SignWave by Andrew Vachss

Published by Pantheon on June 9, 2015

SignWave opens with an assassin named Olaf giving Dell a ridiculously long-winded lecture on his philosophy of assassination while he's bleeding to death. The lecture is Olaf's legacy, bequeathed to Dell along with the claws that he uses as a weapon of self-defense. Dell later lectures his wife Dolly about his philosophy of being a mercenary. Then Dell lectures the reader on a variety of subjects, including the dangers of Facebook, the ineffectiveness of domestic violence laws, woodpeckers, the harmonious balance of nature, left wing causes that he doesn't like, right wing causes that he doesn't like, lies on the internet, sex on the internet, women, homosexuality, cyberbullying, and more. Dell's rants make him sound like a cranky old man.

Dell also comes across as excessively paranoid and more than a little whacky. He's constantly running down to the basement to assemble a little computer that snaps together with Legos. He uses it to send absurdly abbreviated messages to a hacker he knows as "the ghost" before he disassembles it and hides it again. Dell is constantly running up and down the basement steps, repeating the process every time a nutty research project occurs to him that only the ghost can handle.

Meanwhile, Dolly lectures the group of teenage girls (who inexplicably drop by daily to hang out with her) about sex, love, virginity, and community activism. By the time a plot begins to develop, at least half the novel has gone by.

Throughout the novel, I was asking myself "Did Andrew Vachss really write this?" One of my favorite crime novels is Shella, a tight novel written in spare prose that offers a chilling psychological profile of a killer. The early Burke novels are written in a similar style, without an extra word. There has always been an element of philosophy in Vachss' writing but it has never gotten in the way of storytelling. Until now.

The plot involves a land trust that is buying up property, including a strip that Dolly wants to use as a dog park. When someone involved in the trust makes a concealed threat against Dolly (so concealed -- "don't go off half-cocked" -- that only Dell perceives it as a threat), Dell uses all of his formidable resources to investigate. Which basically means running up and down the basement steps to send cryptic messages to the ghost and occasionally sneaking around in the dark. Since Dell is the one who goes off half-cocked for no apparent reason, I found it difficult to get behind him. He's a paranoid lunatic but he isn't an interesting lunatic.

The plot also involves an investigative journalism blog operated by another paranoid lunatic (albeit a nonviolent lunatic) who stays hidden in the woods -- in other words, just Dell's kind of person. The plot as a whole is barely comprehensible. It is also the first Vacchs plot that I would classify as dull. While I have taken a great deal of pleasure over the years from reading Andrew Vachss, this is also the first Vachss novel I would not recommend, even with reservations. If you want to know Vachss at his best, give Shella a try.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Footsteps of the Hawk by Andrew Vachss

First published in 1995

The Burke series was losing some of its energy by the time Footsteps of the Hawk came along. Andrew Vachss used the Burke books as message novels, but readers got the message early on. Vachss' narrow focus on the damage done by child predators left Burke without much room to grow, and that's a deadly flaw in a series built on a recurring character.

Footsteps of the Hawk is one of the better late entries in the series, however, largely because the plot doesn't focus on child abuse. Vachss still conveys his message, but he does so in asides and flashbacks without hindering the development of the central story. The plot involves two cops who have it in for Burke: a lone wolf named Jorge Morales and a woman named Belinda. Morales seems intent on taking Burke down while Belinda wants to use him for her own ends. Her scheme involves an inmate who, she says, is innocent of at least some of the slayings he's accused of committing. She hires Burke to prove his innocence. The mission changes as the story moves along, and the truth -- what the woman really wants -- naturally proves to be quite different. Whether Morales and Belinda are working together or against each other is unclear until the end. The story kept me guessing and it resolves with a nifty twist.

The supporting cast (the Prof, the Mole, Max the Silent, Clarence, Mama) grew a bit stale over the years, so the addition of a new character to Burke's retinue is refreshing. Frankie is a boxer, learning the trade from the Prof with an assist from Max. He's deferential to Burke's buddies and serves them with unquestioning loyalty. It's therefore easy to understand why Burke likes him despite his lack of any discernible personality. Heck, I liked him. The boxing scenes add interest to the story while giving Burke another subject upon which to muse. Burke's streetwise philosophy is one of the series' charms even if, at times, it becomes overbearing.

As a reader would expect from Vachss, the prose is crisp and the pace is quick. The gritty streets of New York City, usually visited in the dead of night, charge the novel with bleak atmosphere and contribute to the growing tension. Even when the Burke series was wearing thin, Vachss proved himself to be a talented storyteller, making Footsteps of the Hawk a satisfying read for fans of crime novels. 

RECOMMENDED

The Weight by Andrew Vachss

Published by Pantheon on November 9, 2010

Sugar is a professional. He's a thief, he's good at his job, and he's proud of his adherence to the rules of the game. Sugar has just finished a jewelry store heist planned by his friend Solly when he's picked up for a rape. He couldn't have committed the rape but he can't give the cops an alibi without admitting that he was stealing jewels when the rape was committed. Eventually he takes a deal, doing time for a sexual assault but skating on the jewelry store job. When he gets out of prison, Solly gives him his cut but sends him to Florida to tie up some loose ends. The bulk of the novel focuses on Sugar's actions in Florida, his attempt to puzzle out what Solly really wants, and his relationship with the woman Solly sends him to meet.

Getting into the heads of society's outcasts is one of Vachss' greatest talents. Few writers match his ability to create authentic criminal characters. Sugar is a big guy, bulging with muscle mass acquired from lifting weights -- and weight (or wait) becomes an important metaphor in the novel (hence the title). Sugar learned an early lesson about the life of a thief: it isn't how much weight you can lift, it's how much weight you can take. Sugar has a reputation as a stand-up guy, an exception to the axiom that there's no honor among thieves. He could have saved himself from prison time and sex offender registration by giving up the planner and the rest of the crew on the burglary, but he elects instead to keep his mouth shut and do his time.

Some readers don't like novels unless the hero is morally stalwart or the novel delivers a morally uplifting message. I admired Sugar's integrity -- his refusal to be a rat -- but a thief's integrity (and Sugar's reluctant use of violence to secure his safety) won't appeal to some readers. Those readers might want to avoid The Weight. I give Vachss credit for creating a sympathetic character who plays by the rules, even if the rules that govern his world contravene society's rules. Readers who can appreciate a thoughtful examination of the criminal mind will probably enjoy The Weight as much as I did.

The Weight isn't as tightly plotted as Vachss' best work. Sugar spends a lot of time thinking out loud or engaging in meaningless arguments, particularly with the woman in Florida. He also seems oddly sensitive to perceived slights. The strongest parts of the novel come from Sugar's prison experiences. Vachss writes with an authentic voice; he obviously understands how prisons work and how inmates survive in a dehumanizing environment. The main storyline is unfortunately written with less intensity. Still, the plot works well enough and it comes to a satisfying resolution. It isn't as good as Vachss' best non-Burke novel (the chilling Shella) but it's still a fun read.

RECOMMENDED

False Allegations by Andrew Vachss

First published in 1996

False Allegations isn't the best of the Burke novels but it might be the most interesting. Taking on the serious problem of false allegations of sexual assault, Vachss provides a mountain of evidence to establish that accusations of sexual assault are too often false, that false accusations are incredibly destructive even if the truth is eventually revealed, and that false accusations are very difficult to overcome since the accusation itself (if believed) is all the proof the law requires. Of course, every false accusation harms the real victims of sexual assault by fueling the skepticism they encounter when they report the crimes.

A woman with a "recovered memory" of being a sexual assault victim is represented by a lawyer named Kite. Kite hires Burke to determine whether the accused, Brother Jacob, actually assaulted the woman when she was a child. Kite makes his living exposing false allegations of abuse, and is intent on developing a rigorous investigative technique that will become the gold standard of abuse investigations. To have credibility, however, he must conclude that at least one allegation is true, and he wants Burke to assure that the victim he wants to represent in a suit against Brother Jacob is telling the truth. The novel tracks Burke's thorough investigation. Of course, I won't reveal the ending, but I can say that it's both clever and unexpected.

Having said that, I viewed the ending as something of a cop-out (for reasons I can't discuss without spoiling it for those who haven't read the novel). Moreover, Vachss is ultimately an advocate for abused children, not for falsely accused abusers, and the novel can be justly criticized for its unsupported assertion that "recovered memories" are often worthy of belief.  Still, I appreciated Vachss' relatively evenhanded assessment of the nature and causes of false sexual assault allegations, and (as always) I enjoyed his spare, razor-sharp writing style. I also enjoyed Burke's interaction with the usual friends and colorful cronies who populate the Burke novels. This novel lacks the dramatic tension of the best Burke novels, but it's worth reading, if only for its educational value.

RECOMMENDED