Web-Exclusive Reviews: Week of 8/13/2007

-- Publishers Weekly, 8/13/2007

NONFICTION

1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina
Chris Rose. Simon & Schuster, $15 paper (368p) ISBN 978-14165452987

The physical and psychic dislocation wrought by Hurricane Katrina is painstakingly recollected in this brilliant collection of columns by award-winning New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist Rose (who has already hand-sold 60,000 self-published copies). After evacuating his family first to Mississippi and then to his native Maryland, Rose returned almost immediately to chronicle his adopted hometown's journey to "hell and back." Rose deftly sketches portraits of the living, from the cat lady who survives the storm only to die from injuries sustained during a post-hurricane mugging, to the California National Guard troops who gratefully chow down on steaks Rose managed to turn up in an unscathed French Quarter freezer. He's equally adept at evoking the spirit of the dead and missing, summed up by the title, quoting the entirety of an epitaph spray-painted on one home. Although the usual suspects (FEMA and Mayor Ray Nagin, among others) receive their fair share of barbs, Rose's rancor toward the powers that be is surprisingly muted. In contrast, he chronicles his own descent into mental illness (and subsequent recovery) with unsparing detail; though his maniacal dedication to witnessing the innumerable tragedies wrought by "The Thing" took him down a dark, dangerous path ("three friends of mine have, in fact, killed themselves in the past year"), it also produced one of the finest first-person accounts yet in the growing Katrina canon. (Aug.)

Congress and the Classroom: From the Cold War to "No Child Left Behind"
Lee W. Anderson. Penn State, $29.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0271032238

Covering in depth 50 years of American education history, Anderson's scholarly work considers Congress's role in federal government education policies, drawing principally from congressional records but rendering them in surprisingly accessible prose. Following congress from its initial reluctance to involve itself in state educational affairs to its current bipartisan belief in federal education investment, Anderson traces the debate from the Ordinance of 1785 to the landmark National Defense Act of 1958 to the "large-scale compromise" of the No Child Left Behind act, which balances "federal support and high-stakes accountability." Anderson has an eye for the telling quote, such as then-President Ford's prescient remark that the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 "will remain in effect even though the Congress appropriates far less than the amounts contemplated," cutting to the quick of a persistent problem in all American educational legislation: woeful underfunding. By keeping his analysis to a relatively small segment of the debate that touches so many, and by focusing on the last five decades of enacted legislation, Anderson has crafted a worthwhile and clarifying look at the changing face of federal educational funding. (Sept.)

The Fire This Time
Randall Kenan. Melville, $20 (150p) ISBN 978-1933633244

Kenan's latest, alternating memoir and commentary, is an intelligent homage to James Baldwin's celebrated 1963 The Fire Next Time, and an important book in its own right. Early on, an especially vibrant memory of his surrogate father's attempt—against all advice and odds—to remove the enormous pile of brush in the back of their lot becomes a powerful metaphor for the book's larger concern, overcoming racial division: "the gradualness of it, the day-by-day, one-whack, one-bush, one-shovel-at-a-time nature of the work." Proclaiming that "[p]ositive news abounds," Kenan's examination of figures in the African-American community include the jubilant observation that emerging celebrities, as well as accomplished individuals like astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Sesame Street's Elmo (Kevin Clash) and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Robin Givham are all famous in their own right, and "little is made of their obvious, undeniable blackness." Still, new challenges and setbacks lurk: hip hop and "the ethos that has risen up around it," AIDS and a lack of voice and leadership in black churches, among others. Kenan poses many difficult questions, such as why the high school dropout rate among African-Americans is so high, why African-Americans pay higher mortgage rates and why CDC estimates say one in three black gay men are HIV positive, making this book a perfect catalyst for lively discussion, and a fine state-of-the-issues update on Baldwin's 45-year-old touchstone. (Aug.)

The Life and the Work: Art and Biography
Edited by Charles G. Salas. Getty Research Institute, $45 (164p) ISBN 978-0892368235

This collection of six essays uses a number of approaches to examine the relationship among the life, work and criticism of an artist. Professor and Artforum magazine associate editor Rosalind Krauss follows Salas's introduction with an essay that's pure theory, detached from sustained consideration of any specific artist; the rest, while still immersed in theory, each focus on specific artists: Leonardo, Cezanne, van Gogh and Gauguin, the Art & Language collective, and Warhol and Bob Dylan. Questions raised are compelling and important, if not exactly unexpected: how should an artist's work be understood in light of questionable prejudices or political affiliations? How does the psychological makeup of an artist (in childhood or sexual experiences) illuminate his or her work? What role does religion play? How important is the artist's own commentary regarding his or her intentions? Most of these essays make a successful exploration of the role of art and biography in art criticism, clearing enough interpretive space to dig deeply into specific works, though the entries from Robert Williams and Paul Smith never quite manage to settle the issues at hand. Non-specialists may find it dry, but readers with an academic interest in art will find much to mull. Color illustrations. (July)

It's Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who are Hurting America
Jack Cafferty. Wiley, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0470144794

His deep, fatherly voice may evoke the comfort of an old-fashioned, Conkrite-era news broadcast, but newsman Cafferty has made a career of saying whatever he damn well pleases: "I get paid to ask questions I don't know the answers to and to complain about the things that bother me." Reading the television news correspondent's first book feels much like watching his segments on CNN's The Situation Room, in which he follows a similarly straightforward formula: denounce bad leadership, media shortcomings and government missteps with a satirical tone just above withering. From Katrina to Iraq, from immigration to terrorism, from Bush-baiting to big business, Cafferty admits to "saying some pretty outrageous stuff" in order to get his audience riled up. Aside from skewering congress, shaming rich white guys, and repudiating Anna Nicole (the "peroxide blonde never-was"), Cafferty sheds some light on his own life, sharing personal episodes about disrespecting his boot camp drill sergeants and letting his terrier defecate in the lobby of the Des Moines television station for which he was working. Without his rich vocal presence, Cafferty's tough talking cynicism can become grating, but also cuts through, with ease, a media climate thick with rigid ideology and tabloid excess. (Sept.)

Masters of Sales: Secrets from Top Sales Professionals that Will Transform You into a World Class Salesman
Edited by Ivan R. Misner and Don Morgan. Entrepreneur, $19.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1599181295

Reunited co-editors Misner and Morgan (Masters of Networking) return with a collection of vignettes from successful businesspeople who know how to sell, sell, sell, from Martha Stewart and Tony Robbins on down. Within those vignettes are many short, punchy tips on how you, too, can be a success in sales; unfortunately, all-too-obvious information abounds, such as Don Morgan explaining, "a 'no' means that the client does not like the product and sees no personal application for it or anyone else in his organization." Some entries manage to make the obvious vague (Bill Buckley: "Almost nothing gets sold without a salesperson, and all salespeople sell through a process of human interaction"), while others use an infomercial-like life-enrichment tack that occasionally reads like cult indoctrination (Anthony Parinello: "If you master the art of building personal rapport… you'll find greater opportunities, resources, and personal fulfillment in just about every corner of your life"). Solid tips are few and far between, and there's a lack of substance throughout. (Aug.)

Out of Range: Why the Constitution Can't End the Battle Over Guns
Mark Tushnet. Oxford, $19.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0195304244

For Harvard Law professor Tushnet, the long-lived culture war over the Second Amendment is less about the Constitution than "how we understand ourselves as Americans." That said, the lion's share of the book is dedicated to a penetrating textual analysis of the Second Amendment, "the right to bear arms," one of the most vociferously and inconclusively argued aspects of the U.S. Constitution. Both sides are unyielding on their respective viewpoints: gun rights advocates rely on "originalist" Constitutional interpretation, invoking the founders' original intention to provide a means of defense against government oppression; gun control supporters argue from a collective rights perspective, looking at gun ownership like automobile ownership, a privilege for lawmakers to grant, regulate and revoke as needed. Tushnet demonstrates how little water both narratives hold, and notes that even accepting "the best versions" of gun-rights proponents' arguments, the Constitution still allows for "substantial amounts of gun control." On the other hand, Tushnet wearily concludes that gun control measures have had only marginal effect on gun violence. A number of solutions are proposed, such as providing education and jobs to at-risk youth, but Tushnet's greater contribution could be to help end the unproductive semantic debates that have kept the issue hot but its resolution out of reach. (Sept.)

The President's Secret IMs
Danielle Crittenden. Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $9.95 paper (272p) ISBN 978-1416947493

Culled from an ongoing series at Huffingtonpost.com, author and blogger Crittenden (Amanda Bright @ Home) crafts a hilarious, eerily realistic behind-the-scenes online world where heads of state use instant messaging to discuss everything from world events to what's for lunch. Arranged as a series of "chats" between Kickass43 (George W. Bush) and a host of newsmakers like Ben16 (Pope Benedict XVI), Sxybritguy10 (Tony Blair) and Ladeezman42 (Bill Clinton, one of Bush's more frequent chatting partners), nothing is off limits. Holding IM meetings with his staff, Kickass43 discusses the Middle East (telling Condeleeza Rice "hi 5 GF!!; U ROCKD the Mideast!"), the State of the Union address ("we need sum 1 liners rite off the top") and the Harriet Miers nomination fiasco ("I wuz sposed 2 b nominatin u 2 the IRAQI supreme court"), among other prescient topics. Sharp throughout, Crittenden gives her targets full, consistent characters and keeps several running gags going; for example, vulgarity, emoticons and butchered spelling are reserved for world leaders, while underlings do their best to respond with poise. The premise (that these IMs have been "leeked" to the press) and formatting (computer-like graphics, extremely casual text) are clever, but can be hard to understand, and could grow tiresome for readers who aren't up-to-date on IM shorthand or current events. (July)

Sentinel of the Seas: Life and Death at the Most Dangerous Lighthouse Ever Built
Dennis M. Powers. Citadel, $21.95 (380p) ISBN 978-0806528427

One of the most rugged expanses in the continental U.S., the coast of northern California and Oregon saw frequent shipping disasters in the 19th century, before Congress ordered the construction of lighthouses on such dangerous promontories as Heceta Head, Cape Mendocino and a seaward-trending pile of rocks called St. George Reef. The brave, resourceful engineer who directed the Tillamook Rock lighthouse construction, Alexander Ballantyne, was later engaged for the St. George job, and it's this story that author Powers (Treasure Ship) chronicles here. Without any maps to illustrate it, however, readers will need an atlas to follow the movement of men and ships up and down the coast. Later chapters describing lighthouse life prove less problematic; lighthouse keepers were fascinating, courageous characters (and included a good number of women) who not only kept lights burning and fog horns sounding, but also risked life and limb to rescue people stranded in torrential weather. Unfortunately, Powers' wordy style does not do his subjects justice, making this a less-than-enjoyable read despite a worthy topic. (Aug.)

Writers Under Seige: Voices of Freedom from Around the World
Edited by Lucy Popescu and Carole Seymour-Jones. NYU Press, $65 (330p) ISBN 978-0814767429; $18.95 paper -436

To mark 85 years of work assuring that oppressed writers are heard in their home countries and around the world, the literary and human rights organization PEN presents a collection of essays from some 50 writers; their one common trait, as noted by Michael Palin in a blurb, is that "[t]hey have all been coerced into not writing." Designed to demonstrate the major ways in which writers are silenced, shocking and sobering lessons in author suppression are broken up into sections on prison, death and exile, though the distinction seems arbitrary; the central theme of oppression weighs much more heavily on writers' stories than the specific methods employed. It's important, both thematically and practically, to note that PEN does not differentiate between the talents and skills of persecuted writers; as such, not every piece succeeds, and the similarity of the subject matter can make them difficult to distinguish. But grace notes abound, such as Zimbabwean poet, novelist and columnist Chenjerai Hove explaining, "every new word and metaphor I create is a little muscle in the act of pushing the dictatorship away." As an act of commemoration, as well as a sobering reminder of a world in which writers are frequently—and all too easily—silenced, this is an exceptional anthology. (Sept.)

LIFESTYLE

The Great Life Diet: A Practical Guide to Health, Happiness, and Personal Fulfillment
Denny Waxman. Pegasus, $13.95 (176p) ISBN 978-1933648262

This breezy beginner's guide to healthy, conscientious living from health and nutrition expert Waxman (Ten Steps to Strengthening Health) offers a number of attitudes and techniques for improving health, most notably a diet high in grains and other macrobiotics. Despite nearly 40 years of clean living, the former junk food addict is still able to connect in a direct manner with those just starting on the road to health. More a philosophy than a regimen, Waxman's seven steps encourage devotees to become more self-probing and self-aware. His rules include thinking about the contents of daily meals, eating two or three balanced meals every day centered around grains, and to eat slowly, chewing well. While much of his advice is practical (some might call it common sense), unusual (but harmless) tactics stretch credulity (a daily 10-15 minute rub-down with a warm, wet cotton cloth promises "beautiful, new and younger looking skin"). Other rules include never reheating leftover vegetables, wearing only cotton clothing and a rather complicated system for figuring out which cooked foods can be mixed together on a plate. Few recipes are provided, so those looking for a variety of macrobiotic dishes will be better served elsewhere. Open-minded readers may find the book revelatory, but skeptics may also be swayed by Waxman's disarming charm. (Aug.)

Mission: Cook!
Robert Irvine. HarperCollins, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0061237898

As the host of Food Network's Dinner: Impossible, chef Irvine routinely pulls off last-minute feats of Herculean culinary might, assembling multi-course meals for large groups in out-of-the-way locations with few resources. Devoted viewers may be surprised to learn that this isn't new for the British chef, who relates other close calls in this combination cookbook-memoir. Alongside tales of his time in the Navy (where he prepared a last-minute meal for 2,000 refugees) and Hollywood (a lavish post-Oscar celebration makes a nail-biting yarn), recipes for impressive dishes like Black Angus Beef Tartare with Toasted Brioche and Fried Quail Egg, Roasted Duck with White Bean Ragout, Truffle Oil and Shaved Parmesan Cheese and simple but flavorful Grilled Winter Vegetables with Pesto Dressing give readers plenty to think about and salivate over. Unfortunately, alternating from storyteller to cooking coach proves awkward, and his advice—"let the food in front of you speak to you and inspire you"—can be of little utility. Still, his enthusiasm is genuine and infectious, and Irvine the storyteller keeps things interesting with tales of his education, the Royal family and the kitchen at Donald Trump's Taj Mahal. Best consumed in small bites, Irvine's war stories will delight foodies, but his recipes may be too daunting for novices. (Sept.)

The Taste of Home Baking Book: Timeless Recipes from Trusted Home Cooks
Taste of Home editors. Readers Digest, $29.95 (510p) ISBN 978-0898215281

Fans of home-baked sweets need look no further than this massive collection of more than 700 recipes submitted by Taste of Home readers, which covers everything—and its variations (Apple Coffee Cake, Zucchini Oat Muffins, etc.). Designed with the user in mind, the book is organized by type of baked good (cookies, bars, pies and tarts, desserts, savory and sweet yeast breads, etc.) and augmented with helpful tabs and a comprehensive index. Once the flour starts to fly, readers can use the thick plastic page protectors included to keep pages clean, and sturdy ring-bound construction ensures it will hold up to frequent use. Submissions come from all over the country, ranging from regional favorites like Old-Fashioned Raisin Pie (from Illinois) and Fruit-Filled Kolachkes, a fluffy Polish pastry, to classics like Bread Pudding and Lemon Bars. Purists may scoff at some recipes and techniques (such as German Chocolate Cookies that call for a box of German chocolate cake mix) but the focus here is the end result. Rounded out with tips on everything from shipping cookies to creating chocolate "clay" that can be molded and used as accoutrement, the authors have achieved an exceedingly thorough resource; this brilliantly conceived title should top the list for anyone looking for their first book on baking. (Sept.)

Yum!: Tasty Recipes from Culinary Greats
Compiled by Jeffrey Spear and Dana Bunjon, edited by Julie Pitkin. Cumberland, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1581826166

Commissioned by Microplane, manufacturers of handheld graters and zesters (for the amateur and pro), this recipe compilation showcases Microplane's tools as well as a veritable who's who of cooking and baking, boasting diverse contributions from (and brief bios of) more than 75 cooks, including Rick Tramonto, Charlie Trotter and Rick Bayless, as well as cookbook authors like food scientist Shirley Corriher, baking expert Dorie Greenspan and grillmaster Steven Raichlen (each of whom volunteered a recipe or two, some previously published, for this volume, which profits the National Kidney Foundation). Dishes range from comfort food like Dorie Greenspan's Honey-Orange Pancakes and Tom Douglas's Mom's Crab Dip to elegant, upscale dishes such as Jose Andrés's cleverly deconstructed Caesar salad and Nathalie Dupree's Charlotte of Asparagus and Crab, a stately assemblage topped with orange-laced vinaigrette. As expected, virtually all the recipes call for a zester, but leave room for surprises, like Kat Fukushima's instruction to "finely grate an Altoid" over oysters for a delicate mint flavor. A challenging cookbook, this philanthropic marketing effort offers a wealth of fresh takes on standard dishes, as well as a brief introduction to some of the best chefs and authors working. (Sept.)

ILLUSTRATED

Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
David Attenborough, Susan Owens, Martin Clayton and Rea Alexandratos. Yale Univ., $37.50 (224p) ISBN 978-0300125474

Beginning with Leonardo da Vinci, this historical overview of scientific illustrators between the late 1400s and the mid-1700s includes beautiful, intricate specimens from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Natural History Museum, among others. Filmmaker Attenborough provides an introductory survey of the artistic representation of plants and animals through human history; succeeding chapters focus on five figures—four artists and one collector—none of whom are well-known in either scientific or art history circles. Cassiano dal Pozzo proves an eager and curious antiquarian, a church functionary in Rome who amassed a remarkable collection of illustrations featuring everything from ancient Roman artifacts, minerals and fossils to newly discovered plants and animals. Stunning work by Alexander Marshal, Maria Sibylla Merian and Mark Catesby capture plants and animals in their natural state, including dispatches from the New World and fauna newly arrived from foreign lands. Merian proves most fascinating, working in a time (the late 15th century) when women seldom left their homes, let alone traveled unattended to South America to draw insects and plants in the jungles of Dutch Surinam. A true feast for anyone interested in natural history, this marvelous book makes the underappreciated artworks of a passionate, talented group widely accessible. Color illustrations. (Aug. 28)

China Revealed: An Extraordinary Journey of Rediscovery
Basil Pao. Abbeville, $60 (384p) ISBN 978-0789209474

Home to giant pandas, the Three Gorges Dam, ancient tombs, new cities and remarkable terraced landscapes, the vast expanse of China is home to many cultures, landscapes and, of course, people; from plateau and desert to mines to "pine-scented mountains" and "enchanting countryside," photographer Pao (Inside Himalaya) has traversed much of the country to produce this stunning collection of images. Personal commentary and brief history lessons (including a comparative timeline tracing global culture from 9000 BCE), along with vital stats for each province give the tour added utility, allowing comparison among regions in aspects demographic, architectural and climatic, among others. Genuine concern for China's future drives Pao's musings ("the environmental degradation, the unemployment, the income gap, the corruption and crime"), and alongside brilliant color photographs of tea plantations, native livestock, bright city lights and crowded highways will teach readers much about day-to-day life. Factories are more or less overlooked, a notable absence and perhaps the result of political censorship; the beautiful scenery and telling portraits that Pao tends toward certainly leaves a more positive impression. (Sept.)

FICTION

Cheap Diamonds
Norris Church Mailer. Random, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1400062607

An early '70s coming to New York story, Mailer's second novel (following Windchill Summer) follows three Arkansas youths whose fates are bound up with the fashion world of Diana Vreeland and Helen Gurley Brown. At 22, DuVall University grad Cherry Marshall is old to be starting a modeling career, but her skinny six-foot-one-inch frame, pale skin and "freakish" white-blond hair catapult her from Sweetwater, Ark. to the top of the New York fashion heap. Cherry is soon shyly hanging out with Andy Warhol and entourage, and also ends up working with gorgeous male model Lale Hardcastle, from Buchanan, Ark., a runaway groom who left Cherry's friend Cassie Culver pregnant and abandoned. The paths of the three cross and re-cross, spinning out amid a parade of real and fictional characters. Mailer, the wife of novelist Norman Mailer, crafts a warm saga of youth, naïvety and vanity. (Aug.)

Déjà Who?
Julie Stone. Avalon, $21.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0803498440

In Stone's uninspired second romance (following These Darn Heels), smart, no-nonsense Caroline Summers reluctantly heads from Chicago to her Iowa hometown to take care of her septuagenarian father, Ray (after a stroke), and teach at the same high school where she wowwed 15 years ago as a cheerleader and play actress. Prickly and humorless by the standards of old friend Marnie, Caroline instantly rubs the handsome new assistant in her father's hardware store, Paul Winters, the wrong way. She needs Paul's help, however, in constructing the set of the play she hopes to put on (Our Town, of course). As Caroline tends to overgrown child Ray, she works to warm up to her estranged hometown and to transform into someone romantically accessible to perfect match Paul. There are no surprises along the way. (Aug.)

The Headmaster's Dilemma
Louis Auchincloss. Houghton Mifflin, $25 (192p) ISBN 978-0618883424

Auchincloss sets his sights on a big, familiar target: the rich and shallow elite, and the peculiar troubles specific to them. In this case, the setting is Averhill, a New England boarding school. It's 1975, and headmaster Michael Sayre has a crisis on his hands: there's been a homosexual assault in the boy's dorm. His attempt to handle the matter quietly and fairly plays directly into the hands of sinister Donald Spencer, Michael's old classmate, chief nemesis and chairman of the board of trustees. Determined to ruin Michael's efforts to transform Averhill into a progressive institution (Michael initiates co-education, among other reforms), Donald foments outrage among the parents of the two boys involved and plots to force Michael's resignation and return Averhill to its stodgy old ways. The narrative flows smoothly, but the prose—especially dialogue—is pockmarked with linguistic anachronisms ("all wet," "pinkos," "what a lark!"), as if the novel has been sitting in a drawer for 50 years and underwent a hurried updating. Though old-fashioned feeling, this newest offering from a veteran writer (Auchincloss has published more than 60 books) entertains with its depiction of American aristocrats. (Sept.)

Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future
Mike Resnick. Pyr, $15 paper (336p) ISBN 978-1591025467

First published in 1998, this episodic novel showcases Hugo-winner Resnick's strengths and weaknesses. Thousands of years in the future, after most wildlife on Earth is extinct and humans have spread to distant stars, the last descendent of the Maasai tribe hires a researcher to locate the massive tusks of the Kilimanjaro Elephant. The search dominates the book, showing the passionless scholar's growing identification with his employer's quest as it echoes the elephant's spiritual journey toward the sacred mountain, but most of the book consists of vignettes about the various entities who have possessed the tusks. Resnick's fluent writing and respect for African cultures and wildlife make for some smoothly ironic glimpses of people who imagined they "owned" the ivory, but several pieces are facile little gimmick stories, clever enough for fast reading but essentially just filling gaps in the tale's chronology. Overall, this is a very pleasant read that just misses being truly memorable. (Aug.)

Murder in Lamut: Legends of the Riftwar, Book II
Raymond E. Feist and Joel Rosenberg. Eos, $14.95 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0060792855

This second cowritten installment of Legends of the Riftwar (after Feist's 2006 collaboration with William R. Forstchen, Honored Enemy) finds Rosenberg's engaging mercenary trio, Durine, Kethol and Pirojil, drafted to escort the bed-hopping Lady Mondegreen and her current lover, ambitious Baron Morray, to a summit conference in the city of LaMut. As the intrigues thicken, the Three Swords find themselves permanent guards to the baron, and are soon promoted to captain and tasked with keeping the peace among bored and idle baronial retainers. Then the aging Baron Mondegreen dies, and Morray and Lady Mondegreen are found in bed together with their throats slashed. The Swords, suspicious of everybody—including one another—go looking for the murderer. The numerous characters are well-drawn and use their brains rather than relying on too-easy magic. Fans of the earlier Midkemia books and past adventures of the Three Swords (Not Exactly the Three Musketeers, etc.) will find much to enjoy in this intelligent high fantasy. (Aug.)

Terminal: A Burke Novel
Andrew Vachss. Pantheon, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0375425080

Vachss's 17th Burke novel (after 2006's Mask Murder) combines gritty realism with an over-the-top depiction of an omniscient spy network. Claude Dremdell, a white supremacist whose sole hope against his terminal illness is a pricy experimental Swiss treatment, ropes Burke into a plot to extort money from three wealthy men who years earlier committed a brutal murder (loosely based on the real-life Martha Moxley case), but were never suspected. Armed with only fragmentary evidence in the form of two checks, Burke turns for help to an Israeli intelligence operation working covertly in the U.S. with superhuman powers of information gathering. Lengthy tirades about the failures of the criminal justice system under the current Bush administration will distract even those who agree with them. In the end, the violent vengeance Burke seeks overshadows the worthy points Vachss makes about the continuing horrific sexual abuse of the young. (Sept.)