Shockwave: An Aftershock Novel

(Paperback)

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Dell, a former mercenary, and his wife, Dolly, once a battlefield nurse, believe they have finally found peace in a deceptively idyllic town on the Oregon coast. Until early one morning, when a body washes up on the town's pristine beach. But this no accidental drowning--the corpse is covered with neo-Nazi tattoos . . . and the skull has been fractured with a spike. Eager to close the case before it can hurt tourism, the jumpy D.A. arrests Homer, a harmless schizophrenic whose wristwatch--a gift from God, he says--is engraved with a symbol thatexactly matchesone of the dead man's tattoos. Mack, the director and sole employee of the local mental-health outreach program, is outraged but helpless. He confides in Dolly, who, with her local connections and her husband's ruthless skills, is anything but. As the search for the real killer pulls them deeper into the world of hate groups, Dell and Mack together discover the treasonous fog of evil that hovers not only above their town but also above America itself. With this latest installment in his new Aftershock series, Andrew Vachss reminds us once again--in his inimitable, visceral prose-that for some, peace comes at a very high price.

Reviews

Praise for Andrew Vachsss Aftershock, the first volume in a new thriller series

Vachss impresses again with his new dark and compelling thriller. Largehearted Boy.com

Vachss explores the horrific intersection of victims and victimizers, evil and avengers. The setting has moved from urban to small-town, but the eternal conflict is as it ever was. Booklist

Razor-edged and compulsively readable; the pages fly by. Library Journal


Acclaim for Andrew Vachss

The baddest noir stylist of them all. Kirkus Reviews

Vachsss stories . . . burn with righteous rage and transfer a degree of that rage to the reader. The Washington Post Book World

Vachsss reverence for storytelling is evident in the blunt beauty of his language. Chicago Sun-Times

Vachsss style is personal, laconic, shaded, and, of course, creepy. If you like hard-boiled narrative, this is a read for you. Los Angeles Times Book Review

Vachss seems bottomlessly knowledgeable about the depth and variety of human twistedness. The New York 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.