A review by holgerhaase
Blue Belle by Andrew Vachss

2.0

Yeah, so I am officially done with the Burke novels. This was the last one I had in a 3-book collection and yet again Burke spends a ridiculous amount of time being paranoid to amusingly ludicrous levels contemplating whether to accept a case, not accepting it, still not accepting it, pondering to accept it, maybe accepting it, not committing to accepting it, pretending not to accept it until he finally accepts it.... which is what we knew he'd do anyway cause after all we'd have no story otherwise but this takes up easily a fifth of the book and strains patience quite a bit and three books in has also become something of a cliché with this character.

When he is not out there shooting off tough guy speech, he has the most idiotic sex in literary history cause Burke is way too tough for cunnilingus but instead smokes a cigarette while getting head, followed up by giving life advice to a woman: "Take off that makeup! You're fat but you're gorgeous. And here's a slap because you'll love it" (not a quote but the gist of it... he spends endless pages sprouting that kind of advice).

So, yeah, I can't take those books seriously. They often come across as an overblown parody of hard boiled fiction.