HORACE MCCOY

The depression of the 1930s led people to desperate measures to survive. The marathon dance craze, which flourished at that time, seemed a simple way for people to earn extra money - dancing the hours away for cash, for weeks at a time. But the underside of that craze was filled with a competition and violence unknown to most ballrooms.

The Depression of the 1930s led many people to take desperate measures to survive. The marathon dance craze seemed a simple way to earn extra money, but the underside of the craze was a competition and violence previously unknown to most ballrooms - a dark side that this book portrays.

A Phi Beta Kappa scholar succeeds in turning himself into a vicious and immoral criminal, whose contempt for law, order and human life drives him relentlessly into a career of unrelieved evil. He escapes from a chain gang and joins a pack of gangsters but his past overtakes him.