Wild Town by Jim Thompson

In trouble more often than not, guilty of assault, manslaughter, and honorably discharged from the military by the skin of his teeth, David Bugs McKenna can't seem to help doing the right thing at the wrong time--or the wrong thing, every chance he gets.

 

But when he drifts his way into Ragtown, Texas, things seem to finally be turning around for Bugs. He gets his first job in years as the hotel detective of the landmark Hanlon Hotel. But now that Bugs owes deputy sheriff Lou Ford a favor, things are likely to get ugly, fast--and odds are, it'll have something to do with the bombshell wife of his Bugs' new employer...

 

In WILD TOWN, Jim Thompson returns to the characters from THE KILLER INSIDE ME that made his reputation, in a virtuoso, multi-character portrait of how one man's life can take a turn for the worse.