“He knew neither fear nor mercy–only that his gun wrote justice.”

I love the Stanza app on my ipod touch. The ability to have countless books in my pocket for some spur of the moment reading is great. I don’t find reading from a device as immersive as reading from an old smelly paperback, but if not for Stanza I wouldn’t have found The Avenger.

What prompted this post, other than recommending this book if you’ve got some time to kill, was to share the following excerpt from the story. It has been, thus far, probably the most inappropriate passage of the book according to today’s standards.

Wayne put both hands on her shoulders and his face was inches from hers. “I’m not sure of it yet. If I were I’d break your neck. When I do find out, I will break your neck. But before I do that I’m going to take that lovely, wanton body of yours as it’s never been taken before.”

His fingers tightened roughly on her shoulders. His voice was low and hoarse, charged with the two most elemental passions of man—desire and anger.

Priscilla Endicott did not flinch from the hurting pressure of his fingers. Her eyes were wide now, and shining. Her lips parted as the breath came in and out more swiftly. “Promise me you’ll do that, Morgan Wayne. Then you can break my neck if you still want to.”

I should mention that Wayne is the good guy. Oh, the times they have changed.

The Avenger is available for download from Munsey’s here. Matthew Blood is a pen name of Davis Dresser, who authored many of the Michael Shayne novels as Brett Halliday.