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New Vachss Novel Makes Powerful Statement on Choice Between Good and Evil By JASON TIPPITT The first time you see a photograph of attorney/novelist Andrew Vachss, chances are you'll notice the patch over one eye. The second thing you'll notice is either the fierce gaze the other eye is giving the camera, or perhaps a dog sitting in his lap. The first time you read one of his books, chances are you'll shudder and think, 'Thank God I don't live in the world he's writing about.' The thing is, we all live in that world. It's just that he's seen more of it with the one normal eye than most of us ever will, and he's here with a wake-up call. 'Down Here' is the 15th entry in Vachss' series of crime novels featuring the sometime detective, sometime vigilante, and round-the-clock hustler named Burke. It proves the old saying about 'no new plots' at the same time as it shatters it with a sledgehammer. Beautiful woman is framed for a crime she couldn't have committed. Detective starts looking to clear her name, largely out of his feelings for her. We've seen it before. But Vachss makes it seem new. The woman is a former prosecutor named Wolfe (based on his real-life wife) who's charged with trying to kill a convicted rapist she'd put in prison, a man whose case has been overturned. Burke loves her from afar, as his hands are too dirty for them to ever work as a couple. Working the case with Burke is his family of fellow criminals and outsiders. They've been there in almost every book, changing and adding children and protégés as the series has progressed. Two of the younger members of his tribe help Burke develop a computer database to find possible suspects. Such a system is so obvious that you'll wonder why police don't use this method more often, which is one of the points in this novel. Everything Vachss writes is written to make a point. The novels aren't 'fiction' or 'entertainment.' They're editorial comments or explanatory essays. He calls the stories Trojan horses. Sometimes, the editorial content overwhelms the story. Here, it fits seamlessly. It becomes clear that the man is asking for police protection for a reason beyond thinking that Wolfe is out to kill him, and Burke goes looking for the reason why. To get there, he approaches the man's sister under the pretense of being a journalist working on a book about wrongful convictions. The relationship with the sister quickly becomes more intimate - much like James Bond, Burke would probably be long dead of AIDS in real life, as he gets involved with a woman in nearly every book - and Burke soon gets close to the acquitted rapist. When Burke finds out why the man was shot, what knowledge he picked up along the way, it's a chilling moment. The main lesson in this book, Vachss has said, is that control freaks are the same, no matter what their mask: rapist, terrorist or religious radical. The ending of the book seemingly comes out of nowhere but is enormously satisfying. It casts much of what came before in a completely different light, or at least reveals what was hidden underneath. Many of Vachss' books spring directly from his work representing abused children. It's rare he does a straight-up mystery that doesn't involve a missing or murdered child. But this book stands as his greatest literary accomplishment to date and as his most powerful statement yet on the choice between good and evil. —Jason Tippitt, (731) 425-9629 © 2004 The Jackson Sun. |