With a new introduction by Charlie Higson

'Fantastic ... in my book Jim Thompson is still the greatest crime writer' Jo Nesbo

'The best suspense writer going, bar none' NEW YORK TIMES

'Jim Thompson holds a special place in my heart' Bruce Springsteen

Nick Corey likes being the high sheriff of Potts County. But Nick has a few problems that he needs to deal with: like his loveless marriage, the pimps who torment him, the honest man who is running against him in the upcoming elections and the women who adore him.

And it turns out that Nick isn't anything like as amiable, easy-going or as slow as he seems. He's as sly, brutal and corrupt as they come.

Fantastic ... in my book Jim Thompson is still the greatest crime writer -- Jo Nesbo
The best suspense writer going bar none * NEW YORK TIMES *
I don't read many books twice but Jim Thompson novels - due to their concise, dirty power, their relentless violence and purity - can always draw me in for a second time. Some of the most psychological crime writing ever done. I love James M Cain and Elmore Leonard but Jim Thompson holds a special place in my heart
My favourite crime novelist - often imitated but never duplicated -- Stephen King
Jim Thompson must be ranked in the top bracket. I strongly urge you not to miss one of his books -- Anthony Boucher * NEW YORK SUNDAY TIMES *
If Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich would have joined together in some ungodly union and produced a literary offspring Jim Thompson would be it ... His work casts a dazzling light on the human condition * WASHINGTON POST *
The master of the American groin-kick novel * VANITY FAIR *
One of the finest American writers and the most frightening, Thompson is on best terms with the devil. Read Jim Thompson and take a tour of hell * NEW REPUBLIC *

Jim Thompson (1906-1977) was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. After an itinerant childhood during which his sheriff father was driven from office for embezzlement, and as a roughneck in the Texan oil fields of the 1920s, Thompson became successful as a writer with the pulp fiction houses of the 1950s, writing a dozen of his more enduring novels in just 19 months. Among his many novels are THE KILLER INSIDE ME, THE GRIFTERS, THE GETAWAY and AFTER DARK, MY SWEET. He also wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films THE KILLING and PATHS OF GLORY). POP. 1280 was an acclaimed French film under the title COUP DE TORCHON.