Tries to say something profound
4 stars
Andrew Vachss is not without his difficulties. His stories invariably deal with child abuse, and mostly with some kind – some idea – of revenge for it. While pointing people at the terrible things that happen behind closed doors is a good thing, just adding “and they need to be killed” isn't terribly helpful for any serious attempts at coping.
That said, this collection of a dozen short stories, beautifully illustrated by Tim Bradstreet, Paul Chadwick, Geof Darrow, Rick Geary, Gary Gianni, Dave Gibbons and Warren Pleece, is fairly harmless and actually tries to say something profound. This works better in some stories and worse in others, but it never disappoints.