Burke Novels #13: Pain Management

Burke has gone missing-and-presumed from his native New York City, following a failed assassination attempt. The shadowy man-for-hire is scratching out an existence in the Pacific Northwest, doing what he calls violence for money, and waiting to see if it is safe to return.

When Gem, the professional border-crosser who calls herself his wife, brings him a job tracking down a runaway teenager, Burke enters a long, dark tunnel of liesAAA1/2lined with many more games than players.

He takes to the unfamiliar streets, quickly and brutally establishing a presence. The whisper-stream carries him to a fanatical group of criminal samaritans dedicated to supplying adequate drugs for those suffering from chronic pain. Forced into a dangerous alliance, Burke walks the wire between betrayals, risking it all for a girl he has never met. The State-raised outlaw knows better than most that there are many kinds of pain. And many ways to manage it.

Burke is back, but still lurking in the shadows, unable to return home. He is prowling the unfamiliar streets of Portland, Oregon, in search of a runaway teen. By all accounts, Rosebud Carlin is a happy, well-adjusted girl. She doesn?t fit the profile of the runaway kids Burke knows so well . . . and once was. But there's something about her father . . . Burke knows the street script, but the actors are all strangers. Cut off from his family and his network of criminal contacts, Burke is forced into a dangerous alliance with a renegade group dedicated to providing relief by any means necessary to those in intractable pain. A bargain is struck, and the fuse is lit. Heart-stopping and hard-hitting, Pain Management is the latest bout in Andrew Vachss's thrilling reign as undisputed champ of brass knuckles noir.