Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305020219
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO BOOK PAGE EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Andrew Vachss' "Shella" is something of a departure from his series character, Burke.
Even though it lacks the established themes and supporting characters of those novels, this one is solidly set in the grim underworld that Vachss describes so well. His readers will recognize the laconic style immediately, and his protagonist is a variation on the themes that Vachss is exploring in Burke.
John, or Ghost as he's sometimes called, is an emotionally Novocained survivor, an orphan who has grown to become a professional killer. The frontispiece and the book's design are built on three suits of the playing cards - spades, diamonds and clubs, with hearts noticeably absent.
John's only real human contact is with the title character, a topless dancer who has her own reasons for hating men. They're separated at the beginning of the novel when he goes to jail to save her, and John spends the rest of the story finding his way back to her.
The episodic plot involves various jobs that he takes for people who promise that they can locate Shella. One has to do with a Colombian gangster; another revolves around a group of white supremacists and their leader. In both, whether they're fiction or fictionalized fact, the details sound accurate.
Like all of Vachss' fiction, "Shella" reads quickly. The book is only 226 pages long and told in short scenes often only a few paragraphs. Characters, settings and events are sketched in without much description. At times that lack of detail can be frustrating; the interested reader wants to know more. That's a minor criticism, though.
The novel succeeds because John is a fascinating narrator. He speaks from behind thick barriers, letting us see the inner man only in small glimpses. In that regard, the book is reminiscent of the fine paperback originals that Donald Westlake wrote, under the name Richard Stark, about a cold professional thief named Parker. Those are pared down stories of survival in an amoral, dangerous world.
"Shella" has the same speed and punch, and that's high praise, indeed.
by CNB