Sleep With the Devil

Day Keene (1904-1969) really hit his stride with his twenty-first novel, Sleep With the Devil (1954). The book is a thrilling noir about a small-time conman (Les Farron) who assumes various guises during his swindles: bible salesman, farmer, loan shark, schoolteacher, and magazine model. I don't want to spoil the plot but this is just a pitch-perfect pulp fiction novel — hardboiled, amoral, psychopathic, and action-packed — and one that unfolds with a relentless sense of dread and culminates in a devastating resolution. What a gem — highly recommended.