Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Vachss' "Burke"

Mari Hall (Found.Dead.In.Texas@airmail.net)
Tue, 16 Sep 1997 09:05:09 -0500 Bill Hagen wrote:
>
> Thanks to (Roger?) Dowdy for James Lee Burke recommendations, which I will
> follow.
>
> But my question, not fully stated--my fault--, came from reading the good
> Vachss story in _Hard-Boiled_. The intro. mentions that "Burke" is the
> main protagonist of his hard-boiled series. Given the quality of the short
> story, I was interested in reading more, espec. any novels with this
> character. So the question had to do with which novel to start in this
> series by Vachss. The intro only mentions _Flood_, which doesn't seem to
> feature the character.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help here.
>
> Bill Hagen
> <billha@ionet.net>
>
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Yes, Flood is the first (or maybe second--my ref works and books are
home and I'm at the office) and Strega is either first or second. All
feature Burke and are extreme writing styles. No body is like
Vachss--You either love him or hate him, depending on if you have met
him in person--I attended a signing for one of his books a couple of
years ago, where I was the only "mystery" fan there; all the rest of the
people were "child abuse professionals" and he said at this particular
signing that a large portion (I know it was not 100%, but more than 50%)
was going to be donated to Baylor in Houston for child abuse research.
I read Vachss for his writing style--how he can pack so much into a one
paragraph chapter beats me. I love the characters also, of Max the
Silent, of the Dragon Lady, of Max's junkyard dog. All just wonderful;
folks I think -I- would like to meet, but I'm sure they wouldn't want to
waste time on me. Also, this is a sort of "A-Team" type group--good guy
out to beat the bad guys.
>From Mari Hall Found.Dead.In.Texas@airmail.net
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