The Fourth Angel is John Rechy’s most accomplished work since his explosive City of Night. It is the compelling, ferociously relevant story of four teenagers playing deadly games with drugs, sex, and one another. Behind a facade of tough cynicism, on a raging search for kicks, they explore the hot, dusty city, bent on trouble. There are three angels -Shell, Cob, and Manny, and their recruit Jerry, who becomes the fourth.

Hovering in that uncertain limbo between childhood and adulthood, the four angels maintain a precarious balance among themselves and with the outside world. Each one is today’s street kid: still tinged with innocence and capable of beauty, but at the same time full of rage and violence, attempting to conceal an ugly past.