Bullet in the Brain

1.     dispatched (past tense verb):

dismissed quickly and efficiently, with minimal effort

“He was never in the best of tempers anyway, Anders—a book critic known for the weary, elegant savagery with which he dispatched almost everything he reviewed.” (Paragraph 1)

2.     accord (noun): 

agreement

“She turned to Anders and added, confident of his accord, ‘One of those little human touches that keep us coming back.’” (Paragraph 2)

3.     brass-knuckled (adjective):

openly aggressive and tough

“’Oh, bravo,’ Anders said. ‘Dead meat.’ He turned to the woman in front of him. ‘Great script, eh? The stern, brass-knuckled poetry of the dangerous classes.’” (Paragraph 8)

4.     torpor (noun):

lack of animation, slowness, dullness

“He was short and heavy and moved with peculiar slowness, even torpor.” (Paragraph 10)

5.   ammoniac (adjective):

resembling ammonia, smelling like ammonia, or a combination of urine and sweat

“He breathed out a piercing, ammoniac smell that shocked Anders more than anything that had happened, and he was beginning to develop a sense of unease when the man prodded him again with the pistol.