A research scientist has gone missing. An ace newspaper reporter has disappeared and so has a minidisk, along with its incriminating evidence. And a teenage hustler is on the run. In his pursuer, the Hammer, a skin-headed professional killer, the principle of evil has indeed been made flesh. Unsettling and unpredictable, this compelling page-turner delivers point-blank its every unexpected narrative hit, twist, and turn as it leads protagonist Joe Donovan to the terror of the mercy seat.

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