Hard Candy

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. First edition. Stated. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. William King (Front-of-jacket photograph). [8], 241, [7] pages Signed by author. DJ has slight wear and soiling. This is the fourth of Vachss's 'Burke' novels. In attempting to rescue the daughter of his prostitute friend Candy from a shelter for street kids, Burke stumbles upon a soft-spoken cult leader with mafia connections who is using the children for his own hideous purposes. Andrew Henry Vachss (October 19, 1942 - November 23, 2021) was an American crime fiction author, child protection consultant, and attorney exclusively representing children and youths. Andrew Vachss was the author of 33 novels and three collections of short stories, as well as poetry, plays, song lyrics, and graphic novels. As a novelist, he was perhaps best known for his Burke series of hardboiled mysteries; Another Life constituted the finale to the series. Vachss also wrote non-fiction, including numerous articles and essays on child protection and a book on juvenile criminology. His books have been translated into 20 languages, and his shorter works have appeared in many publications, including Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, and The New York Times. Vachss' literary awards include the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for Strega [as La Sorcière de Brooklyn]; the Falcon Award, Maltese Falcon Society of Japan, for Strega; the Deutscher Krimi Preis for Flood [as Kata]; and the Raymond Chandler Award for his body of work. Andrew Vachss was a member of PEN and the Writers Guild of America. His autobiographical essay was added by invitation to Contemporary Authors in 2003. 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. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: At the onset of Vachss's fourth street-smart novel featuring unlicensed New York private eye Burke, word is out that the ex-con PI has become a gun-for-hire. Besides coping with this crazy rumor, Burke contends with two figures from his youth who suddenly turn up. One of them, Candy, now a miniskirted call girl fond of whips and leashes, wants Burke to rescue her teenaged daughter from a cult in Brooklyn; the other, Wesley, an Uzi-toting hit man, already has the cult's leader, Train, in his sights. When Burke learns that the cult safehouse is a baby-breeding operation, vigilante-style justice ensues. Burke's turf--the sleazy underbelly of New York, a world of street kids, drug pushers, mafiosi and crooked lawyers--springs to life in cinematic scenes. Fans of Vachss's previous hard-core crime fiction ( Flood ; Bluebelle ) will find familiar characters, among them Michelle, the transsexual hooker; Max the Silent, a mute Tibetan martial arts strongman; and electronics whiz Mole, who lives in a bunker under a Bronx junkyard.