The Snarl of the Beast

Before Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, Before Dashiell Hammett’s The Red Harvest, there was Carroll John Daly’s The Snarl of the Beast, the first true hard-boiled detective novel. Featuring Race Williams, a private detective afraid of no man, it is a complex story of murder and inheritance in which Williams must outwit not only the police and a beautiful blonde cat burglar, but a homicidal maniac reputed to be bullet proof. Will his ready fists and forty-four revolvers be up to the task of confronting his foes against the background of deceit, double-crossing, and gunplay? And ultimately will he silence . . . The Snarl of the Beast?