Photo: Andrew Southam

Mystery | Crime | Trade Paperback | Jul 2000 | $12.00 | Andrew Vachss BURKE is an ex-con whose time "inside" honed his survival skills to a razor-edge. He's an unlicensed private investigator who's an expert on the dangerous and the degenerate, a denizen of the part of New York City where neon is the only light, sexual perversion and violence are the only religions, and anything imaginable (or unimaginable) can be bought. He's the tightly wound engine that drives Blue Belle—every bit as electrifying as Andrew Vachss' first two Burke novels, FLOOD and STREGA, but more shocking still, as Burke uncovers a brand of depravity even he is not prepared for... A savage game of predators prowl the dark streets of the city in a special vehicle—so silent and smooth it's called the "Ghost Van"—hunting teenage prostitutes, kidnapping and killing. There's a $50,000 reward for taking it off the street—in any permanent way. The money comes from a collection plate passed among the city's pimps, but Burke has his own reasons for becoming their bounty hunter... And more terrifying than the Ghost Van is a martial arts expert called Mortay, a "death-match" specialist who now wants a duel with Burke's "brother," the mute Mongolian known as Max the Silent. He wants what Max has—a reputation as the "widow-making wind of death"—Burke knows he must stop Mortay to protect his brother. He must pacify Mortay, convince him to walk away. But when Mortay ups the stakes to include Max's infant daughter, Burke opts for a death-match of his own...his own way. Now, Burke turns for help to the members of his extraordinary street family, and to a newcomer, Belle—the voluptuous exotic dancer who was hired to bring Burke word of the Ghost Van; a fugitive from a nightmare childhood who's learned everything the hard way; an outlaw woman-child, headstrong and fragile, who gets inside Burke's life "without the preliminaries." Belle is willing to risk everything for love and salvation, willing to bind herself to Burke—even as he's drawn headlong toward what could be his ultimate fall...

Acclaim for Andrew Vachss

ISBN 0-394-57228-9 | 1988 Knopf hard cover edition

ISBN 0-451-16290-0 | 1990 Signet edition

ISBN 0-679-76168-3 | 1995 Vintage Crime edition

"Burke would eat Spade and Marlowe for breakfast, not even spitting out the bones. [He] is one tough, mean, pray-god-you-don't-meet-him...hombre." —Boston Herald

"Oozes with primal emotions...There is absolutely nobody like Burke—not even close." —Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Burke is one of the most cold-blooded yet strangely honorable heroes in the history of crime fiction, an outlaw who makes his living preying on the most vicious of New York City's bottom-feeders, those who thrive on the suffering of children. In Andrew Vachss' tautly engrossing novel Burke is given a purse full of dirty money to find the infamous Ghost Van that is cutting a lethal swath among the teenage prostitutes in the 'hood. He also gets help in the form of a stripper named Belle, whose moves on the runway are outclassed only by what she can do in a getaway car. But not even Burke is prepared for the evil that is behind the Ghost Van or for the sheer menace of it's guardian, a cadaverous karate expert who enjoys killing so much he has named himself after death.

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HARD LOOKS mirror collection. Containing 20 of the illustrated comics stories from the series HARD LOOKS written by Andrew Vachss. 240 pgs - $17.95 U.S.

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