Andrew Vachss returns with a mesmerizing novel about a hard-core thief
who's about to embark on a job that will alter his life forever.
Sugar is that rarest of commodities: an old-school professional thief,
tough and loyal as a pit bull, packing 255 pounds of muscle. When he's
picked out of a photo array in a vicious rape case, the cops find his
apartment empty. A stakeout catches Sugar when he returns...carrying a
loaded pistol. The sex-crime cops get nothing from their interrogation,
but a streetwise detective figures out why Sugar offers no alibi: at the
time of the rape, a holiday-weekend break-in job was being pulled at a
jewelry store. The DA offers Sugar two options: give up his partners in
the jewelry heist and walk, or plead to the rape he didn't commit--and
he'll toss in the gun charge. For Sugar, that's not two options; he
takes the weight.
When Sugar finishes his time, his money is waiting for him, held by
Solly, the mastermind behind the jewelry heist. But Solly tells Sugar
that one of the heist crew was actually sent by another planner--and
that planner has just died. In Sugar's world, all loose threads must be
cut. He suspects that there's more to this job than what Solly is
telling him. But nothing he suspects or imagines can prepare him for
what he finds....
