Ever heard of Dan Simmons?

Simmons' first published story, "The River Styx Runs Upstream," won the Rod Serling Memorial Award. His first novel, Song of Kali, won the World Fantasy Award. His first horror novel, Carrion Comfort, won the Bram Stoker Award. His first science fiction novel, Hyperion, won the Hugo Award.

Even with all the awards, I was only vaguely familar with his work. I don't read fantasy, and very little science fiction or horror. I do love a hardboiled thriller though! You know, the kind written by Vachss, or Izzi, Hunter, or Stark... or Simmons. That's right! With one book, Simmons has jumped to the top of the list!

Joe Kurtz was a PI... before he was an ex-con. See he killed a man, a couple of men actually. They'd murdered his girl and unborn child. While it's pretty reasonable to me that he threw one of 'em off a six story building, the jury didn't see it that way.

Now, out of prison after eleven-and-a-half years...