Andrew Vachss: Hard Candy (USA 1995)

From the Publisher:
"Burke fills a void.... With his soiled white hat, this Lone Ranger of the 1990s asks difficult questions while shining light into the darkest recesses." -- Chicago Tribune

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 with his unnerving familiarity with the sub-basement of American crime -- Hard Candy is vintage Burke.

"Torrid, gritty, frightening, compelling." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Andrew Vachss: Hard Candy. Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, ISBN: 0679761691 (July, 1995), 241 p., $11.00.

Andrew Vachss: Hard Candy (UK 1991)

From the Publisher:
'If he's going to hell the Devil'd better be ready...'
An evil new rumour's spreading through the dark backstreets of the meanest city on earth: Burke has become a gun for hire. And all to help a flame from the past.

Candy. One time big-time hooker, calling favours when she used to call the shots. And the old, old story. The man they call Train is holding her daughter: she wants Burke's help in getting her back.

But there's more than one devil worshipper in Burke's shady past. Enter Wesley the hitman, cold as a heat seeking missile - holding his own contract on Train. It's collision course for the old gang - until Burke fights shy of reunion to deliver his own brand of hardcore justice...

'Move over Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, you've got company' -- COSMOPOLITAN
'Terse and spare... a hard-edged variant of the lawless private detective who burns for moral right' -- THE SUNDAY TIMES
'New York shimmers on the page as gaudily and scarily as it does on the street' -- NEW YORK MAGAZINE
'Burke is a lord of the asphalt jungle... a hero of our times' -- WASHINGTON POST

Andrew Vachss: Hard Candy. Burke is back! Pan, ISBN: 0330316990 (March, 1991), 222 p., £3.99.

Andrew Vachss: Hard Candy (USA 1990)

From the Publisher:
"VACHSS IS IN THE FIRST RANK OF AMERICAN CRIME WRITERS!" -- Cleveland Plain Dealer
Candy was a call girl, the best in the business. Elvira was her teen daughter, a product of the best schools and the most unspeakable education. But Elvira has gotten hooked into a phony commune for street kids-one that exploits rather than saves. And Candy wants Burke, the ex-con turned private troubleshooter, to get her out. That's all it takes to send Burke into the New York lower depths, where killing was king and a nightmare cult turned warm young flesh into ice cold cash....

HARD CANDY

"GOES BEYOND HARD-BOILED TO STORIES WITH THE FEEL OF GRANITE GRAVEL." -- Los Angeles Times
"BURKE FILLS A VOID... WITH HIS SOILED WHITE HAT, THIS LONE RANGER OF THE 1990s ASKS DIFFICULT QUESTIONS WHILE SHINING LIGHT INTO THE DARKEST RECESSES." -- Chicago Tribune

Andrew Vachss: Hard Candy. A Novel. New American Library, ISBN: 0451166906 (July, 1989), Signet Book #AE6690, 283 p., $4.95.

Andrew Vachss: Hard Candy (USA 1989)

From the Publisher:
Flood... Strega... Blue Belle... and now, Hard Candy. In his fourth and hardest-hitting novel, Andrew Vachss once again plunges us into the seamy underworld of New York City -- a labyrinthine world of malevolence and violence that the ex-con and unlicensed private investigator known as Burke calls home, a world where friendships forged in blood have a way of ending in blood.

A new rumor is making its way along the city's darkest back streets: Burke has become a gun for hire. True or not, Burke's got to deal with the fallout. And that includes the reappearance of two people out of his past. There's Wesley: the most vicious and efficient hit man in the business ("Wesley never threatened. He was terror. Cold as a heat-seeking missile"). And there's Candy: a big-time, whatever-you-want call girl whose "yellow cat's eyes" reveal nothing but their own chill color.

What sets these former gang-mates on a collision course is a man called Train, who claims to run a safehouse for kids. Candy is telling a story about her fifteen-year-old daughter's being held in Train's powerful sway; she wants Burke's help getting her back. Wesley is holding a contract that's got Train's name on it; he wants Burke to steer clear. And Burke has ideas of his own.

As a teenager, in the brutal process of proving himself, Burke had "worshipped the same god" as Wesley and Candy. But now, even as circumstance draws them together, their opposing intentions hurl them apart. And when Burke learns the truth about Train-and, in turn, about his old "friends" -- he shapes a truth for himself out of rumor and becomes his own gun for hire. Now, with the help of his remarkable street family-friends who have stood much more than the mere test of crime -- Burke sets out on a course of retribution, meting out his personal hard-core brand of justice...

Andrew Vachss: Hard Candy. A Novel. Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN: 0394577914 (June, 1989), 241 p., $17.95.