Originally published in hardback by Dodd, Mead & Co as by Matthew Gant, The Last Notch is a noir western about an aging, self-hating gunslinger who takes on a job to kill the territorial governor who has become a threat to the local cattle ranchers. As the publisher of Lion Books, Arnold Hano nurtured the careers of Jim Thompson and David Goodis. Under various pseudonyms, he wrote a series of edgy westerns and crime novels during the 1950s and 60s.