple personality disorder, voodoo, execution-murders, and other workaday hazards of the ``outlaw'' p.i.'s ever-more bleak--and vengeful--Gotham half-life. Back from a series-freshening trip to Indiana (Blossom, 1990), Burke again surrounds himself with series regulars (martial-arts master Max the Silent, electronic wizard Mole, etc.) who play Robin to his Batman as he again takes on child abusers--attorney Vachss's legal foes in real life. What is missing is the sort of strong heroine (Flood, Blue Belle, etc.) who in the past has grounded Burke's high-voltage vigilantism; here, Burke's main female companionship is provided by a prostitute--representative of the sort of nasty turns that dominate the novel, which opens with Burke posing as a blind man to nail a ``freak''--a child abuser. Soon, bigger prey beckons: a child-porn ring with satanic trappings whose grim abuse has made a multiple personality of one eight-year-old Luke, with one of the personalities a stone killer. A crusading D.A. wants to try Luke for murder, but Burke persuades her to go after the cult--a decision that, coupled with his work on another case, sweeps him into a netherworld inhabited by, among others, a wealthy pedophile, a demented counterfeiter, a slick gun-runner, and an alluring voodoo queen. The brutal action is slightly sweetened by Burke's tutelage of a young, personable gangster, and significantly soured by his self-pitying running commentary (``I live under the darkness, where it's safe. Safe from things so secret that they have no name'')--and explodes in a merciless mass-killing by Burke of the cult, blood-revenge for his own sufferings as a child. Vachss still writes a mean page, full of sound and fury; but his spike-hard prose and action are blunted by a moralism that smugly sets Burke up as the most obnoxiously self-righteous--and increasingly one-note--judge, jury, and executioner since Mike Hammer. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 271 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (June 11, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679402837
• ISBN-13: 978-0679402831
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,504,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for "aggressive-violent" youth. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youth exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, two collections of short stories, and a wide variety of other material including song lyrics, graphic novels, essays, and a "children's book for adults." His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, The New York Times, and many other forums. His books have been awarded the Grand Prix de Littérature Policiére, the Falcon Award, Deutschen Krimi Preis, Die Jury des Bochumer Krimi Archivs and the Raymond Chandler Award (per Giurìa a Noir in Festival, Courmayeur, Italy). Andrew Vachss' latest books include Heart Transplant (Dark Horse Books, October 2010), a collaboration with Frank Caruso that attempts to reset the cultural software as it pertains to bullying, and The Weight (Pantheon, November 2010), a crime novel. The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is vachss.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Burke Descends into Hell, October 13, 2000

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacrifice (Paperback)

"Sacrifice" is the darkest novel in the Burke series. It is also a turning point. Since each Burke novel builds on its predecessors, Burke's figurative descent into hell at the end of the book was bound to have a traumatic effect on him. "Satan's Child" is arguably the most disturbing creation that Author Vachss has created in the entire series. I've read all of the Burke novels, and by and large I prefer the earlier books to the later entries. Overall, I would rank "Sacrifice" somewhere in the middle.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hooked me on Burke for life, August 12, 2001

By 

Heatherlyn "kalilyn" (Dobbs Ferry, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacrifice (Paperback)

This was the first Vachss book I ever read, it was given to me when at the age of thirty I finally got that horrid childhood disease, chicken pox. While laid up with 104 for a fever and wanting to die, my father gave me a copy of Sacrifice to help pass away the hours.

Within the first 20 pages the pox were forgotten and a Burke fan was born for life.

I knew a pedophile. For years we tried to convince 'the right people' that this person was indeed a pedophile. Unfortunately no one listened and his money bought his release. How I wish I knew a Burke in the real world.

What impressed me the most about this book was its truth. It is evident from the start that Mr. Vachss has spent time in the trenches, that his stories are sadly based on a grim part of life most people would rather not acknowledge.

The message in his words is conveyed through the gruff gentleness of Burke. The loyalty between Burke and his group is a loyalty very few people share. His voodoo accurate as well, this is simply a high quality novel that will disturb the reader, make the reader think and introduce the reader permanently into The Zone.

Read this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well written, as always...but a tad too grim for my taste., December 25, 2005

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacrifice (Paperback)

Andrew Vachss, social worker, lawyer, author is a leader in the child protective movement. He calls it "a war," and considers his writing as powerful a weapon as his litigation. Vachss openly admits that he writes about the abuse of children because he wants to raise people's awareness of what's going on, and he'll reach a wider audience with fiction. His novels are powerful. He hits hard. His street tough dialogue and staccato-like prose lend authenticity to this raw, darker than noir world - a world where unspeakable horrors are perpetrated upon innocent children. "Sacrifice" and other books in the Burke series are not for the faint of heart. As heinous, almost far-fetched, as the narratives seem, (who could treat children like this?), the stories are, unfortunately, as real as case studies and the perpetrators prey on their young victims all over the world.

The author tackles a particularly difficult subject here. Luke is a wonderful little boy with a genius I.Q.. He is inquisitive, playful, friendly to the people he trusts - which are few. He has other personalities, however - and one is of a monstrous baby-killer filled with uncontrollable rage. Luke was repeatedly tortured, sexually abused and cruelly filmed in his agony by his parents and their friends, members of a Satanic cult. He is "Satan's child." One of the questions that arises from Luke's case is, after psychiatric treatment to merge his multiple identities, should he be charged with committing murder - or should those people who turned him into a fiend be held responsible - if they can be found...and if Burke doesn't get to them first?

Vigilantism and revenge are other issues that continually pop up in this series. Burke was an abused child raised in numerous foster homes and is a veteran of reform school and prison. "I live under the darkness, where it's safe. Safe from things so secret that they have no name. Under the darkness - it's not a territory you occupy - you take it with you - it goes where I go." And, "There's other's like me. Children of the Secret." Consequently, he himself is unable to control his anger when he deals with pedophiles. His violent acts of vengeance often save the courts the trouble of trying the suspects. But revenge, especially by murder, is against the law.

"Sacrifice" is far from my favorite Burke book. The subject matter really creeped-me-out...and that's hard to do. I know that crimes like these happen - I just don't know if I want to read about them in my leisure time. Also, the author really proselytizes here. And that is so unnecessary. He makes his points over and over again and each time more fervently. The reader gets it - how could one not "get it?" Here Mr. Vachss is too much the man on a mission. But his readers are with him from the get-go. Too much preaching to the choir.

The usual cast of extraordinary characters are all present, including: Max the Silent, a warrior and now a father; Pansy is a warrior of another species - she's a Neapolitan mastiff, just like the kind that came over the Alps with Hannibal; the Mole, a pasty-faced genius who lives in a bunker beneath a high-tech junkyard; the Prophet, a scam artist who speaks in rhyme; Mama Wong, group doyenne - a Chinese Jewish mother and restaurateur, "keeps her prices high and the ambiance foul to discourage yuppies." She cares for the gang, takes Burke's messages and holds his stash; Michelle, a gorgeous transvestite is absent here, busy dealing with the complications which have arisen around her life-changing operation; Terry, the "lost boy" adopted by Michelle and Mole is around to befriend Luke. Ms. Wolfe, a sex crimes prosecutor who Burke has the hots for, plays a bigger than usual role in this novel - which is a plus. And Queen Thana, voodoo royalty, is introduced here too.

This is not a bad book. I don't think Andrew Vachss has it in him to write poor fiction. But, be warned - read at your own risk of some sleepless nights.
JANA