Born Bad

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 murderous ironic spin, Born Bad plunges us into the hell that lies just outside our bedroom windows."Vachss seems bottomlessly knowledgeable about the depth and variety of human twistedness." —The New York Times

"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." —The Washington Post Book World

"[Vachss is] able to wring edginess from his portrayal of a society hovering beneath the radar." —The Village VoiceAndrew Vachss’s many books include the Burke novels and two previous collections of short stories. His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, and The New York Times, among other publications. He died in 2021.