Vachss' 'Weight' a bumpy good ride

THE WEIGHT. By Andrew Vachss. Random House. 272 pages. $25.95.

"The Weight" is a departure for Andrew Vachss. The lead character, Sugar, isn't particularly tormented. He's a practiced thief who plies his trade as invisibly as possible.

Hauled in as a suspect on a mistaken identity in a rape case, he gets sent to prison on a seedy plea deal that keeps him from being prosecuted on a theft-gone-wrong that left a few people dead.

How he gets his life back from there is a piece of work. Even the name, Sugar, doesn't mean what you think it does.

This book reads almost like an Elmore Leonard crime novel, a character-driven story with quick dialogue and snatches of character development that leave you shaking your head.

Sugar mixes keen understanding about his world with relative cluelessness about the rest of it, as the weightlifter puzzles his way by dead reckoning through a series of double crosses.

Vachss is an attorney specializing in child abuse and neglect. He's capable of dragging the reader through the horrors of that world on trips that leave scars. He doesn't go there this time. But Sugar keeps you turning pages and "The Weight" is a good, bumpy ride.