A welcome return after many years of one of the innovators of the suspense story (The So Blue Marble, The Cross-Eyed Bear, Fallen Sparrow- well remembered all) gratifyingly corroborates that an old hand has not lost its sure touch. Hugh Densmore, driving to Phoenix to attend a family wedding, picks up a delinquent teenager and is glad to be rid of her only to find that he- as a Negro- will be the ""expendable man"" when she proves to be an aborticide or murder victim. A Marshal and a crusading white lawyer, help to counteract his ugly treatment at the hands of the local police and suppress a smear which could ruin him. The story, as well as its implications, has a savage momentum.