Customer Reviews

Terminal: A Burke Novel (Burke Novels)

5 star:		(23)
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3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

If you've never picked up a Burke book before, this is the one to start with. Full of action, darkness, and a message buried in the pages that will haunt you long after you finish. Andrew Vachss always calls his books "Trojan Horses" because he wants the public to take a good look at themselves and understand why certain types of evil happens in the world. Vachss has reported on child molestation, Internet child porn, sex slavery in Thailand, and school shootings long before the "media" pretended that they discovered a new phenomenon. Chris Hanson is not a hero; he's a television personality looking for ratings. Andrew Vachss writes "thrillers" to wake people up to the truth. Terminal continues that trend. I don't want to give elements of the plot away. Suffice it to say that this is a one-sitting read, with Hammett-like economy and a poetry all his own. It's no wonder that many of the popular writers today (David Morrell, to name one) sing his praises. To me, if he isn't pissing people off, he's not doing his job. And by pissing off, I mean making the predators of this world angry that he's exposing them for what they are, and angering those "Children of the Secret" who will try to show lawmakers, politicians, and bureaucrats that "behavior is truth." I know that's Mr. Vachss' rallying cry. I hope everyone who sees this will read the book and answer the call.

Burke is back: older, perhaps wiser, attempting to avoid being crushed by the accumulation of his losses, at the book's beginning.

The basic plot has already been described accurately enough. Burke is going through the motions, attending to his usual schemes and scams, but gaining no real satisfaction from his successes. He's back in New York and his family is there for him, as always, but Burke seems struck by a sense of impending...not loss, exactly, but perhaps sadness, as he observes the Family Pride at Flower's academic achievements, even as he shares them, remembering the day her parents met, so long ago.

Terry, too, is now a grown man, struggling to accept the idea of commencing with his own life, as he fears his future will bring him further away from his own mother and father, even while understanding that this is what they *want* for him -- a life of his own, outside the shadows.

The Prof has Clarence; the Mole has Michelle; Max has Immaculata, and while Burke loves them all, and rejoices in their closeness with one another, Burke himself is all alone. Thoughts of Belle and Pansy haunt him, as does his knowledge that he's blown his last chance with prosecutor Wolfe, and he finds (to his own surprise) that the events which took place in Vachss' last Burke book, _Mask Market_, have affected him profoundly.

This is the state of mind Burke is in when contacted by Claw, the terminally-ill, high-ranking member of a White Supremacist group with ties to another member of Burke's family-of-choice, Silver, who Burke fans will remember from other novels. Silver vouches for Claw, so Burke agrees to help him with an extortion scheme against three rich men, who've been keeping a secret, the rape and murder of a young girl that happened way back when they were still three rich *boys*.

There is enough detail from former Burke novels to bring new readers at least somewhat up to speed, while not growing tedious for long-time readers. The plot, as always with Vachss, is tightly-woven, intricate, and takes a few surprising turns. Also, as always with Vachss, it serves as a means of conveying deep truths...about family, greed, and the choices people make.

I imagine the reviews I've read which mention Vachss' supposed over-the-top "political commentary" most likely all stem from the PW review's mention of "the Bush administration," because this was not what I saw at *all*. Since book one, Burke has had a habit of reading the papers, listening to the radio, and watching teevee, while commenting on the inanities and insanities of the world. Similarly, Burke has *always* criticized the "criminal justice system" -- it's what made him the man he is! Again, Burke has never had a high opinion of politicians -- any politicians from any political party. I did not find him any more overly focused on the Bush administration than he was on the Clinton administration, during the books in which Bill Clinton was President, for example. In no way did I feel that Burke's (immediately recognizable to those who've read more than one of the Burke novels) usual dismissal of talking-head politicians or Springer-audience-type voters overshadowed the plot or the narrative.

The ending is a real cliff-hanger, but not in a way that I found "cheap," simply in the OMG-I-can't-WAIT-for-the-next-Burke-novel way.

Burke has always been a man with a family, but he seems to be feeling "all alone" recently. The experiences he's undergone over the series would have profound impacts on anyone, and Burke is questioning many of his lifelong assumptions, and wondering about his place, within his own beloved family, and with the larger world as well.

And I cannot wait for the next Burke novel!

I have to be honest and admit that I understand why Publishers' Weekly describes the work of Andrew Vachss as "over-the-top." Like so many pundits, they are writing from a position of ignorance and wishful thinking. While I have come to expect such ignorance in everyday life, I expect more from those who claim the right to judge the literary merit of America's finest authors. On the other hand, to be honest, there are times when I envy their ignorance, though never for long.

Over the years, as I have read each and every one of his books, I have consistently wished that the work of Andrew Vachss really was more fictional and less real. When he wrote about Internet porn, years before "regular people" were aware of this horrendous and lucrative criminal enterprise, he was called "over-the-top," and accused of a wild and sick imagination. If only those accusations were correct.

I wish I didn't know so much about the evil that (mostly) men do, and I wish that I could join in the ill-informed chorus that accuses Vachss's novels of being "over-the-top." It would be a better world if he were inventing this stuff, but he is not.

Each of Andrew Vachss' novels has required a combination of skill and courage. Because he relies so heavily on unpleasant, unthinkable truth, he is guaranteed to draw fire from bad people who perpetuate these evils, and otherwise good people who simply don't want to believe that they exist. But ignorance is not bliss; ignorance harms children. The telling of hard truths has always been the hallmark of our greatest thinkers, and they are almost always vilified. Later, when the entertainers who bring us our news confirm the unthinkable, too slowly they are believed.

Andrew Vachss, it seems, has long ago decided that when it comes to protecting our children, time is not our friend. Subtle education is not on his agenda, because we don't have time for people to figure this stuff out.

So Terminal, like every Vachss novel that preceded it, hits us in the face with things we'd rather not believe. If his prose is "over-the-top," it is because of the unvarnished accuracy of his observations. These books may be fiction, but the stories they tell are not. When Vachss hits us in the face with truths we'd rather deny, the correct response is not to assault the messenger. Instead, America should say, "Thanks, we needed that," and do something about it.

(For those who choose to do something about it, write to protect.org. You won't be alone.)

This is the weakest of all the Burke novels. What is little more than a short story has been extended by the author, Vacchs, into a work that is 1/3 story and 2/3 polemics. I agree that abusers and destoyers of children all are of the lowest of the low in society and should be persecuted and prosecuted until they are removed from our world and locked away forever.

What I do not agree with is an author who creates a work of supposed fiction and then spends most of the work providing factual details to support his agendas. All that Vacchs says, as author, belongs in a nonficton work which should include additional information exploring Vacchs' ideas for dealing with child abusers; he has extensive knowledge and experience from which we all could benefit. But, he ought not to pack it into a so-called "novel."

I was expecting something of the caliber of Flood, which came out in 1985, and all of the subsequent novels. Terminal Burked me, blind-sided me, drawing upon Vacchs's name and reputation to entice me into entering the novel. I just wish I weren't hammered so hard by the author. Instead, I wish I would have been finessed by Burke, making the author's points through his actions.

Andrew Vachss is one of my favorite tough-guy novelists. Generally, no one writes them meaner or leaner than Vachss. He's got the inside track on a lot of sex crimes, particularly pedophilia and child-rape, which are special topics to him.

When he's not writing bestselling fiction about these two potentially stomach-turning subjects, he's practicing law to save kids from these predators and put those predators away for ever. In some ways, in real life Vachss is an even larger hero than his iconic hijacker/gunman/profiler, Burke.

Vachss has been writing these novels since FLOOD was published in 1985, and I've been reading them since I found the paperback in 1986. TERMINAL, this year's release, is the 17th in the series.

I love Burke. He's a hardened criminal with no remorse in him for people he takes advantage of. He usually operates cons, selling information that's no good or forgeries to people who intend to use it for evil pursuits. Burke justifies it, and I've always bought into his justification, though I wouldn't do it myself. He was raised and mistreated by the State, in institutions as well as foster homes. He never had a chance and he knows it. He still doesn't have one. So he lives his life in the shadows, and that provides a vicarious thrill that I haven't gotten over even twenty-plus years later.

He's also got a "family" of other people who were just as broken as he was, yet who refused to roll over and die. There's Max the Silent, a deaf and dumb Mongolian martial arts master who is immediate death to anyone that he's decided must die. The Prof is the black con man who taught Burke how to survive in prison, then on the streets. The Mole is a Jewish techno-wizard, a savant with anything electrical or explosive. Michelle is the ex-streetwalker transvestite who was surgically altered when she got the money together and serves as their social engineer. Wesley was the pistoleer of the group, and no one was more deadly with a firearm. Mama is the Chinese restaurant owner who's always served as their bank and a place of operations.

Over the years, Burke and Vachss - and the readers - have added to that family. And, sadly, they've taken away.

With the publication of TERMINAL, Vachss has pushed his series into near-inaccessibility by new readers. The world Burke inhabits has just grown and gotten so large that newbies need a scorecard to keep up. Vachss tries to alleviate that problems with a lot of explaining and backtracking, but that effort gets in the way of long-time readers. I understand the characters and the world. I wanted the action to move a little faster in this book. I still enjoyed it a lot, but a lot of it was like having a good friend rework stories you've heard before. Still, I like the stories, so it's not so bad.

However, the plot was a little late in launching and I became impatient at times. Vachss is still fun to read, though. But I'd really suggest reading the early ones first and doing some catch-up before tackling this one. That way you know who Clarence and Terry and Flower are.

In this book, Burke goes back to stalking the child molesters and killers in the shadows. Three men are guilty of raping and killing a girl over twenty years ago. One of their accomplices has come forward with a blackmail scheme. The sons of privileged families, they've all ascended into wealthy lifestyles.

Burke intends to blackmail them for the murder, make them pay financially, then with their lives. It's what he does, and I'm one of his biggest fans.

The book takes a while to wind up to full speed, but it's always a pleasure working the capers and the con with Burke. Vachss pulls you right into the middle of the action and explains how those operations work better than anyone else I've ever read. And he doesn't flinch over the hard stuff like murder and torture either. He lays it out on the line. These books often aren't for people with weak stomachs.

In addition to the Burke books, Vachss has also written standalones and graphic novels and comics. I really recommend his novels SHELLA and THE GETAWAY MAN to showcase some of his other writing.

Vachss is seriously THE crime writer you should be reading if you're not.

Terminal, the latest in the much-revered series of novels featuring career criminal Burke, finds Andrew Vachss in a real groove, writing-wise. The end result is an exceptional episode in what is one of the most important series in its genre.

Perhaps not the most commercial series, mind you, but that's more a function of the marketplace than anything else. Vachss' novels, both series and stand-alone, require commitment beyond that which is normally required in order to appreciate their full impact. And intent.

And as any Vachssian will tell you, that commitment involves action. That action could be anything, from becoming more educated about the realities behind Vachss' fiction--the "Trojan horses" that he constructs--to actually becoming part of the effort to right the wrongs (PROTECT.org). In his words, let your actions be your truth. But we'll talk about that later.

At its core, Terminal is a great crime thriller. It finds Burke and his crew at the nexus of a scheme to bring some long-overdue justice to the killers of a young girl. The suspects have been protected by the privilege of their upbringing some 30 years after the murder, and a dying man comes to Burke, via Vachss' time-honored fashion of back-channels and references, with a notion of payback.

Burke sees potential for a multi-level reward, so he pulls together his family to vette his ideas and create a plan of action.

We are introduced again to Burke's Chosen Family--the indomitable Max The Silent, the rhyming wisdom of the Prof, the laser-focused devotion of Michelle, the genius of The Mole--as they help Burke filter his emotions and desires into a brilliant scheme of deception.

Vachss' gift, as his writing has evolved, involves his ability to blend those Trojan horses in so seamlessly with his plotting. His mission is now DNA-bound with his prose.

Unlike, say, Tom Clancy--who can be read, and even enjoyed, without signing on to his extreme politics--anyone who DOESN'T think that we have a long way to go before children in this country are truly protected against the monsters we've systematically created is going to find this a challenging read. And if you're that person, you'd better read this--or any other Vachss novel, and learn some truth.

As Vachss weaves his plot--and make no mistake, the plot here is complex and very well-knitted--he also takes some interesting detours. Those would be the Trojan horses we talked about. Whether it's a fascinating recollection of how prison society is REALLY organized (as opposed to how it's generally portrayed in American Media) and how that organization manifesting itself into our concept of "rehabilitation" affects us in The World, a prescient look dog-fighting in the "gangsta" cuture, or exposing the outrages that stay under society's radar, primarily because their images don't make good TV, Vachss constructs them in such a way that makes them inseparable from the plotting. It's the reason his novels kick your ass. And that is, most definitely a good thing.

The finale of Terminal is one of Vachss' best ever. He raises the stakes for Burke along with the pace of the action in a stunning manner. At the end, if you are not screaming "WHAT HAPPENS NOW?", you aren't paying attention. It is mind-blowing, and it's one of the reasons that Terminal is one of 2007's major crime-fiction accomplishments.

Other reviews here have commented on the plot elements of TERMINAL, the 17th installment in Mr. Vachss' highly popular "Burke" series, as well as the sociopolitical digressions contained therein, so I won't revisit those areas. What I do want to say is that TERMINAL is a deceptively deep, provocative, intensely psychological, incredibly entertaining novel. Mr. Vachss' protagonist, Burke, continues to age and evolve, as do his relationships with his family of choice ... most interesting (and very moving) among them is Burke's reconnection with his brother the Mole. The machinations and manipulations Burke and his family go through to pull off a multilayered extortion scam are of Machiavellian proportions and brilliant in the extreme. The book is beautifully paced, with the excitement and tension growing page-by-page as a potentially violent climax approaches. Masterfully constructed, TERMINAL could perhaps be described as skeletal but, make no mistake, there is nothing "thin" here and much would be missed by reading this truly extraordinary book superficially. A remarkable addition to an already outstanding series, TERMINAL elevates the "Burke" series to whole new level. Anyone reading this exceptional book thoughtfully and carefully will certainly be rewarded.

ADDENDUM: Prescience is also something with which Mr. Vachss seems to be gifted. TERMINAL contains a scene in which three "gangsta" types attempt to arrange a big-money, dog fight tournament. The fallout from their misguided efforts is laugh-out-loud funny, strangely touching, and, again, right on target. Given the pace at which the publishing industry moves, the creation of that scene would have had to predate the media roar surrounding Michael Vick's illegal activities by at least a year.

This Burke novel is one of my favourites next to Strega. Burke is approached by a terminally-ill white supremacist named, Claw. (Formally named Claude until he achieved phenomenal grip strength in his right hand.) Claw has a black mailing scheme based on the story of a creepy former convict who claims that three wealthy men had raped and killed a girl decades ago. Burke smells a rat from the creepy guy. But, Burke following his instincts for money and revenge pursues the scheme with help from his friends, a teen gang and a massive enforcer called Gigi.

As usual, Vachss makes his own social commentary and wastes no time in slagging politicians and the obscene ways that child abusers are protected. All along he describes the shady world of hard criminals and where children are hurt, bought, sold and killed. I liked the way he describes the white supremacist organizations as just another group of gangs out to make a buck.

With the planning that would impress the military, Burke puts together the black mailing scheme and the story seems simple enough. Three now-wealthy men who killed a small-town girl will pay in more ways than money. Just when you think that crime was grim enough, another situation reveals the heart of a sick, evil soul. Even after reading 15 other Vachss books, I did not even see the end coming on this one.

Grim as the story reads, there is also thought-provoking comments and humor. Probably why I keep reading books by Vachss.

I don't know what drew me to this book. I was standing in the "mystery" section of a book store, looking for something new. I saw that there were several (16 to be exact) previous novels saying that they were "a Burke novel." I read the back cover of Terminal and was intrigued. And then I stood there, and read the first 13 pages. I was hooked.

Burke finds people, usually children. But, as he is career criminal, he is way outside the normal channels. He can also be a violent person, especially when he crosses paths with "freaks;" people who bring harm to children, through molestation, prostitution, or murder. In those cases, the perpetrator will meet his maker, but the trail never leads to Burke, he has learned much during his years behind bars. In Terminal, he is approached to do a little extortion. Thirty years ago, three kids raped and killed a 13 year-old girl. The case was never solved, but one of the people on the periphery of the crime has some evidence of the crime and has approached the ex-leader of a white supremacist prison group, "Claw," who sees a way to afford some experimental cancer procedures as he has been diagnosed as terminal. However, to pull off the scam, Claw needs a person he can trust, and that is Burke and his crew. The three kids have grown up to be wealthy and powerful men, and this job will take require all of Burke's skills. But if he can pull it off, he gets what he really likes: money and revenge for the murder of the girl.

Burke inhabits a part of society that is dark and violent. Vachss does an exceptional job writing about that world, you feel as though you are right there, next to Burke, as he goes about his business. The language, action, and characters are all believable, and, after 16 novels, well rounded. While this is my introduction to Burke, there is just enough backstory to help you with his relationships and past, that you don't feel as though you have missed anything in the previous novels. But Vachss makes it so that you want to go back and read them, as some references seem too good to miss. While moving toward an amazing climax, with a really nice twist, Burke will also educate you on the criminal justice system, politicians, and the plight of some children. It is the latter where you will find that Burke has absolutely no gray area. As an example, Vachss writes, using Burke as the vehicle, "Sex-offender treatment is like performing an exorcism on an atheist.." Quite a statement from a career criminal, but one that will make you reconsider "rehabilitation."

There is more to this novel than just a tale of money and revenge. Vachss has written a novel that has made me want to pick up the first novel in the series and read the rest of them.

This is the 17th of Andrew Vachss's novels to feature Burke. I found this a particularly difficult novel to read: I am familiar with Mr Vachss's work in the area of child protection; I see Burke and his outlaw family as an effective vehicle for the transmission of the message but this particular story just didn't work for me as well as earlier ones in the series. And yet, I find myself hard-pressed to find more effective ways of awareness raising.

Claude Dremdell, a white supremacist with a terminal illness, enlists Burke in a plot to extort money from three wealthy men with a murder in their shared past which they'd like to keep there. Putting the plan together involves many of the skills of the different members of Burke's family (`bound by blood, not DNA') and at times the story itself doesn't seem strong enough to support all of the events. Perhaps Burke has come to a crossroads. While the possibility of vengeance and money still motivates him, and his cynical observations zing as well as ever, there is a sense that Burke is looking for more. Not just for himself, but also for the younger members of the family who have other possibilities available for them.

Yes, elements of the story work well. And those of us who share Andrew Vachss's ongoing personal commitment to raise awareness of and fight against the continuing, horrific abuse of young children know that raising these issues and keeping them within consciousness is never comfortable.

Andrew Vachss's novels are never comfortable reads. They are not intended to be. They do not graphically portray abuse, but they do force the reader to confront the results of the abuse and to think about the consequences: not just on the child but also for society.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith