Andrew Vachss: Born Bad (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
"We are taken not simply into the mean streets but into a subterranean nightmare world, a place as compelling and morally challenging as any to be found in the best crime fiction today." -Washington Post Book World

From a writer whose novels have been acclaimed for their unflinching exploration of evil comes a brilliant collection of short stories -- some never before published-that distill dread back down to its essence-and inject it straight into the reader's back brain. Andrew Vachss might have scissored his characters from today's headlines: a stalker prowling around an anonymous high-rise; a serial killer whose transgressions reflect a childhood of hideous abuse; an inner-city gunman who is willing to take out a blockful of victims in order to win a moment of acceptance. Tautly written and endowed with a murderous ironic spin, Born Bad plunges us into the hell that lies just outside our bedroom windows.

"[Vachss is] able to wring edginess from his portrayal of a society hovering beneath the radar." -- Village Voice

Andrew Vachss: Born Bad. Stories. Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, ISBN: 0679753362 (August, 1994), 336 p., $11.00.