Andrew Vachss - The Weight

This latest novel by Andrew Vachss is as much a character study and, ultimately, a love story as it is a crime thriller or mystery. There nevertheless are mystery elements here and crimes certainly do take place in the course of the story. As usual, Vachss's distinct prose style propels the plot and demands the reader to keep turning pages. His deft characterizations are spot-on, and the intricacies of criminal life that he portrays are nothing short of fascinating. The central character and narrator of THE WEIGHT is Tim "Sugar" Caine, an old-school professional thief who follows a strict set of rules that include doing only jobs arranged through his "planner", Solly. But even the most careful plans can go unexpectedly awry. When Sugar is wrongly charged for a vicious rape and picked out of a line-up by the victim herself, his only chance to beat the charge and avoid prison time is to alibi himself by admitting to a big-money jewel heist he was participating in at the time of the rape and try to make a deal by naming the others who were in on the job with him. But that goes against the rules Sugar lives by. He refuses to deal and does the prison time --- i.e. takes the weight, rather than give up any other members of the heist crew. How he handles his prison time, his reflections while inside on previous incarceration and the events and people who have shaped his life up to this point start to give the reader deeper insight into Sugar. The title also plays off this pivotal period in the story --- the weight of the rules Sugar so rigidly adheres to, the weight he takes for the jewel heist, the weight he lifts regularly in the prison yard (and elsewhere) to maintain his impressive physical strength ... and the one weight he has trouble accepting: The weight of being falsely branded a rapist, a sex offender. After he's served his time and is released from prison, Sugar meets with Solly to collect his share from the long-past jewel heist only to discover there is a further complication ... the kind of loose end that no professional can leave unattended. How Sugar tracks down this loose thread --- facing danger, duplicity, and double-crosses yet in the process also learning how to trust and love --- brings the novel to an exciting, satisfactory conclusion. Vachss's power as a writer never fails to impress. Don't wait for THE WEIGHT a minute longer than you have to - grab it, read it, enjoy it.