Just the Way it Is

James Hadley Chase is probably the best know synonym of René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, an English writer also known by other pen names, including James L. Docherty, Raymond Marshall, R. Raymond, and Ambrose Grant. He is one of the best known thriller writers of all time. He was influenced by American crime writes and writers of hardboiled pulp fiction, but he rarely visited the United States and the books are based on knowledge acquired by reading and using reference materials. He has written some 90 books, almost half of which have been made into movies.
Fairview was dying. Mass production and flashy bars and gambling joints of neighboring Bentonville are putting the town out of business.
Harry Duke has a reputation as a gambler and as someone you don’t mess with. He has killed a man in the past, but now someone is trying to make it look like he has slit a man's throat one night. It is a neat frame up, but Duke still has aces in his hand … and a gun.