I normally tend to shy away from hardboiled stories set in the world of boxing, feeling it’s often used as a trope. It’s an easy place for a writer to drop a protagonist into a ready-made world of tough violence rather than be creative and have the violence come to the protagonist in another venue. When I came across this story eons ago in the first Fletcher Flora Megapack however, I read it because it was Flora and I’d read enough of this great writer to trust him. I was rewarded with a nifty little story I enjoyed. Having reread it a few nights ago I enjoyed it even more.

Rather than make this story — it first appeared in the February issue of Manhunt in 1954 — about the brutal world of boxing, Flora made it about love. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the corruption of that world is at the heart of this tale, with two opposing factions at odds over throwing a fight or not throwing a fight, with a big lug who’ll never be champ caught in the middle, but in the end it’s really a love story.

Jackie’s wife Peg is a tiny thing, a sweet angel that Jackie lives for. All she wants is a little motor court she has her eye on. But even with Jackie’s ring share from an upcoming fight with a green kid being groomed for a shot at the title, there’s no way they can afford it. Peg’s sweet nature and lack of complaining just makes it worse for Jackie, who loves her and doesn’t want to let her down.

Enter someone who wants him to take a dive, and has the dough to make that motor court possible. But then a guy with even more weight enters the picture, and he wants to teach someone a lesson about horning in on his territory. This sets up Peg going missing, and Jackie not sure which party is using her to get their way. It makes for a great ending, in a tight little story from the pen of Fletcher Flora, one of the real greats. Highly recommended. ( )