Shockwave - Andrew H. Vachss

Dell, a former mercenary, and his wife, Dolly, once a battlefield nurse, believe they have finally found peace in a deceptively idyllic town on the Oregon coast. Until early one morning, when a body washes up on the town's pristine beach. But this no accidental drowning--the corpse is covered with neo-Nazi tattoos . . . and the skull has been fractured with a spike.

Eager to close the case before it can hurt tourism, the jumpy D.A. arrests Homer, a harmless schizophrenic whose wristwatch--a gift from God, he says--is engraved with a symbol thatexactly matchesone of the dead man's tattoos. Mack, the director and sole employee of the local mental-health outreach program, is outraged but helpless. He confides in Dolly, who, with her local connections and her husband's ruthless skills, is anything but. As the search for the real killer pulls them deeper into the world of hate groups, Dell and Mack together discover the treasonous fog of evil that hovers not only above their town but also above America itself.

With this latest installment in his new Aftershock series, Andrew Vachss reminds us once again--in his inimitable, visceral prose-that for some, peace comes at a very high price.

ANDREW VACHSS is a lawyer who represents children and youths exclusively. His many books include the Burke series and two previous collections of short stories. His novels have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, and The New York Times, among other publications.

The dedicated website for Andrew Vachss and his work is www.vachss.com.

Praise for Andrew Vachss's Aftershock, the first volume in a new thriller series

"Vachss impresses again with his new dark and compelling thriller." -Largehearted Boy.com

"Vachss explores the horrific intersection of victims and victimizers, evil and avengers. The setting has moved from urban to small-town, but the eternal conflict is as it ever was." -Booklist

"Razor-edged and compulsively readable; the pages fly by." -Library Journal


Acclaim for Andrew Vachss

"The baddest noir stylist of them all." -Kirkus Reviews

"Vachss's stories . . . burn with righteous rage and transfer a degree of that rage to the reader." -The Washington Post Book World

"Vachss's reverence for storytelling is evident in the blunt beauty of his language." -Chicago Sun-Times

"Vachss's style is personal, laconic, shaded, and, of course, creepy. If you like hard-boiled narrative, this is a read for you." -Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Vachss seems bottomlessly knowledgeable about the depth and variety of human twistedness." -The New York Times