Spoils of War

Jim Rainey had fought in five wars, but the civil war in Lebanon is – and was – the bloodiest, most fiercely waged conflict in Middle East history. Christian against Moslem – and all armed to the teeth with the most modern weapons available. Rainey was getting good money from the beleaguered government, which was trying to build order from chaos, but there were times when the killing got to him. Rainey goes where the fighting is, no matter what the odds. Peter J. McCurtin was born in Ireland on 15 October 1929, and immigrated to America when he was in his early twenties. Records also confirm that, in 1958, McCurtin co-edited the short-lived (one issue) New York Review with William Atkins. By the early 1960s, he was co-owner of a bookstore in Ogunquit, Maine, and often spent his summers there.McCurtin's first book, Mafioso (1970) was nominated for the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award, and filmed in 1973 as The Boss, with Henry Silva. More books in the same vein quickly followed, including Cosa Nostra (1971), Omerta (1972), The Syndicate (1972) and Escape From Devil's Island (1972). 1970 also saw the publication of his first "Carmody" western, Hangtown.Peter McCurtin died in New York on 27 January 1997. His westerns in particular are distinguished by unusual plots with neatly resolved conclusions, well-drawn secondary characters, regular bursts of action and tight, smooth writing. If you haven't already checked him out, you have quite a treat in store.McCurtin also wrote under the name of Jack Slade and Gene Curry. McCurtin sets his series apart from the pack by having the books narrated in first person in a tough hardboiled style by Jim Rainey, an American mercenary and arms dealer. He plies his trade from Rhodesia, Arengtina and Lebanon in the first three books