Sacrifice (Burke Series #6)

What—or who—could turn a gifted little boy into a murderous thing that calls itself "Satan's Child"? In search of an answer, a man named Burke travels from a festering welfare hotel to a neat frame house where a voodoo priestess presides over a congregation of assassins.  For this vigilante and unlicensed private eye has made it his business to defend the small victims whom the law has failed—even a child who has been made into a killer.

Gripping and chillingly knowledgeable about the mechanisms of evil, Sacrifice is a thriller of savage authority from one of the best crime writers of our generation.

What--or who--could turn a gifted little boy into a murderous thing that calls itself "Satan's Child"? In search of an answer, Burke travels from a festering welfare hotel to a neat frame house where a voodoo priestess presides over a congregation of assassins.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Publishers Weekly

In his latest assault on sexual abusers of children, super-tough Manhattan maverick PI Burke works both sides of the law to save Luke, an eight-year-old suspect in a series of baby murders. His roster of eccentric friends (familiar from Blossom, Flood et al.) includes Max the Silent, the huge, mute master of martial arts, Elroy the forger and the Mole, a scientist with a high-tech laboratory hidden in a Bronx junkyard; all help keep the city's bureaucracy, including a beautiful Amazonian DA named Wolfe, at bay while Burke arranges the best treatment for Luke, whose personality has been fragmented by repeated violent trauma. New on the seamy scene are voodoo Queen Thana, a highly organized West Indian crime gang and a collection of extraordinary dogs, all fierce, powerful and unfailingly loyal to their masters. Each time we meet him, Burke becomes more personally anguished by the propensity of adults to mistreat children. Although he is remarkably well served by his friends (all equal in loyalty to the admirable canines), especially in the explosive finale, he remains emotionally withdrawn, his obsession verging on craziness. That, along with his terse, cryptic observations about the world around him, makes him more a scary caricature than a man with a mission. (June)

Andrew Vachss, an attorney in private practice specializing in juvenile justice and child abuse, is the country’s best recognized and most widely sought after spokesperson on crimes against children. He is also a bestselling novelist and short story writer, whose works include Flood (1985), the novel which first introduced Vachss’ series character Burke, Strega (1987), Choice of Evil (1999), and Dead and Gone (2000). His short stories have appeared in Esquire, Playboy, and The Observer, and he is a contributor to ABA Journal, Journal of Psychohistory, New England Law Review, The New York Times, and Parade.

Vachss has worked as a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a caseworker in New York, and a professional organizer. He was the director of an urban migrants re-entry center in Chicago and another for ex-cons in Boston. After managing a maximum-security prison for violent juvenile offenders, he published his first book, a textbook, about the experience. He was also deeply involved in the relief effort in Biafra, now Nigeria.

For ten years, Vachss’ law practice combined criminal defense with child protection, until, with the success of his novels, it segued exclusively into the latter, which is his passion. Vachss calls the child protective movement “a war,” and considers his writing as powerful a weapon as his litigation.