The powerful story of desperate men and their dramatic struggle for life in the world's most brutal and infamous penal colony. There is Boulanger, the Jolly Rapist, Mirandola, the towering Italian killer, perverted Radisson, one-eyed Giroux, sadistic Sergeant Ducharme. Above all, there is Gendron, the brawling ex-legionnaire they call The American.Hating their sadistic guards, angry at the fatal insanities of the prison, the men divide among themselves. When the Nazi war in Europe reaches their tiny corner of Hell in French Guinea, each man must make his choice to submit or revolt.In this hell-on-earth, the toughest men can suffer and endure. But even the toughest men can only take so much. And that is when they turn on their captors … Peter J. McCurtin was born in Ireland on 15 October 1929, and immigrated to America when he was in his early twenties. Records also confirm that, in 1958, McCurtin co-edited the short-lived (one issue) New York Review with William Atkins. By the early 1960s, he was co-owner of a bookstore in Ogunquit, Maine, and often spent his summers there.McCurtin's first book, Mafioso (1970) was nominated for the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award, and filmed in 1973 as The Boss, with Henry Silva. More books in the same vein quickly followed, including Cosa Nostra (1971), Omerta (1972), The Syndicate (1972) and Escape From Devil's Island (1972). 1970 also saw the publication of his first "Carmody" western, Hangtown.Peter McCurtin died in New York on 27 January 1997. His westerns in particular are distinguished by unusual plots with neatly resolved conclusions, well-drawn secondary characters, regular bursts of action and tight, smooth writing. If you haven't already checked him out, you have quite a treat in store.McCurtin also wrote under the name of Jack Slade and Gene Curry. From the pen of the Mystery Writers of America Award Winner comes hard-boiled crime stories. Stories of loansharks, prison escapes, the low-life crooks, tough private eyes and bent cops.
