A book review of sorts.

I recently finished the novel "Blackjack" by Andrew Vachss.  He is probably one of my favorite authors, a bit on the dark side (even for me) though.

Most of his books deal with child abuse.  Having kids make it a bit difficult to read his books back to back, I normally have to read something "lighter" in between.  I had to read a 'Captain Leary' novel by David Drake before I jumped into his next book-"Batman:  Ultimate Evil".  Already 40 something pages into this novel and I can feel the dread.  Something I like about the Vachss novels is the ending; generally speaking, a child abuser dies.  Never a bad thing, I do believe.

If you can handle a darker subject matter, I highly recommend his books.  All of his books deal with the part of humanity that genteel people normally don't associate with.  The characters are working on the edges of society; gun runners, hustlers, armed robbers, and various other criminal elements.  The author has a deeper knowledge of his subject matter than the average reader, it shows in his writing with his verisimilitude.  Check out his website www.vachss.com.  You have been warned.

On to the review, I'm not like a typical reviewer saying how this scene evoked this emotion reminiscent of this other book by this classic author.  Screw that.  His writing is good, the emotions are intense, and the descriptions are great and gritty.  My only dislike is all of the main characters are "perfect", whatever is their specialty is they are "perfect" at it.  You have one person that is "perfect" at their vocation and I'm okay with that, when you have a team of "perfect" people then it gets a bit old.

My favorite author is Donald Westlake (specifically Richard Stark) in his books the character may be the best at what he does but something always goes wrong.  I would like it if a Vachss character had a little imperfection by not associating with "perfectly" skilled teammates.

For the rest of the review read the book yourself.  All of his books are good and worth the time.  You may want to read something lighter afterwards though.