Terminal

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Description

After years of carefully working the edges, a blood-commitment forces Burke's return to his former career- "violence-for-money." Claw, once the shot-caller of a white supremacist prison gang is free . . . and terminally ill--he desperately needs a pile of cash to bet on a long-shot cure. He tells Burke about a punk who once purchased protection from him, a man who claims to know the truth behind a "cold case, " the unsolved rape-murder of a thirteen-year-old girl. The killers are all weathly men today, ideal blackmail marks. But wealth is power, and the informant needs Claw's protection again. Burke decides to roll the dice. A win would give Burke the two things he lives for- Money and Revenge. A loss would turn "terminal" from a diagnosis into a certainly, and not just for Claw.

Reviews

"Illuminates both the darkest excesses of criminality and, in counterpoint, the slack-jawed solipsism of the law-abiding."Time Out ChicagoVachss's prose is as taut and streetwise as ever, drawing his readers again into an evil underworld that is at once impossible to look away from and horrible to behold."Associated Press"Burke is the hardest, most twisted man in crime and thriller fiction."Contra Costa Times Transcends the crime novel even further. . . . Like a lecture from the smartest raconteur you never want to meet.The Seattle Times

Author Bio

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.