Choice of Evil

Burke #11

by Andrew Vachss

When his girlfriend, Crystal Beth, is gunned down at a gay rights rally in Central Park, Burke, the underground man-for-hire and expert hunter of predators, vows vengeance.  But someone beats him to the task: a shadowy killer who calls himself Homo Erectus and who seems determined to wipe gay bashers from the face of the earth.  As the killer's body count rises, most citizens are horrified, but a few see him as a hero, and they hire Burke to track him down...and help him escape.

In Choice of Evil, Burke is forced to confront his most harrowing mystery: the mind of an obsessive serial killer.  And soon the emotionally void method behind the killer's madness becomes terrifyingly familiar, reminding Burke of his childhood partner, Wesley, the ice-man assassin who never missed, even when the target was himself.  Has Wesley come back from the dead?  The whisper-stream says so.  And the truth may just challenge Burke's very sense of reality.  Expertly plotted, addictive, enthralling, Choice of Evil is Andrew Vachss' most haunting tale to date.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Noir, Suspense, Detective

313 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for “aggressive-violent” youth. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youths exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, two collections of short stories, and a wide variety of other material including song lyrics, graphic novels, essays, and a “children’s book for adults.” His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, the New York Times, and many other forums. A native New Yorker, he now divides his time between the city of his birth and the Pacific Northwest.

The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is
www.vachss.com. That site and this page are managed by volunteers. To contact Mr. Vachss directly, use the "email us" function of vachss.com.

Reviews

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to retrace this 18 book series via the audible medium nine and 10 years after my first encounter with Mr. Burke. I continue to be surprised that the pedophile aspect of this series seems to maintain a fairly secondary role in spite of it standing out in my memories. This book emphasizes the fantastic and even the witchcraft and the coming back from death or never really departing from life. It also in a major/minor way brings in the aspect of a multiple personality although this is only visible in retrospect in a strange way. Burke is dealing with multiple personalities himself and is both certain of what he must do at some point in spite of the fear that he always lives with.

——————-
The names of Burke’s women are always quite original. This time it’s Chrystal Beth. Get it? Of course you do. Most of his women don’t last more than one book. His dog Pansy, a 150 pound Neapolitan mastiff has been there as a part of the family since the series began in 1985. She's his consistent woman.

Burke’s home has been a part of the stories as well. It is unique. But he has lost his home as this book, Burke #11, begins. This one came out in 1999. We have trekked with Burke for ten books now and there are seven more to go after this one. The lost home causes an upheaval in his life that also seems to offer him a fresh start in some ways for the series. I haven’t been able to count on Vachss for four star quality in books 6 through 10. It seems to pick up a bit in this one.

Choice of Evil has all the familiar Burke characters: The Prof, Mole, Max, Michelle, Terry, Mama, and Wolfe. In fact Strega from book #2 makes a comeback to play a significant role as well as bringing in the paranormal aspect that is often on the fringes of a Burke tale.

Andrew Vachss’ veracity on the “freaks” (as he calls them) and sexual perverts that appear without fail in his books is due to his personal knowledge and experience. His bona fides about sexual deviance are earned by his work experience dealing with sexually transmitted diseases, poverty and the justice system. As an attorney he represents youths and children exclusively. The books are quick to point out that gays and lesbians are not deviants but are hard-wired that way. It is also clearly noted that pedophiles are not homosexuals, that readers should not confuse adult/child sex with adult hetero or homosexuality. This kind of information was not widely disseminated when Vachss began the Burke series. One of his initial goals in writing was to expose sexual child abuse as an issue that needed more attention.

You know Burke is talking if most of the sentences are short and punchy with a zinger here and there. I think reading him is fun. He is enough of a caricature as are many of his close associates. That means that there is no doubt that you are reading fiction when you are reading Vachss. This would be a great graphic novel with the required sound bubbles of course. Boff! Vruum! Vachss has actually done some graphic stories and comics. I expect to read some and I am interested to see if the content in those is similar to the Burke series. The Burke series has been my only exposure to Vachss to date.

Choice of Evil ends in a way that makes me want to read the next in the series just to see what happens with Wolfe. Is she the female equivalent of Burke?

I am giving Choice of Evil four stars although I kinda got lost at the end. I like Burke’s way of communicating as long as I remember that this is a comic presentation. And can’t you see Pansy loping around being on the alert for trouble?

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Burke gets him with a one-two combo at the beginning of this 11th book in the series: his illegal apartment is raided by the cops (as his landlord thought Burke was responsible for his son's death) and then his newest girlfriend is killed -- collateral damage in a shooting spree at a gay rights rally. One of the memorable scenes from this one is Burke rescuing his Neopolitan mastiff from the dog pound along with the other captives. Then a punisher comes on the scene to stop the gay bashing: Homo Erectus, who starts killing the guilty. Of course the cops suspect Burke, especially since Crystal Beth was a victim. A group hires Burke to help Homo Erectus get safely away and the two play a cat and mouse game, centered on Burke's old pal, the assassin Wesley. Strega is consulted liberally in this one.

[Susanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author Vachss died recently and the obituary was intriguing enough for me to hunt up one of his books and have a look. Not my cup of tea exactly: a head-spinning narrative about a 'family' of stone-cold anti-heroes who all have bold nicknames (men and women both) plus near super-human abilities to stay off 'the grid' and peculiar notions about the nature of good and evil. The most compelling part of the book was the author's photo on the back cover: a handsome, craggy man with an eye-patch and a good looking dog.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a little difficult to assign a star rating. On the one hand Vachss' writing has become so streamlined that even long time fans might find this book getting a little bit difficult to follow, and the reader is assumed to know huge amounts of backstory from the previous ten books in order to appreciate what's going on. However, there are times when the book genuinely feels like high art. As with all of Vachss' work rarely do sunshine and unicorns spring to mind.
The book chills and I fear that the thing will stay with me for longer than I might like, but on the basis that great art stays with you this probably qualifies.

[Alex McConnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Choice of Evil seemed to me to be a departure from the usual theme of the Burke series. There was a much less straightforward plot and if I’m honest the book as whole seemed unnecessary to the series. It felt much more like filler.
Burke’s girlfriend is killed at a gay rights rally, collateral damage from a hate attack. Subsequently someone starts killing gay bashers and pedophiles in very public ways, using the gay rights rally attack as their reason. Burke is hired to find and protect this killer. From here the plot gets progressively more convoluted and at times feels like Vachss is trying to tell a story within a story. He brings back characters from past books without real explanation. The killer himself is trying to steal the reputation of a different assassin, but at the same time there’s a kidnapping plot….
Vachss writing continues to be short and bullet fast yet in this book it seemed he didn’t know where he was going or how he intended to get there. While we did learn more about Burkes past and more about his psyche and wants and motivation, it wasn’t enough to make up for the fact this book felt like an afterthought to the series.

[Twistedtexas · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5/10 - Two years ago, I read Flood, the debut novel in this series featuring invincible, always-right proto-hero Burke. I bought Choice of Evil before reading Flood. In retrospect, that turned out to be a mistake. I did not care for Flood at all, detailed in my GoodReads Review. So I put off reading this novel, the 11th in the series, until a couple of days ago.

Seems not a lot has changed between the Burke of 1985 and the Burke of 1999. He is still an arrogant, tough-talking asshole who knows more than anybody. Pansy, his uber-mastiff who must be north of 15 years old by this time, is still shitting on rooftops and gobbling steaks. Mama Wong is still MamaWong-ing. The Plymouth is still humming like a caged beast, ready to pin you to the passenger's seat with a couple of G's when Burke floors it. Etc...

Unfortunately, the plot of this one did little to salvage Burke's over-the-top, self-assuredness. It was a slog just to get through, even speed-reading/skimming the final 100 pages. I think if there is a hell, there is a special room for sinners like me where one must read the entire 18-book series in chronological order, and then start again with the first, ad infinitum.

To be fair, I read a little more about the author, Andrew Vachss. He was a pro-bono lawyer for neglected/abused children, and an advocate for "vicious" dog breeds. Cropped shamelessly from Wikipedia: Vachss asserted that with dogs, just as with humans, "you get what you raise." He also introduced me to Judy Henske, whose music I am enjoying as I type this review. So big points all around there.

But now I must bid adieu to Burke and his testosterone-fueled adventures. He's too smart for my own good. I'll end with a few snappy Burke-ism's...

======================
For me, quitting cigarettes is a sucker bet. I can do it. Done it a bunch of times. It's just a shuck.
======================
"No, you can't see anything," I told her. And it was the truth. Her eyes were on my crotch, but it was about as active as the Vanilla Ice fan club.
======================
I've had sex with so many women.

[Chris Lott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm torn on this book. I love where it's started, Burke getting a new place and working to find the killer of his girlfriend Crystal Beth. While he's hunting the killer someone starts killing off pedophiles and anti gay people, Burke finally gets in contact with him through the Internet message boards and over the course of whole chapters we're reading his manifesto which is just boring, him talking about how he's this great kidnap artist.

The manifesto turned out to be just him saying he was done kidnapping and moving on to contract killing and the killer wanting to be Wesley.

Then there's the female sidekick, she's just straight annoying. She's a lesbian but constantly hits on Burke teasing him and trying to get him to have sex with her. She also wants to meet the killer and it seems like every time she meets with Burke she has to drive that point home. Well turns out she was the kidnapped kid from the manifesto that Burke was reading. So out of all the damn people this random ass girl was connected to this killer but she had amnesia. The ending also made no sense, he wanted to be Wesley so bad that when Burke dropped the knowledge of who the girl was he let her into his room and blew them both up? Like all that buildup for nothing. Like I said, I loved the initial idea of the story but it went way off the rockers, definitely one of my least favorite Vachss novels. On the plus side Strega makes another appearance and I always enjoy her character when she shows up.

[James Munro · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of Andrew Vachss books have the same dark, brooding, monosyllabic feel. There’s a reason he got to write a Batman/Dark Knight novel. Frank Miller and Andrew seem to write from the same dark alley. He says a lot with very few words. Much of the books feel like driving alone on an empty highway at night, a scene that happens in each book. Listen to the music that Burke mentions throughout. It helps to set the stage.

It’s all very noir and seedy. Cigarette smoke, 40 watt lamps in too large rooms and chairs facing the doors. With a focus on balancing the scales in an unjust world. Come to think of it, he might be great at a few Punisher novels. Vengeance for the victims of child abuse both physical and sexual is a recurring theme.

Mr. Vachss has a long history in the real world of helping the children in our society who have suffered the most and have been abandoned the hardest. Those children are protected here in ways that the real world will not allow, despite the same real world allowing their very real exploitation.

[George Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Vachss usually writes a good book. The early Burke novels are similar to Robert Parker's Spencer series. This book ties heavily into Vachss' personal and professional life, full of child predators and pedophiles.

This was not a good book. It was hard to read. The premise was contrived and the ending is contrived. The ending is like an Agatha Christie book. The reader is left saying "What????? Where did that come from?"

One must read, at least some, of the earlier books to understand the characters in this novel.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diverging a bit from the typical Burke story, this doesn't succeed with me. What starts out as one story line veers off in an altogether different direction, which left me a bit confused as to where it was going. Vachss did eventually tie it all together, but it seemed like he just mashed up two books into one. Also, it was far more static, less "action", as most of the book takes place behind a computer screen.

[Rock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story.
I like the way Burke has evolved over the last few novels.
The prevalence of 'zoning out' (my term) was a bit confusing for me, almost like a sub-theme, and as always so are many of the conversations that are repeatedly cut off mid-sentence.

[Kevin Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only gave three because I've read many of his books and this not in my top five. That being said, it is still a great book with done great twists. A bit slow to start.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

More plot and less character than in my favorite Burke novels. Not entirely convinced I buy the very complicated resolution.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very strange book - since this character is a series I fell I missed something in character development

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1999. Burke is out for revenge when his bi-sexual girlfriend is murdered.

[Martin Legg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weakest Burke tale to date. The writings getting repetitious, characters over drawn and the plot non-sensical. Used to be so much better. Give this one a miss.

[Kirby Coe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding

I am on a mission to read all the Burke books. So good. Read them, please. You have to read them in order, really.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seriously flawed main character who has his own code and a strange “family” of seeming misfits. They get their man, though.

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of the same from Vachss and Burke's crew. The stories mostly fall flat these days but the strength of the Burke series has always been its characters which, for the most part, are ok here. That said, absurd coincidences are nothing new in Burke's world but there are more than a few in these pages that I'd consider groan-worthy. Nonetheless, I still give it three stars because as soon as Burke engages his target, the interaction between the two is both interesting and satisfying.

SPOILERS
A serial killer is taking out the trash in NY and of course, Burke's "girlfriend" is part of the collateral damage (man, it must suck to date that dude). Burke decides to hunt down the madman only to learn that he's acting suspiciously like Wesley, the lionized mass murderer of children that Burke and his fellow miscreants worship (makes no sense considering Burke's position on children but this isn't Shakespeare folks). Of course, Burke learns the true identity of the killer and that he's connected to him through a "new friend".

Plot wise, this story is weak (at best) but once we get a peek into the killer, his relationship with Burke's acquaintance and his absolute dominance over Burke it becomes a more interesting read.

In addition, as with each installment from the Burke series, Vachss reveals something about Burke's past and his own abuse. As usual, it's only a line or two but it sheds further light on how Burke became the man he is.

11 down, only 7 more to go!

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the option, I'd probably score this 3.5 stars, as it has some quite compelling bits. There's a narrative within the narrative, as we read a very disturbingly-depicted kidnapper's account of his final kidnapping. The rest of it, though, seems to try too hard, as is often the case with later Vachss books, to depict cold, amoral, damaged people. All too often, the result is forced, or, even worse, the characters and situations come across as absurd. His women, especially, beggar belief. There's not a lot of plot to compensate--also a common limitation of later Vachss--though, as usual, there is a lot of posturing, and a lot of half-finished sentences. Vachss seems to think that the only ways to make things come across as serious are either to have nobody ever able to articulate a thought fully, or to beat it over the head endlessly. The climax also involves a rather whopping and unlikely coincidence, but still comes off as flat and rather anti-climactic. Nevertheless, the cold kidnapping narrative makes up for a lot.

[Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

While well-written, this is probably my least favorite of the Burke novels thus far. The reason being that I never bought the antagonist. Also, the set-up was really quick and kind of glossed over. Burke's motives were on point, so no problems with his character or his actions, but those around him didn't have their normal groundedness (Wolfe jumps off the deep-end, rushing to crazy snap judgements that are rather uncharacteristic of her character; the damanged Nadine was annoying and the reveal at the end was a bit far-fetched, imho). The diary entries were a bit long in the tooth, too. Some solid elements, but overall not up to par with the rest of the series.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “Choice of Evil” (1999), a close woman friend, Crystal Beth, is shot and killed at a gay rights parade; several other people are killed, too. Then someone starts picking off gay-bashers, lots of them. He’s quite a prolific killer…and becomes somewhat of a hero in the gay community.

Burke is hired to find this killer by some gay rights people who want to protect the guy. The ghost of Wesley, a notorious killer who was a friend of Burke, permeates the book. But Wesley’s dead…or is he? And who killed Crystal Beth, and why?

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to grade this one. Burke's grief and persistent searching for Crystal Beth's killer, the drawing-together of the found family, the return of Strega--all good. Burke and Nadine's constant round-robin conversations and the story-within-the-plot of the kidnapper and Angelique/Zoe got old fast.

This was the first Burke novel to really delve into online interactions, and it's both interesting to see Burke adjusting to this new playing field, and painfully, painfully dated. Quick, type a reply, he's on ICQ right now!

[Genine Franklin-Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know. It got stranger and stranger. I think it would've made a little more sense if I had read the preceding books. It did make me uncomfortable, with the casual acceptance of violence. I like action-adventure revenge (fiction only, please)stuff as much as the next guy (I love what I call "mindless violence" movies,i.e."movies for guys who like movies"), but this was . . . oh, maybe, too much a way of life for too many in this book.

[Ashvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Andrew Vachss. Make no mistake, it's trashy, but it's fun as hell to read and filled with crazy almost comic-book scenes. I also like his general stance on the characters: tolerance for people of all types (one of the main characters in the series is a person who identifies as a female but is in a male's body), but none for the monsters of the world.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally gave this four stars, but then I started thinking about how confusing Wolfe's motivations were at the end, and I changed it to three stars. This book held my interest throughout, and I especially liked the killer's journal portions, but things got jumbled and hard to keep track of at the end. Too many unanswered questions.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Choice of Evil (Burke #11) by Andrew Vachss (Random House 1999) (Fiction - Mystery) finds Burke hunting a serial killer who targets gay bashers. Is this Wesley, back from the dead? By the time I finished this 305 page novel, I didn't care any more. My rating: 5/10, finished 6/28/11.

[January · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have liked it better had I read the books before this because they have the same characters and at first it was hard to follow. I would definatley be interested in reading his other books though.

[Aaron Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Burke novel, but a fine read: gritty, thought-provoking, and violent. The cast of characters stands out, and I know I will continue to think of them from time to time, a mark of great fiction.

[Joan Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

another hard-boiled pot-boiler from Vachss. Good mind candy.