By Andrew H. Vachss
Mike Hammer rendered in the style of a Batman comic book, this fast-paced private-eye novel has a tough-guy hero named Burke who learned his trade in prison. A beautiful young blonde named Flood (a martial arts expert who can kill with her bare feet—and does) asks Burke to find the man who murdered her best friend's child. The villain is named Cobra; Burke's own best friend is a speechless Tibetan named Max the Silent. Burke's bulletproof Plymouth makes the Bat-mobile seem like a kiddie car. The author also spends a lot of this novel on a continuing, vicious description of New York's underbelly: "This isn't America out there, you dummy. This is a running sore loaded with dangerous maggots." Before the rousing battle to the death at the end, Burke and Flood do away with a sadistic porno filmmaker who lives in Scarsdale and take care of a couple of neo-Nazis who are recruiting mercenaries for South Africa. The wild plotting never lets down for a second. Vachss—this is his first novel—is described on the book jacket as a former probation officer, fruit picker, furniture mover, cab driver and gambler. He is now an attorney specializing in the problems of abused children. There's too much loving description of brutality and gore, but otherwise this novel remains a spiffy, adults-only, never-boring detective yarn. (Fine, $17.95)
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