The Transgressors

The Transgressors is a 1961 novel by Jim Thompson.

Plot

Deputy sheriff Tom Lord knows by now that far-west Texas is the place he'll always call home. He's spent too much time in the region's small towns to adapt to another place. And that's all right with him. What's not all right is being a deputy sheriff, where if it weren't for family misfortune, he might have been a doctor instead. Coming from an honorable family, he had to accept this job when his father died and is living now with Joyce, a prostitute.

Lord's got one ace-in-the-hole--the land deed that makes him the biggest landowner in the county, just as the oil companies have started to move in.

When Tom's approached by Aaron McBride of Highlands Oil and Gas with a contract to set up pipelines on his property, he's more than happy to sign on the dotted line with barely more than a cursory glance at the paperwork--it just might be Lord's way out of a life he never wanted in the first place. But when Lord finds out just what that contract entailed, things start to go sour for Aaron McBride--and fast.

One day, he accidentally kills Aaron McBride during a fight. McBride's wife will come all the way from Fort Worth in order to discover the truth about Aaron's death and avenge him. And McBride's associates, big shots of the mob, would like to get rid of Lord.

But in this Texas boom town, Lord's the law--and there's nothing more dangerous than a cop with nothing left to lose.