Blackjack

By Andrew Vachss

Book Overview

TO UNIT 3 Chicago
FROM DIRECTOR
IMPORTANCE: Critical

SUBJECT Specimen Retrieval

TARGET Shadowy hunter-killer teams, ID'ed via signature kills worldwide. Identifiable only by skull-spine removal from victims. No witnesses, no forensics, no particular race targeted. On rare occasions, scraps of what appear to be playing cards found at murder sites.

OBJECTIVE Locate and capture any member of such teams. MUST be taken alive for study and observation.

AUTHORIZATION APPROVED FOR USE OF OUTSIDE CONTRACTOR Individual ID'ed only as "Cross" and his team. A pure mercenary outfit, well known throughout criminal underworld--no inside informants available. Ruthless, undeterred by risk, rumored never to fail, but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES to be trusted. No known political or social objective, but has proven treacherous when retained by government in the past.

UPDATE Cross and his team claim to have identified a pattern to the signature-kills, and believe they can predict a forthcoming strike. They are prepared to personally confront-and-capture, but financial arrangement alone not sufficient. What you describe as a "Get Out of Jail Free" card is hereby APPROVED.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307949575
• ISBN13: 9780307949578
• Release Date: July 2012
• Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.8" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

Predator meets predator

Cross, a mercenary who preys on other predators in the criminal underworld of Chicago in a pool hall bunker called "Red 71" with his crew of fellow mercenaries is approached by a group of CIA sponsored operatives to help them find something that for at least two of their number killed their friends, the government wants Cross's help to find and capture a predator, a space hunter so they can pick its corpse of its technology to give to the military. This sends him into an Illinois prison where the predator is hunting inmates, since Illinois a no kill state. Each character by Vachss is amazing from the two operatives who join the Cross crew onto the crew itself, even characters like the warden and the shot-callers of the prison factions are enjoyable. A read worthy for all fans of the hard-boiled and Sci-Fi genres.