Blue Belle
Category: Crime
Tags: Crime
Burke, the private-eye outlaw with a big place in his heart for kids, is back. When the yuppie-hating horse-playing ex-con takes on the Times Square world of porn and murder, he finds himself facing a deadly karateka (karate expert) named Mortay and falling for a masochistic woman whos learning to deal with her past as an abused child. Burkes quest leads him through the seamy underworld that Vachss has nearly patented in Strega and Flood. Blue Belle often reads like parody of hardboiled detective novels. Short sentences. Punchy. Missing verbs. Yet without Chandlers originality or sense of humor. Though the dialogue has a cynical cast, there is not an ounce of moral ambiguity or ironythe evil child-molester/torturer/ killers versus Burkes family of misfits-with-hearts-of-gold, including a tough Asian matriarch, a tough would-be transsexual, a tough jack-of-all-shady-trades and a host of other gruff but goodhearted low-lifes, each with a redeeming mission in life. That lovable band of gr
