Haiku

From the author of the acclaimed Burke series: a searing new novel that follows a band of homeless outcasts on a journey to recover what each has lost.

Ho was a revered sensei, but when his dismissive arrogance caused the death of a beloved student, he renounced not only his possessions but also his role as a master, and now roams the streets in search of a way to atone. Drawn by his presence, a group forms around him: Michael, an addicted gambler who has lost everything, including himself; Ranger, a Vietnam veteran with a tenuous grip on reality; Lamont, a once-fearless street-gang warlord turned hopeless alcoholic; Target, a relentless "clanger" who speaks only by echoing the sounds of others; and Brewster, an obsessive collector of hardboiled paperbacks he stashes in an abandoned building even vermin avoid.

Late one night, Michael spots a woman in a white Rolls-Royce throwing something into the river. Convinced that the woman is a perfect blackmail target, he attempts to recruit the others to search for her. But news that Brewster's library is slated for demolition turns this halfhearted effort into a serious mission to find the ultimate problem-solver: money, and with it a new home for Brewster's precious collection.

Each frantic knock opens another barred door as the building's destruction draws nearer. And the answers to each man's questions trigger shocking explosions that hit you with all the visceral power we have come to expect from this fierce and dynamic writer.

"Vachss, author of the long-running Burke series that concluded with 2008's Another Life, introduces an engaging if damaged new hero in this soulful thriller. Ho, an elderly martial arts teacher who once was the master of a successful dojo, renounces all worldly goods after one of his students dies because of something he said. He takes to the mean streets of an unnamed American city to atone, joining a ragtag group of homeless men: Michael, once a high-flying stockbroker; Ranger, a Vietnam war vet; Lamont, an ex-gang leader and poet; Brewster, a psychotic; and Target, who speaks only in repetitive verbal explosions. A mystery involving a white Rolls Royce emerges early on, but as the book progresses, this plot is abandoned for another concerning Brewster's book collection. Despite compelling prose, the author's failure to follow through on the Rolls Royce business leads to a disappointing conclusion." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

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Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in the area of sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, a labor organizer, and the director of a maximum-security prison for aggressive-violent youth. Now a lawyer and consultant in private practice, he represents children and youths exclusively. A native New Yorker, Vachss divides his time between the city of his birth and the Pacific Northwest.