How Do You Like Your Blue-Eyed Boy? (Andy Saunders) by Barry Graham

I thought this book was amazing. Surely as much literary fiction (you can tell because the title comes from a EE Cummings poem) as a hardboiled mystery it features the coolest protagonist ever. How's this for a hardboiled hero: an ex-Army guy turned handyman giving self-defense lessons and playing in punkband who used to be a reporter named Andy Saunders. If you read writer Barry Graham's bio he's almost as interesting himself, so it is no surprise this is a very interesting novel.
A huge part of the novel is about how Andy came to be the person he is now. After that there's a mystery to be solved, the murder of Andy's two reporter friends. The killer surprised me, I'm not sure I liked the identity of the killer or the way Andy discovered who the killer was, but the mystery isn't the most important thing about this novel any way. That's the great writing and interesting characters.
The dark tone and the frank way in which the sex and violence are portrayed reminded me of Andrew Vachss.
I really loved this book and wouldn't mind seeing Andy return. A character this cool shouldn't lay down too long.