Scandalously ignored during his lifetime in the USA, scandalously ignored in France today, Horace McCoy however, is the equal of the greatest. He demonstrates this more than the black novel: the "hero" was Princeton and uses his intelligence to manipulate cops and mobsters - and knock in quite the way. Psychopathic murderer (we know why at the end of the book), the young mad dog uses corruption and system faults to consolidate his power. With a dizzying writing as fast as James Cain and James Hadley Chase, committed writer, McCoy has also published other jewels: the very pessimistic "They Shoot Horses", the anti-capitalist "A shroud has not pockets "or the monumental" Scalpel "which, despite its length, is a very detailed analysis of social and personal psychology.