Johnny Clay had spent four long years in the joint, four long years plotting the best crime ever imagined. It was going to be foolproof. He wasn't going to recruit a bunch of hoods who would turn on him and
squeal. No. he was going to get a bunch of ordinary guys who had every reason to pull the caper off and get away clean. "They all have jobs, they all live seemingly decent, normal lives. But they all have money problems and they all have larceny in them."

Johnny was but one of a crew of absolutely unforgettable characters
White created in this book. Four years hadn't changed Johnny much. There was now the slightest of gray over his ears, but his gray eyes were as clear and untroubled
as they had always been. The time behind bars hadn't soured him, but he now had a "serious undercurrent to him which hadn't been there before" and "a sort of grim purposefulness which he had always
lacked."

Marvin Unger was a court stenographer. He had connections and information. He had a bank account. Johnny had found him when he was looking around for a guy with a respectable front, "who had a little
larceny in his heart and who might back the play."

Big Mike Henty was a bartender at the track. "He was an inveterate gambler and in spite of endless years of consistently losing more than half of his weekly pay check on the horses, he still had a great deal of difficulty where he stood at the close of the last race. He had no mind
for figures at all."

"Big Mike was a moral and straight-laced man, in spite of a weakness for playing the horses and an even greater weakness for over excess in eating." He wanted desperately to get his family out of the crappy neighborhood they lived in and have his daughter safely ensconsed in a suburban school district.

George Peatty was thirty-eight, gaunt, nervous, and looked his age. He had crooked, squirrel-like teeth and long fingered hands of a pianist. "His clothes were conservative both as to line and as to price." "After two years of marriage, he still spent most of his idle time thinking of
his wife." He did know, however, that she was bored and disenchanted and that somewhere along the way he had failed as a husband and as a man. But, that was because of luck and fate which consigned him to his limited earning capacity as a cashier at the racetrack.

Officer Randy Kennan was heavily indebted to Leo Steiner, to the tune of nearly three grand and he didn't have the dough to pay even the vig on the loan.

Johnny also figured to hire three guys who weren't in on the deal as distractions at the track while the hold-up went on. What could go wrong? What indeed? If you are at all familiar with hardboiled pulp from the fifties, you know that there is always a woman to blame (or quite often, at least).

Sherry Peatty had "long, theatrical lashes half closed over her smoldering eyes" and her body was "small, beautifully molded,
deceptively soft" and she moved "with the grace of a cat." "At twenty-four, Sherry Peatty was a woman who positively exuded - . There was a velvet texture to her dark olive skin her face was almost Slavic in contour and she affected a tight, short hair cut which went far to set
off the loveliness of her small, pert face." She was tired of the dump they lived in and not having any money. When Johnny got a load of her, he wondered how Peatty had rated anything this pretty. But, he
soon realized that she was a tramp, that she was wide open and anybody could take a crack at her. "A tramp. A goddamned tramp. A pushover." "That was the trouble. She was beautiful. She was a bum."

And, Sherry had someone on the side: a bad guy, Val Cannon, who intrigued her because he dressed expensively, but never told her what he did for a living. "She took it for granted that he was mixed up in
some sort of racket or other." Hopefully, George didn't blab to Sherry
and Sherry didn't blab to Val cause then there would be more trouble.

White writes like a consummate professional. The story is compelling
as it unfolds piece by piece. Johnny has this job planned out to the "T"
and nothing could possibly go wrong.
This is one terrific, top-notch piece of hardboiled fiction. There are few
who can write as well as White and do it so effortlessly, creating such
unforgettable characters and such a tightly woven plot. Five stars,
( )

My original The Killing audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Listening to The Killing (originally titled Clean Break) is like listening to a fantastic crime noir movie from the 1940’s. It was written in 1955 by Lionel White and made into a film titled The Killing by Stanley Kubrick in 1956. I have never seen the film and probably will not. It cannot possibly top the audiobook.

The Killing takes place in New York City and on Long Island. It is a heist novel, meaning a huge robbery is central to the story. There are several characters who could be considered the main character because of the parts they play but I feel Johnny Clay is it. Johnny has spent the last four years in jail planning the perfect heist. Not only does he have the perfect plan but he has the perfect crew to pull it off. Johnny’s crew is made up of non-criminals. The beauty of his plan is that no one should be an immediate suspect by the police. Even Johnny himself has not a record that would make him a usual suspect for that type of crime.

The heist is to rob the cashier’s office at the track immediately after the start of the biggest race of the year but right before the armoured truck shows up to collect the expected 1.5 to 2 millions dollars. Everything must go off exactly at the time planned and every man must do his job exactly as planned. This is Mission Impossible with a clock and silencer on a rifle as the high tech. If it works, they split the money, each about a half million each. If it doesn’t, Johnny is probably the only one caught and sent to jail.

Johnny’s gang consists of:
Big Mike a bartender at the track clubhouse
George Peatty a cashier at track
Randy Kennan, a cop with a need for cash to pay off loan sharks
Marvin Unger, a court stenographer
Marvin is the respectable man who has never done anything wrong. He gives Johnny a place to live and hold the planning meetings. He also fronts the money needed to pay off individuals and buy weapons. Johnny’s motivation is his girlfriend Fay. Fay waited for him while he was in prison. His plan is to pull this one job and then for he and Fay to leave the country and start living the good life.

All of this is going great until Sherry Peatty, George’s wife finds a ticket stub with an address and time written on it in his jacket pocket. She suspects he is up to something based on his recent behavior. George is a poor soul who thinks he has somehow won the luck lottery by convincing beautiful Sherry to marry him two years ago. Actually, in the vernacular of the time, Sherry is a tramp looking for the easy life and lots of money. George keeps a roof over her head and all she has to do is be “nice” to him when it suits her. She uses her hold over him to find out the minimal details on the heist. She then goes to visit Val, her boyfriend. Val is a gangster who drives a Cadillac and has a real gang of hardened criminals at his disposal. He and Sherry plan to get the details of the heist, let Johnny do the work, and then rob the robbers.

Mike Dennis’s narration is first rate. He has a wonderful voice in just doing the descriptions. When it gets to the characters speaking, his talent really shines. Listen to the gravely voice of Randy the cop which conveys his large size. Marvin truly sounds like a fussy little man who alternates drooling over the thought of the money and regretting he ever got involved. Mr. Dennis brings all of those emotions out in his narration. The accents are fantastic. His command of the different shades of a New York City accent is incredible.

The novel does a great job of introducing each character and their motivation to join the heist or try to get it for themselves. The language is full of 1950’s slang. It really is addictive. I found myself listening every chance I got. Would they get away with it? Who would end up with the money?

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator. ( )

Well done, meticulous tale of a robbery at a horse track, made into a classic Kubrick movie. White doesn't show much sentiment in this one as it moves to an ironic conclusion. ( )

Hardboiled, pulpy noir caper novel from 1955. Fast, fun read - nothing subtle about this one. Maybe not as artfully constructed as say, a Raymond Chandler novel, but glorious in its trashiness. Stanley Kubrick made the film, which is also good, but significantly different plot-wise if I recall. ( )