Of Tender Sin (Five Star) [Paperback]

'It began with a shattered dream?' Alvin Darby is a 29 year old insurance clerk, with a comfortable apartment, a beautiful wife and enough money in the bank not to have to worry. So why does he wake up in the middle of the night tortured by the image of a woman with platinum blonde hair? And why is he suddenly convinced that his wife is having an affair? Consumed by jealousy, Alvin leaves his comfortable life to walk the streets of Skid Row intent on murder. Caught up in an underworld of drugs and crime, Alvin is soon out of his depth, and back with his old girlfriend Geraldine, whose seductive silver yellow hair and orange lips seem to hold the key to unlock the dark and terrible sin of his past?

'You'll belong to me. And I'll belong to Charlie .... The three of us, we'll have a wonderful time.'

Alvin Darby is a 29 year old insurance clerk, with a comfortable apartment, a beautiful wife and enough money in the bank not to have to worry. So why does he wake up in the middle of the night tortured be the image of a woman with platinum blonde hair? And why is he suddenly convinced that his wife is having an affair?

Consumed by jealousy and determined to track down the woman with the platinum blonde hair, Alvin leaves his comfortable life to walk the streets of Skid Row intent on murder. Caught up in an underworld of drugs and crime, Alvin is soon out of his depth, and back with his old girlfriend Geraldine, whose seductive silver yellow hair and orange lips seem to hold the key to unlock the dark and terrible sin if his past ...

Long unavailable, Of Tender Sin is a brilliant tale of paranoia and jealousy, femmes fatales and dark secrets. With its searing portrayal of the mean streets of Philadelphia and its underworld of drugs and crime, Of Tender Sin is as hard-hitting today as when it was first published in 1952.

One of the greatest yet least appreciated American post-war crime writers, David Goodis was born in Philadelphia in 1917, and wrote his first novel, Retreat from Oblivion, in 1938. His big break came in 1946 with the publication of Dark Passage, which was made into a film starring Bogart and Bacall. During his life he wrote many short stories, film treatments, scripts for radio serials such as Superman, and seventeen novels including Shoot the Pianist (filmed by Truffaut). He died in 1967.