Andrew Vachss's many books include the Burke novels and two previous collections of short stories. His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, and The New York Times, among other publications. He died in 2021.
Vachss conveys his protagonist's reality in and out of prison in a knowing manner. Along the way, he creates sympathy for a criminal whose code of honor, and whose survival, turns out to be a work in progress. --The Wall Street Journal Sugar and Rena are a canny, lethal team that bears watching in the hopes they become future players in Vachss's ever-growing arsenal of tarnished, avenging angels. --Los Angeles Times Rippling with the whip-smart dialogue we have come to expect from Vachss, this is yet another classic from the master. --Irish Independent The prose is red-hot, mean, stripped down, and sometimes, just plain serious. --San Francisco Book Review Few plumb the . . . integrity of the 'honorable' criminal mind like Vachss. [These] brutal insights provide only the lexicon for what is really a battered and bruised romance--a salvation . . . for those who shoulder life's true weight. --Winnipeg Free Press Damn scary. Vachss' fans will not be disappointed. --Booklist [Vachss writes] some of the cleanest, meanest, stripped-down-and-sparkling prose ever penned. --The Austin Chronicle There's no way to put a [Vachss book] down once you've begun. --Detroit Free Press Vachss is red-hot and as serious as a punctured lung. --Playboy