Brute in Brass

Greenwich CT: Fawcett Publications (Gold Medal 595). Good+. 1956. 1st Edition (pbo). Softcover. [general exterior wear, slight spine lean, small crack/tear at bottom rear hinge, vertical creasing along left edge of front cover, agency name lightly rubber-stamped on front endpaper]. Mass Market PB Hard-boiled tale, a paperback original, about a bad cop redeemed (sort of) by falling in love. A la some of Jim Thompson's better work, the book is narrated by its troubled protagonist: "My name's Mike Ballard. I had been a bad man and a worse cop, but this thing that I was doing now was good. I remember the day it started. I went up to State Prison and saw a man in the death house, an innocent man whom I had to save because I coveted his wife with every fiber of my being." .