Dead and Gone by Andrew Vachss (2000)
In addition to being a child protection consultant and an attorney exclusively representing children and youths, Andrew Vachss was a crime author best known for his series of 18 novels about Burke, an urban vigilante. I was a big fan of Vachss and of Burke back in the day, but stopped reading him in the late 90s -- no particular reason, just that other, newer authors were taking up my reading time -- but when I came across a copy of Dead and Gone I knew it was time to re-anew my acquaintance.
Burke is a one-named urban warrior, living off the grid in an abandoned building. He has a group of friends -- a "family" -- of like-minded individuals who help support and protect each other and ignore many of the laws of society. Burke can be a thug for hire, and he has killed, but he retains a strong ethical grounding. Burke's main grievance -- something in common with the author -- is with child abusers and the society that allows the abuse to continue, which provides most of the themes for the novels. Burke's closest friend is his dog, Pansy, a Neapolitan mastiff, 150 pounds of war dog, who has been his companion for nineteen year.
As we open, Burke has been hired to facilitate a trade of money for a kidnapped boy, the son of Russian immigrants. The boy had vanished ten years before, with not trace, no body, and no ransom note. Burke has been selected to make the deal because of his reputation in the underground. He meets the boy and three men in a dark, isolated location. The boy pulls a gun and shoots Burke, although Burke has enough time to release the latch on his trunk, releasing Pansy. Pansy attacks the boy and rips out his throat, while Burke manages to shoot one of the other men. But Burke is badly wounded and is about to pass out when one of the men shoots him in the head, while the other shoots and kills Pansy.
Burke wakes up in a hospital, badly injured and near death. Slowly, recovers, but he has changed physically. His injuries and his head wound (which grazed his brain) has altered his looks. He knows now that the purpose of the meeting was not to free the boy, but to kill him specifically. Why? And who? Add to the mystery is that an awful lot of money was involved in the setup. Whoever wanted him dead would not stop until he was assuredly dead.
Perhaps Burke's greatest motivation here, in addition to his survival, would be echoed 14 years after in the film John Wick: They killed his dog! Someone's is going to die! Can't blame him; after reading about ten of the Earlier Burke novels, I had grown to love Pansy.
Following a trail from New York to Chicago to the Pacific Northwest, Burke encounters pedophiles (naturally), neo-Nazis, abortion clinic bombers, and a sort of glorified Epstein Island -- a nation created to protect the worst of the worst of abusers. Along the way, he is joined by his "family," as well as a Black gay pilot he had rescues in Biafra, a childhood friend who specializes in seeing patterns where others only see banks, and a Russian-speaking Cambodian named Gem, who becomes his "wife."
Dead and Gone marks a turning point for Burke. In the end, he is forced to abandon New York and move west. Where this journey will take him, I have no idea. Or won't until I read the later books in the series.
This is a disturbing book, even more so than earlier entries in the series. Through a series of flashbacks, we get to see Burke as a child, and the horrors that he endured to make him the warrior he has become. Not an easy read, but an important one for any person who feels rage about the disgusting prevalence of child abuse.
In addition to his Burke novels, Andrew Vachss (1942-2021) has written the Cross series, the Aftershock trilogy, and ten standalone novels (including a tie-in in which Batman battles the child sex trade in Thailand), as well as three collections, ten comics and graphic novels, three plays, and to non-fiction books. He has been an outspoken advocate for children's rights and has appeared on numerous television programs and has authored many articles, including many published in Parade magazine over a thirty-plus-year period. He was tireless in his pursuit of juistice.
