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THE CRIME WAS OVER IN A MINUTE—
THE CONSQUENCES LASTED A LIFETIME

Hospitalized after a liaison with another man’s wife ends in violence, Paul Cole has just one goal: to rebuild his shattered life. But with his memory damaged, the police hounding him, and no way even to get home, Paul’s facing steep odds—and a bleak fate if he fails...

This never-before-published novel by three-time Edgar Award winner Donald E. Westlake is a noir masterpiece, a dark and painful portrait of a man’s struggle against merciless forces that threaten to strip him of his very identity.

• First publication ever!
• A lost, unpublished novel by best-selling novelist Donald Westlake, who died on January 1, 2009
• Westlake was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay of "The Grifters," and was named a Grandmaster by the Mystery Writers of America, the organization’s highest honor

"One of the great writers of the 20th Century."

— Newsweek

"The novel’s deeper meditations will keep you thinking long after you’ve closed the book."

— USA Today