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Fans of Andrew Vachss will find in TWO TRAINS RUNNING the danger, menace and violence they have come to expect. But this latest effort offers something extra: an exploration of some disturbing truths --- that history is written by the victors, that the victors are not necessarily the good guys, and that they get away with it because few people are willing to ask the tough questions.
TWO TRAINS RUNNING is set in 1959 in the fictitious town of Locke City, a former factory town that has managed to avoid drying up and blowing away thanks to those unique human traits that make vice and corruption such reliable investments. That Locke City's economy works at all is entirely due to the efforts of Royal Beaumont, a good ol' boy whose wheelchair is the throne in a vast criminal fiefdom. If money changes hands in Locke City, you can be sure that Beaumont is getting his slice. But Beaumont's empire has come to the attention of outside forces that include the East Coast mafia and Irish gangsters with IRA connections. Feeling threatened, Beaumont responds by bringing in Walker Dett, whose expertise extends beyond simple contract killing to include a genius for strategic thinking.
While TWO TRAINS RUNNING features an extensive cast of characters, Walker Dett stands out as the most memorable --- and the most sympathetic. This will come as no surprise to regular readers of Vachss's crime fiction. Vachss has a knack for creating characters of extreme menace who nevertheless are complex human creatures in a quagmire of a world where morality is malleable and the only absolutes are life and death. It is difficult not to respect the ascetic dedication Dett applies to his unpleasant craft, from his monkish physical and mental discipline to the extraordinary insight into human nature and behavior. Dett is made all the more memorable, and all the more human, by his less than adept interaction with the genuinely virtuous and good-hearted Tussy, the waitress who becomes the willing focus of his highly chivalrous and noble romantic intentions. Like many other Vachss characters, Dett's troubling personal history provides the motivation for his unusual evolution as a complex anti-hero in an even more complex plot.
Walker Dett is at the center of what is essentially a political thriller, one that has the mob boys, the Irish gangs, and other underworld forces united in an effort to deliver the vote --- by any means necessary --- to insure the victory of an unnamed Democratic candidate (the time frame and references make it obvious that the candidate is JFK) in the 1960 presidential election. But Royal Beaumont's skepticism and mistrust threaten the scheme, and he leverages Dett's skills to try to thwart what he believes is an attempt to seize control of his empire.
But Dett has his own plans. As he explains, he is a kind of stone in the pond, sending out ripples that, by careful calculation, inexorably affect the world around him. Dett's secret and his ultimate personal mission bring to mind certain elements of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, the kind of stuff that keeps conspiracy theorists in business and makes blissful ignorance so seductive.
In the end, TWO TRAINS RUNNING is something of a call to action. Whether you buy into Vachss's take on late twentieth century history or not, he wants you to give very serious consideration to the idea that the principal responsibility of citizens in a democracy is the absolutely essential need to take nothing at face value, history in particular. Andrew Vachss wants you to fulfill your patriotic duty to ask the uncomfortable, unpleasant, and even dangerous questions.
--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart
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