Lady in Dread

Her name was Tessie Cullen and she was beautiful… and she shook the dice in a joint in Coalfield–the most sinful city south of Chicago. The hoods owned Coalfield, owned its corrupt, neon body and soul and they had a lease on Tessie, too. A short-term lease, maybe, but it kept her in line. But they never figured on Tessie's falling in love. They never figured on Hally Harper, the crusading young lawyer who came to Coalfield to blow the lid off it and its jungle of rackets....
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Her name was Tessie Cullen and she was beautiful… and she shook the dice in a joint in Coalfield–the most sinful city south of Chicago. The hoods owned Coalfield, owned its corrupt, neon body and soul and they had a lease on Tessie, too. A short-term lease, maybe, but it kept her in line. But they never figured on Tessie's falling in love. They never figured on Hally Harper, the crusading young lawyer who came to Coalfield to blow the lid off it and its jungle of rackets. The odds were all on murder. Tessie's.Coalfield's most popular event, The Sparrow Hawk Derby, is the backdrop for intrigue, deception and greed. It seems the Big Boys from Chicago have a personal interest in the Derby, knowing much dough can be made from all that betting. Harper has an interest, as well. He's actually a federal narcotics agent on the trail of a huge shipment of opium that's gone missing. What he doesn't expect to find is murder. Tessie knows just enough to get herself killed by the Mob… and it's up to Harper to get this case unraveled soon before she becomes the next victim!

About Vintage Paperback Pulp Fiction

A new revolution was underway at the start of the 1940s in America—a paperback revolution that would change the way publishers would produce and distribute books and the reading public would consume them. In 1939 a new publishing company—Pocket Books—stormed onto the scene with the publication of its first paperbound book. Unlike hardback books, these pulp paperbacks were available in drugstores, newsstands, bus and train stations, and cigar shops. The American public could not get enough of them. The popular pulp genres reflected the tastes of Americans during World War II—mysteries, thrillers, and "hardboiled detective" stories were all the rage.

In the early 1950s new pulp fiction sub-genres emerged—science fiction, lesbian fiction, juvenile delinquent and sleaze, for instance—that would tantalize readers with gritty, realistic and lurid stories never seen before. Publishers had come to realize that sex sells. In a competitive frenzy for readers, they turned to alluring covers that often featured a sexy woman in some form of undress, along with a suggestive tag line that promised sex and violence within. To this day, the pulp cover art of these vintage paperback books are just as sought after as the books themselves were sixty years ago.

We are excited to make these wonderful pulp fiction stories available in ebook format to new generations of readers, as a new revolution—the ebook revolution—is in full swing. We hope you will enjoy this nostalgic look back at a period in American history when dames were dangerous, tough-guys were deadly and dolls were downright delicious.