SOURCE: "Some Are Born Violent, Others Achieve Violence …," in The New York Times Book Review, November 20, 1994, p. 45.

In the following review, Adcock argues that while Down in the Zero addresses issues more complex than in previous Vachss novels, it reverts to a "mundane plod" due to its failure to explore those issues more deeply.

Not so long ago, depravity was discussed only after the fact, in confessionals and related whispery venues of holy shame. This was back when such things as pedophilia, bestiality, transvestism, S & M, wife-swapping, incest, necrophilia and other lusty recreations held shock value.

Heaven knows, now anything goes.

Take note of the common stuff of contemporary American culture and you might well conclude that sexual depravity has been thoroughly democratized. No doubt this is why the abundant eroticism of Andrew Vachss's new novel, Down in the Zero, seems so quaint. Consider this bit of pillow...