Blood in Brooklyn — Gary Lovisi

Vic Powers lives life on a hellbound train, and he knows to expect the worst, even when things are going well. He's right. Vic's past comes back to haunt him in the form of Cliff, a deeply psychotic killer with a bone to pick with Vic that extends to their childhood. Cliff snatches Vic's lover, Gayle, and instructs Vic to show up alone for a meeting in Brooklyn at 3 a.m. If Vic doesn't make it through the gauntlet of killers and crooked cops working for Cliff, Gayle will die a slow, painful death. The mayhem and pain inflicted in this brutal but gripping novella come straight from your worst nightmare. Collected along with the title piece is another Vic Powers tale in which he takes on a neo-Nazi group. Lovisi's world is unremittingly dark; love exists ephemerally if at all, and revenge is the dominant theme. Fans of Andrew Vachss will clutch Vic Powers to their black little hearts and regale in the vigilante street justice that is so satisfying in print and so frightening in the real world.