The Hot Shot

Skimmer was the hotshot - handsome, smart, arrogant . . . He had everything: personality, looks, women. He was ready for success - regardless of the cost . . . And then he met a girl and a gangster - and something went wrong . . . Hotshot is Skimmer's story - a unique candid portrait, not of the knife-wielding delinquents who capture headlines, but of today's troubled youth as they really are. The unforgettable story of a generation battling to find its way in a world it never made.

Fletcher Flora (1914-1968) spent his early years in Kansas. In 1943, he was drafted into the US Army and, unfortunately, sustained major injuries. Flora started writing short stories in 1952, just as pulps like Dime Detective were dying out, and digests like Manhunt were beginning. He wrote more than fifty short stories for the digests. His first novel was the lesbian-themed paperback, Strange Sisters. Flora followed up this novel with another lesbian-themed book, Desperate Asylum (1955, a.k.a. Whisper of Love). An excellent example of Flora's use of black humor is Skulldoggery (1967). Flora's other notable books in the hard-boiled vein include The Hot Shot (1956), Leave Her To Hell (1958), and Park Avenue Tramp (1958).