The Spiked Heel

When the irresistible force of a giant corporation like Titanic Shoe meets an immovable, but tottering, object like the respectable shoe firm of Julien Kahn, something's got to give — and something does, explosively, surprisingly.

Here is an authentic, behind-the-scenes excursion into the high-fashion world of heels and vamps and into the private worlds of two men who crashed head on — one striving for personal power, the other for personal integrity.

Jefferson McQuade comes to the Kahn factory as the representative of the new owners, with his own ideas about what is needed to put the factory on a firm footing.

Raymond Griffin, who has worked his way up to head of Kahn’s Cost Department, doesn’t share the apprehension of those who fear a shake-up. For years Kahn has needed new blood, and he welcomes the smooth and affable McQuade.

But McQuade's methods soon reveal him as a ruthless tyrant whose polished words can pit friend against friend, a man who is ready to demolish anyone and everyone who stands in his way, a man who sees horrifying violence as the answer to an outbreak on the factory floor.

The last traces of doubt about McQuade are removed during Guild Week when, as the new shoe lines are shown to the entire industry, McQuade attempts to seduce Griffin’s girl. The long-smoldering warfare between the two men erupts into the open and provides the setting for a dramatic ending that will leave anyone who has ever stepped into the business world breathless and cheering.

Here, secretly aspiring to someday sit in the Executive Suite, are the white-collar workers and production people — their jackets off, their sleeves rolled up, their nails neat and sharpened.

In THE SPIKED HEEL, Richard Marsten has produced a dynamic and absorbing book that you and the people who work side-by-side with you will read and talk about for a long time to come. Of this we are certain. For THE SPIKED HEEL is not only an authentic portrayal of the fabulous fashion world of high-quality shoes. It is a gripping novel of the very real world inhabited by all men and women who make and use any of America’s products.

Beside this any novel — past or future — on the world of business must seem as pale and wan as Little Women.