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As high sheriff of Potts County, Nick Corey spends most of his time eating, sleeping and avoiding trouble. If only people—especially some troublesome pimps, his foul-tempered wife, and his half-witted brother-in-law—would stop pushing him around. Because when Nick is pushed, he begins to kill . . . or to make others do his killing for him!

As high sheriff of Potts County, Nick Corey spends most of his time eating, sleeping and avoiding trouble. If only people—especially some troublesome pimps, his foul-tempered wife, and his half-witted brother-in-law—would stop pushing him around. Because when Nick is pushed, he begins to kill . . . or to make others do his killing for him!

(1906 - 1977) James Meyers Thompson was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He began writing fiction at a very young age, selling his first story to True Detective when he was only fourteen. Thompson eventually wrote twenty-nine novels, all but three of which were published as paperback originals. Thompson also wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films “The Killing” and “Paths of Glory”). An outstanding crime writer, the world of his fiction is rife with violence and corruption. In examining the underbelly of human experience and American society in particular, Thompson’s work at its best is both philosophical and experimental. Several of his novels have been filmed by American and French directors, resulting in classic noir including The Killer Inside Me (1952), After Dark My Sweet (1955), and The Grifters (1963).