Run, Killer, Run!

Surprisingly, Lionel White was age 47 before he launched his writing career as a published novelist. The heist extraordinaire, praised for his literary contributions to the crime-fiction genre like The Snatchers, The Big Caper, and Clean Break (aka The Killing), worked as an editor for magazines and newspapers before seeing his first novel, Seven Hungry Men!, published by Rainbow Digest in 1952. As his career soared, he revised the novel as Run, Killer, Run! and  sold it to Avon in 1959 as a paperback. Thankfully, Stark House Press imprint Black Gat Books as made this revised book available again as an affordable paperback and ebook.

The book introduces readers to Rand Coleman, a man newly released from prison. But, his newfound freedom was paid for by a slick attorney named Borgman. The spring wasn't charity care - Borgman has a plan to knock off an armored car in downtown New York. The payout is over $2 million. The problem? The devious machinations of the criminal crew. 

In the book's opening act, Coleman, charged with commanding the heist, meets the various personnel. He's happy with two seasoned pros that he's worked with in the past. Yet, there's a couple of hired gunmen that ratchet up the tension, stirring Coleman into violence to prove capable leadership. The wild card is Borgman's nympho seductress Pam, a young woman that keeps popping up in Coleman's bed and backseat. With Pam and Borgman a defined couple, the internal gears that Borgman has greased to pull off the heist becomes sticky. Coleman and Pam is a problem. Complicating things even more is a gunmen's female accomplice that appears after the heist. Her name is Kitty and she has a play for Coleman too.

After reading two to three books per week for decades, there's hyperbole in suggesting this book is a masterpiece. But, books like this prove that White was in a class all by himself. The intensity of every calculated decision is an invitation to violence (the name of a White novel no less). This intensity grows as the strong arm of the law descends on the fleeing group. But, White plays this heist as a bit of nautical fiction, and the atmosphere breeds contempt, distrust, and death as these fugitives conspire against each other for control while aboard a ship destined for a rendezvous in Miami. It is a layered plot that showcases White's strong character development and absorbent pace. The payout delivers the goods in grand fashion. Don't run from this one. Highest recommendation. Get it HERE.