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Burke is in one of those nameless bars so prevalent in his world. The client, who insists he isn't the client, goes out to his car for some information relevant to the job he wants Burke to do. But he is killed by professionals who make it look like something other than what it is. Now Burke has a problem. Do the people who killed the client know about Burke, and if they do, what do they know? His life may well be in danger, but it's a hornet's nest he wants to investigate very carefully. Before he died, before he left the bar, the client did give Burke some information. As Burke unravels the information, it leads him to a job he did years ago. Was his work then flawed? Did he rescue a child from a bad situation only to return her to something as bad or worse? This very real possibility eats at Burke, making him question much of what he’s done. As Burke attempts to bring some sense of safety back to his life, he once again calls upon his family of choice. They, as always, are there for him. He uses them as his sounding board, his eyes and ears, his back-up, his safety net. Most people with 'real' families can’t count on them the way Burke can depend on his street family. Vachss has done another fantastic job. MASK MARKET, as a title, has layers of meaning as one reads Burke’s story. Burke’s new face is a mask. His clients seldom, if ever, present their real faces to the world or to him. In his relationship with Loyal, throughout the entire book, Burke never reveals very much of who he really is and yet he is truer to her, and she to him, without dropping the masks. It is difficult to write about Vachss’s plots in any detail without giving away more than most readers would like to know. Vachss is a master of the plot twist, that’s all one really needs to know. Even when I’m not exactly sure what Burke is talking about, the flow and rhythm of the language keep me reading; I know it will probably all make some kind of sense sooner or later. As always, MASK MARKET is not for the faint of heart. Pick something else if bleak isn’t to your taste. MASK MARKET ends a little more optimistically than most Vachss books, and the writing is as killer as ever.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, June 2007
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