In the figure of Burke, Andrew Vachss has given contemporary crime
fiction one of its most mesmerizing characters. An abused child raised
in orphanages, foster homes, and prisons, Burke is a career criminal and
outlaw who steals and scams for a living. But he draws the line at the
psychopaths and predators who stalk children. Sometimes he draws that
line in blood. In Blossom, an old cellmate has summoned Burke to a
fading Indiana mill town, where a young boy is charged with a crime he
didn't commit and a twisted serial sniper has turned a local lover's
lane into a killing field. And it's here that Burke meets Blossom, the
brilliant, beautiful young woman who has her own reasons for finding the
murderer -- and her own idea of vengeance. Dense with atmosphere,
savagely convincing, this is Vachss at his uncompromising best.