Everybody Pays: Stories

"Vachss is a contemporary master."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Vachss' writing is like a dark roller coaster ride of fear, love and hate."--The Times- Picayune

A hit man defies the confines of a life sentence to avenge his sister's batterer.An immaculately dressed man hires a street gang to extract his daughter from a Central American prison, for reasons as mysterious as they are deadly.A two-bit graffiti artist with a taste for Nazi-ganda finds himself face-to-face with three punks out to make a mark of their own--literally--with a tattoo needle.

From neo-noir master Andrew Vachss comes Everybody Pays, 38 white-knuckle rides into a netherworld of pederasts and prostitutes, stick-up kids and fall guys--where private codes of crime and punishment pulsate beneath a surface system of law and order, and our moralcompass spins frighteningly out of control. Here is the street-grit prose that has earned Vachss comparisons to Chandler, Cain, and Hammett--and the ingenious plot twists that transform the double-cross into an expression of retribution, the dark deed into a thing of beauty. Electrifying and enigmatic, Everybody Paysis a sojourn into the nature of evil itself--a trip made all the more frightening by its proximity to our front doorstep.

"Vachss [is] in the first rank of contemporary American crime writers."--The Kansas City Star

"Andrew Vachss has become a cult favorite, and for good reason."--Cosmopolitan

The author of Born Bad presents a collection of neo-noir short stories that journeys into the very heart of everyday evil as it introduces such characters as a blues musician on the run, a team of urban mercenaries on a mission in Central America, and a martial artist struggling to be true to his name. Original. 25,000 first printing.

Andrew Vachss can be found at www.vachss.com.

From the eBook edition.

Proving it — Reaching back — Last date — Tag — Dress-up day — Homeless — Mission — Going home — The real thing — Slow motion — True colors. From the underground series. Curtains — The writing on the wall — Safe sex — Charmed life — Gamblers — Just the ticket — Summer girl — Big sister — Time share — Goin' down slow — Word play — Stepping stone — Fireman — Dope fiend — Escort service — Stuntman — Piecework — The real world — Perp walk — Good for the soul — Hit man — Searcher. From the cross series. The concrete puppy — Harvest time — Pigeon drop — Two-way radio. Novella. Everybody pays.