Andrew H Vachss

"Just before daybreak, a body washes up on a pristine beach. The dead man's skull has been bashed open, and his upper body is covered in neo-Nazi tattoos. An anonymous photographer e-mails an image of the scene to the local news, spurring the police to instantaneous response. Searching for suspects at one of the town's "homeless-by-choice" encampments, the cops pick up Homer, a "walking wounded" schizophrenic, who has been showing off a wristwatch...

When a colleague is charged with the murder of a serial rapist, Burke uncovers numerous questionable dealings at the district attorney's office and elects to reopen the original investigation into the rapist's case.

When the shining star of the girls' softball team shoots and kills the most popular boy in school, Dolly, friend to the local teenage girls, asks her husband Dell to uncover the true motive behind the inexplicable crime.