Synopsis
SO I’M A HEEL It’s just a lucky break the way Ed Hawkins gets a look at that police blotter that tips him off on the arrest-and-release of his rich neighbor, Otto Weylin, for molesting a minor. Nobody ever gave Hawkins a break, and he doesn’t intend to give Weylin a break either. He figures that Weylin is good for ten grand to keep this little bit of information out of the papers, and maybe he’s right. But why all of a sudden is his 10-year-old son becoming so friendly with Weylin? What is the secret that Weylin’s sex-starved wife keeps hinting at? The blackmail scheme is rapidly backfiring and Hawkins can’t trust anyone, even his own wife--and now his own boy has gone missing!FLINTFlint took a bullet in the lung during that last job, a hole that just won’t seem to plug itself. But hired killers don’t get to retire, and Flint is called out to Colorado for one more job. A rancher named Mr. Good wants his competition removed, and he’s got a pretty plan how to get away with it. So Flint rides out and meets the local sheriff, a man so fat he spends all his time in his office—should be easy to work around. He meets his victim, Thomason, a poor but honest man, who naively hires him on the spot. And then he meets Thomason’s wife, Cora, who seems….very friendly—but is she all that she seems? And can Mr. Good really be trusted? This is supposed to be Flint’s last job, but it’s funny how a simple plan can soon get so complicated. THE BIG OUTBrick Palmer, catcher for the Blues, gets a call after the game. His kid brother Johnny is in trouble again. Johnny is the brilliant one, the one who’s going to be a doctor, but he’s forged Brick’s name on a $10,000 Syndicate debt. So Brick does what he has to do, he pays off the Syndicate punk, then busts his nose. Randy York of the Herald sees the payoff and reveals the meeting in his column the next day. Unable to rat out his brother, Brick is thrown out of the league. All he can do is play for one of the outlaw leagues. So he and wife Cathy move to Montreal and try to start over. But they’re all out to get him—the fans and players for selling out, the Umps for dirtying the game. They’re all out for blood. But for the Syndicate punk it’s personal—he plans to make it murder.
About the Author
Arnold Hano was born in New York in 1922. His first job was as a copy boy at the New York Daily News in 1941. The next year he enlisted in the Army and served in the Pacific until 1946. After the war, Hano became managing editor at Bantam, then editor-in-chief of Lion Books, where he worked to develop authors like Jim Thompson and David Goodis. He has taught writing at the University of Southern California, Pitzer College, and the University of California, Irvine. He has also enjoyed a career as a freelance novelist and sportswriter, authoring many books on baseball, including the classic, A Day in the Bleachers. In 1955, he moved with his wife Bonnie and their family to Laguna Beach, California, where they live today. And at age 90, he still writes a monthly column for an environmental organization.
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