Of Tender Sin Book

Less crime than psycho-pulp, this is an atmospheric journey through the rapid decay (& 11th hour redemption) of a "normal" guy, a semi-professional working stiff in Philadelphia who is suddenly swarmed by his own demons. Dirty demons with platinum blonde hair.

Atmospheric typically means evocations of environment - street scenes, smoky bars with solitary degenerates on stools, drug dens - all well delineated in this book, but the real atmosphere here is internal, as the bulk of the action is a result of sudden mental-takeovers by repressed memories and obsessions and buried guilt, and how these voracious demons warp one's environment and darken one's course through life.

This bears some comparison to many narratives from and about its era - the 50's - as the bright veneer of upright, responsible, nest-egged married professionals is stripped back to reveal the putrid nest of Freudian worms gnawing away at the interiors; all well and good, but there's something else here, a desperate, personal authenticity, that makes it compulsively readable and frightening, and the main character (the locus of terrors) pathetic and pitiable.