Burke survives an assassination attempt but not without some significant injuries, one eye lost and significant facial injuries, and the loss of a beloved member of his "family." After months in the hospital, feigning amnesia to the cops, he busts out to seek revenge against the person who set him up as an intermediary to pay a ransom and recover a child kidnapping victim. Burke leaves New York, thinking it's not safe for him, travelling to Chicago to trace the victim's parents, and then to Portland. He meets Gem, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, who in many ways is as damaged as Burke, and they develop a symbiotic relationship. There is a long, fairly unnecessary detour to find a tech wizard orphanage friend of Burke to eventually lure an old adversary into a showdown. These books have become unnecessarily long, with too much filler, in my opinion. ( )

Vachss writes about extreme child abuse in a genre form. Suffice to say, there are no other writers like him. He takes a form used for mostly fun and escape and uses it to talk about characters and situations that are very, very heavy. He comes very close to creating something completely new. Here, in Dead and Gone, his plot seems stuck in neutral for about two hundred pages dedicated to back story and the quirky but somewhat cliched romance between Burke, the star of the series, and Gem, a woman with unspecified underworld ties. Once the plot final resumes, there is a deus ex machina feel to the resolution. All that said, Vachss is a writer worth a try as you will never encounter another like him. ( )

I always forget why it is I don't like Andrew Vachss novels. I will go years without reading one and then think, "Hey, why don't I read another Vachss novel?" Then I'll read one and remember, "Oh yeah, his endings are always inexplicable and unsatisfying and never seem to tie up a single loose end. And don't forget how rushed they are."

I think about that and then I think, "Oh man, his female characters are also caricatures. No one writes women worse than Vachss with the possible exception of men who write super hero comics."

And then I will go a couple of year without reading Vachss and will find myself in a bookstore and somehow will have forgotten all of the above.

That faulty memory is how I came to read this Vachss offering and I suspect in a couple of years I will repeat this recursive dumbassery of mine. I hope writing all of this down helps me remember but it probably won't. Sigh...

Anyway, crappy, rushed and unsatisfying ending and if Gem doesn't make you want to vomit at least twice (hi, hot Asian chick dressed as a sexy schoolgirl is a fucking cliche unworthy of anyone outside of derivative porn, thanks!), then I probably need to challenge you to a thumb wrestling match, best two out of three. You could do worse than read this book but you'd really have to work at it. ( )

This was one of the most gut-wrenching novels I have recently read best describes "Dead and Gone" by Andrew Vachss. "Dead and Gone" was my first novel from Mr. Vachss and was recommended by a number of librarything and Amazon connoisseurs, especially those who favored testosterone flavored literature. Suffice to say that Mr. Vachss captures the essence, nuance, flavor and cadence of modern noir/hard-boiled detective novels, even though his main character, Burke, is not a detective. Mr. Vachss' signature is in capturing the delicate balance between slick and pretentious like few writers I've come across. And he circumscribes expertly many of the visceral feelings of those who have been hurt beyond repair. Were there times I felt he crossed that line into being ostentatious, yes. However, the novel packs a punch like few others and I will be perusing the shelves for another jolt. ( )