Blossom: A Burke Novel by Andrew Vachss

 

This is early Vachss, all taut and violent, more than a little murky to my mind. It is not good to be a sexual offender in a Vachss novel. It's pretty clear reading this that the POV character--and the author--have way more experience than they'd prefer with a certain kind of lowlife. It's OK to be a career criminal--not easy, sometimes brutal, but OK; there are people career criminals call *scum*. They mostly come to bad ends. The novel isn't exactly *fun*, but it's distinctly *satisfying.