The Weight

Andrew Vachss returns with a mesmerizing novel about a hard-core thief whos about to embark on a job that will alter his life forever. Sugar is that rarest of commodities: an old-school professional thief tough and loyal as a pit bull packing 255 pounds of muscle. When hes picked out of a photo array in a vicious rape case the cops find his apartment empty. A stakeout catches Sugar when he returns... carrying a loaded pistol. The sex-crime cops get nothing from their interrogation but a streetwise detective figures out why Sugar offers no alibi: at the time of the rape a holiday-weekend break-in job was being pulled at a jewelry store. The DA offers Sugar two options: give up his partners in the jewelry heist and walk or plead to the rape he didnt commit and hell toss in the gun charge. For Sugar thats not two options; he takes the weight. When Sugar finishes his time his money is waiting for him held by Solly the mastermind behind the jewelry heist. But Solly tells Sugar that one of the heist crew was actually sent by another planner - and that planner has just died. In Sugars world all loose threads must be cut. He suspects that theres more to this job than what Solly is telling him. But nothing he suspects or imagines can prepare him for what he finds.