**
The author's second Burke novel pits the private investigator against a pedophile ring that snaps Polaroids of its young victims for collectors. The title character, Burke's client, is a sexy but strange woman whose background we've figured out long before Burke (blithely, conveniently ignorant) has it spelled out for him at the end. Too tough for its own good and claustrophobically insular, with one-dimensional villains that exist more to promote the author's mission against pedophiles than to entertain. Hardboiled community service masquerading as fiction.
The author's second Burke novel pits the private investigator against a pedophile ring that snaps Polaroids of its young victims for collectors. The title character, Burke's client, is a sexy but strange woman whose background we've figured out long before Burke (blithely, conveniently ignorant) has it spelled out for him at the end. Too tough for its own good and claustrophobically insular, with one-dimensional villains that exist more to promote the author's mission against pedophiles than to entertain. Hardboiled community service masquerading as fiction.