Burke is one of the most cold-blooded yet strangely honorable heroes in
the history of crime fiction, an outlaw who makes his living by preying
on the most vicious of New York City's bottom-feeders, those who thrive
on the suffering of children. In Andrew Vachss's tautly engrossing novel
Burke is given a purse full of dirty money to find the infamous Ghost
Van that is cutting a lethal swath among the teenage prostitutes in the
hood. He also gets help in the form of a stripper named Belle, whose
moves on the runway are outclassed only by what she can do in a getaway
car. But not even Burke is prepared for the evil that is behind the
Ghost Van or for the sheer menace of its guardian, a cadaverous karate
expert who enjoys killing so much that he has named himself after death.
"A book so ferocious, with characters so venal and actions so breakneck,
that you dare not get in the way . . . . First rate." -- Chicago Tribune