In this mercilessly compelling thriller

Burke— the private eye, sting artist, and occasional hit man who metes out a cruelly ingenious vengeance on those who victimize children— is up against a soft-spoken messiah, who may be rescuing runaways or recruiting them for his own hideous purposes. But in doing so Burke becomes a target for an entire Mafia family, a whore with a heart of cyanide, and a contract killer as implacable as a heat-seeking missile.

Written with Vachss's signature narrative overdrive—and his unnerving familiarity with the sub-basement of American crime— Hard Candy is vintage Burke.