You'll Die Next! by Harry Whittington

Henry is in heaven.  He's an ordinary guy who has married a beautiful woman who is a good cook and keeps the house spotless.  She loves him, he loves her, and he's proud to have her as a wife.  So when someone knocks on his door, he never expected to get beat up on his own front porch...

280 Steps and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published, so you can grab a copy now.

This is pulp fiction from the 1950's and it's about as good as it gets.  I like it when men were men, nobody pulled punches, you didn't worry about if it was politically correct and justice was meted out with fists and guns.

Henry has only known his wife for six months so when he gets told she's not who she's pretending to be, he's not sure how he feels.  She knows this and is hurt.  He tells her he has to go work and they can talk more when he comes home.  Work calls him in and tells him they just found out he was in jail in California.  He tells them he's never been to California, but they fire him.  When he goes home, his wife is missing.  There are two highballs on the kitchen table but nobody is home.  What does she do while he's at work?  And why is she not home?

Henry spends most of his time running around.  He's looking for the guy who beat him up, looking for his wife, trying to stay ahead of the man who wants to kill him, and he's not having much luck at all. Henry has been set up.  He's a pawn in the war between two men.  He's just a common man, so his fight is hard.  But he won't give up because he wants his wife back. 

I wasn't sure how this was going to end but it was very appropriate.  I enjoyed this hard boiled read.