Paperback. Pub Date:2006-05-15 Pages: 240 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins UK A key backlist title from the highly acclaimed author of The Naked and the Dead and The Fight.War hero. ex-Congressman. a professor of ' popular but somewhat notorious reputation '. television personality and husband of the rich and beautiful Deborah (' a girl who would have been bored by a diamond as big as the Ritz '). Stephen Rojack lived the American Dream.But his enviable life concealed a strange tension. the constant 'itch to jump'. and when one day he finally cracks and strangles his luscious wife. he unleashes a personality of undreamt-of ferocity.A wanted murderer. Rojack is suddenly catapulted into an alien world of gangsters. crumbling tenements and downtown bars.Here. he meets Cherry. a small-time singer who ekes out her living in sleazy nightclubs. waiting for a break.She 's...