Once upon a time in a land far away lived a voracious SFF reader named Druid. Read a lot. Haunted SFF specialist shops. Haunted Wotmania, some say.

One day discovered the first two Steven Erikson books. After the first six discovered that reading Erikson should carry a health warning that reading Erikson simply spoils one's enjoyment for other Fantasy books.

Moved genres to what the French might call, if they could spell properly, romans policier. Crime novels in which the main protagonist is a policeperson. Not for sturdy Druid were these crime novels starring psychologists, painters, private eyes and the like. No. One was a purist.

It helped that the redoubtable Mrs. Druid liked romans policier. We could swap books. Which quickly became incessant demand from said Mrs. Druid for more material to read and an overriding complaint that writers are bums who do not write fast enough for her tastes.

Being on first name terms, by now, with the finance director of The Book Depository, one found that once one had read everything current in one's chosen genre/subgenre, and having pre-ordered everything that might arrive in the next six months, one had to start looking at stuff that might make the grade. Fantastic Fiction is good for this, one finds.

Having deserted one's favourite bricks and mortar bookshop for the The Book Depository on the grounds that Mrs. Druid's voracious appetite for books was bankrupting said Druid, one noticed that bookshops were closing around the City. In response to a guilt attack about my spending a fortune online and not with them, a quick visit was made to said favourite bookshop.

With list in hand of what "we" liked, what "we" had and what I had pre-ordered, I found a few titles of interest. Being a logical soul I started at the "A"s and proceeded towards the "Z"s.

Got to the "V"s. An author named Andrew Vachss (rhymes with tax, apparently). Only one book, named "A Bomb Built in Hell". Definitely not one for Mrs. Druid, I could tell.

Read book. Noted that it was, in fact, a very early book by that author and that it had spawned a series of some 17 books called the Burke series. Any series of 17 books, already in print (big factor in reading preference for someone who has watched decades pass before the next Jordan came out), might as well order the first three.

I now have the lot, or will have when the final orders arrive.

Very heavy books. The entire story arc revolves around the author's history as a lawyer dealing with the victims of child abuse, with the author getting his own back by creating a sort of anti-hero who is dedicated to dealing very roughly with the perpetrators of abuse. Despite the lurid covers, the stories deal with how Burke, the anti-hero, gets involved in bringing the bad guys and girls to (often summary) justice. The anti-hero is also a product of the system as an orphan, so constant references to reform schools, prison etc. which the author has worked in for many years.

If you are not into Jack Reacher style summary justice, avoid these.

If you prefer not to read about what people can do to other people in the name of making a quick dollar, avoid these.

If you have to have a happy ending, do not read these books. Burke does what has to be done, but never has anything more than a bad taste in his mouth, always seems to lose the girl and knows that whatever he has achieved it is almost nothing compared to the immensity of what the "freaks" (as Vachss calls them) are up to.

Most of all, avoid these books if you want to be able to continue to read more ordinary fare, as I say to you brothers and sisters, once started, you cannot put them down and I have a terrible feeling that they are as capable as Erikson books in spoiling you for any other books in the genre.

You may consider yourself warned.

If you insist on ignoring this warning, I would strongly suggest you begin at the beginning, with the novel called "Flood". It introduces Burke's world. Vachss does not bother to do this in the rest of the series and you could get lost if you were not properly grounded. Indeed many of the books refer to events in the preceding book and if you had not read it.....!

These books are tough. The subject matter is tough. The writing is tough. But I can't put them down, the quality of the writing is excellent, the humour is fantastic between the people on the side of the angels and you will never ever want to go anywhere near New York City in your lives.

A final word about the subject matter. Vachss and his wife work with victims of child abuse. Vachss is very up front in opening the reader's eyes. However there are no sensationalist sections - he says "this" happened, he does not go into details; the books are about the getting of justice for the victims, not what happened to the victims.