Books like Down in the zero by Andrew Vachss

Reporter Camille Preaker returns to her hometown after a brief stay in a psychiatric hospital to cover the murders of two preteen girls, and must confront the trauma of her own past to uncover the truth.

Detective Matthew Scudder investigates a prostitute’s mysterious death that implicates a minister’s son, uncovering hidden truths in New York’s gritty underworld.

In gritty New York, ex‑cop turned private investigator Matt Scudder hunts for the killer of a young prostitute whose death on a waterfront pier threatens to unravel dark secrets and expose the city's lowest depths.

Private investigator Burke teams with a disgraced former sex‑crime prosecutor to expose a conspiratorial assault that threatens to destroy a city’s justice system.

Matthew Scudder’s tenth crime novel pits the New York detective against a drug trafficking plot that embroils kidnapping and murder in the city’s shadows.

After his girlfriend is gunned down, private‑investigator Burke hunts a serial killer calling himself Homo Erectus, only to find the mystery forces him to confront his own past and the twisted mind behind the killings.

Burke, a seasoned career criminal, disappears after a botched hit, and lands in the Pacific Northwest where he must track a runaway teen while confronting a clandestine drug gang that feeds chronic pain patients.

Urban outlaw Burke, on the run after a hit squad leaves his partner dead, follows a trail from New York to an underground cross‑country network that forces him to confront his darkest past.

Matthew Scudder, a cynical private investigator in New York City, breaks a case that forces him to confront a killer he suspects might be himself, blending razor‑sharp detective work with reflective character study.

In "Strega," hard‑boiled detective William Burke investigates a disturbing request to find an obscene photograph, leading him into New York’s underworld of child exploitation and corruption.

Matt Scudder, a seasoned New York private investigator, thinks his life is settled until a sudden, brutal crime forces him back into the city's gritty underworld, where past debts and hidden vendettas collide.

Burke, a seasoned investigator, is blackmailed into a perilous case when Kite, a professional debunker of child‑sexual‑abuse allegations, suspects he has found a real crime. In a dark, unflinching mystery, Burke faces the ultimate witch‑hunt.

Private investigator Burke follows a trail from a welfare hotel to a sinister frame house where a voodoo priestess leads a cult of assassins, uncovering the dark origin of a murderous boy called Satan’s Child.

A hard‑boiled mystery featuring private detective Matthew Scudder as he unravels the case at a New York slaughterhouse.

In "Even the Wicked," seasoned private investigator Matthew Scudder tackles a layered crime amidst New York’s gritty streets, blending sharp detective work with a contemplative narrative style.

Matthew Scudder faces a new death‑row investigation that pulls him into a web of murders threatening his own family, pushing the New York‑based detective to the edge of mortality and suspense.

"William Goldman returns to give us the latest lowdown on Hollywood moviemaking. He dishes the dirt, adventure by adventure, from his most recent films - the successes and the failures - with insider anecdotes from such star-studded sets as The Princess Bride, Misery, and Absolute Power. We find out what it's like to work with Mel Gibson, Michael Douglas, Richard Donner, Rob Reiner, Clint Eastwood, and all the rest of Hollywood's major power players.". "But this is much more than just a tourist's guide to the backlot. Goldman conducts a virtual writer's clinic: he tells us exactly what works on film and why, dissecting classic moments in great screenplays ranging from the crop-dusting scene in North by Northwest to the zipper scene in There's Something About Mary. He gives us insider tips on everything from good storytelling to effective pitch-making, and he shows us where his ideas come from and what he does with them when they get there. Finally, he brings together some of today's top screenwriters to analyze, doctor, or destroy a screenplay he created just for this book."--BOOK JACKET.

Matthew Scudder, a seasoned New York private investigator, takes on a case that blurs professional lines and personal stakes in "Out on the Cutting Edge," the seventh book in Lawrence Block’s celebrated hard‑boiled series.