The wheels were beginning to turn. From all parts of the country quiet, tough men slipped into the small southern coastal town and took up the final vigil.

There was the arsonist, the safe blower, the boy-faced killer-there was a regiment of crack, lawless men waiting out the minutes until Saturday night-the night the town would explode into violence.

For in the center of town sat the bank-a citadel of twelve million dollars, impregnable as Gibraltar, safe as a church.

Safe-until precisely ten-fifteen on Saturday night. Until the wheels began to pick up momentum, and suddenly a fire lit...

Johnny Clay, an ex-con determined to strike it rich, has worked out a foolproof scheme to knock off a racetrack payroll. Two million bucks should be enough to last him a lifetime or two. But a two-faced dame has another idea: Let Johnny do the work, then she'll take it for herself and her boyfriend. Originally published in 1955 under the title Clean Break. Basis for the 1956 Stanley Kubrick film.

MARILYN K.

"You've heard the story a dozen times: a hundred times. From the lips of hundreds of liars. This guy is driving down a lonely road, all by himself, bored, indifferent, not really going any place in particular. Nothing to do. Then, suddenly, there at the side of the road is this beautiful, young, helpless girl. No one else in sight, nothing but the girl and the lonesome road and she standing there waiting for a ride..."

The indifferent guy is Sam Russell, who soon finds he gets more than he bargains for when he stops for the girl by the side of the...