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Walk With Evil
Redemtion Cay... a strange name for a quiet little town. But even stanger were the people who went there.
What were they seeking? Only a million bucks!
What were they seeking? Only a million bucks!
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Robert Wilder
124 books15 followersRobert Ingersoll Wilder was a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Wilder's childhood was spent at Daytona Beach, Florida. Following a stint in the United States Army during World War I, he was educated at Stetson University and Columbia University. At various times in his life, Mr. Wilder was a soda jerk, a ship fitter, a theater usher, a shipping clerk, a newspaper copy boy, a publicity agent, a radio executive, and a journalist.
Mr. Wilder traveled widely and contributed stories to The New Yorker, among other magazines. He was author of two plays, Sweet Chariot, based on the life and career of activist Marcus Garvey, and Stardust, both of which were produced on Broadway. He also wrote the screenplay for the classic western, The Big Country, in 1958.
Mr. Wilder was married and had a son.
Mr. Wilder traveled widely and contributed stories to The New Yorker, among other magazines. He was author of two plays, Sweet Chariot, based on the life and career of activist Marcus Garvey, and Stardust, both of which were produced on Broadway. He also wrote the screenplay for the classic western, The Big Country, in 1958.
Mr. Wilder was married and had a son.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 15, 2024
Best known for Flamingo Road (1942) which became a hit movie starring Joan Crawford in 1949, Wilder published nineteen novels over more than three decades of writing including God Has A Long Face (1940), Flamingo Road (1942), Out of the Blue (1943), Mr. G. Strings Along (1944), Written on the Wind (1946), Bright Feather (1948), Wait For Tomorrow (1950), And Ride A Tiger (1951), Autumn Thunder (1952), The Wine of Youth (1955), Walk With Evil (1957), A Handful of Men (1960), The Sun Is My Shadow (1960), Plough the Sea (1961), Wind From the Carolinas (1964), Fruit of the Poppy (1965), The Sea and the Stars (1967), An Affair of Honor (1969), and The Sound of Drums and Cymbals(1973).
Walk With Evil has all the ingredients for a hit movie from the ace reporter on vacation, the mobster released from prison after twenty years, $1.25 million dollars missing from an armored car robbery, and the romance with the young innocent nineteen-year-old. It is set on Redemption Cay, Florida, a fictional small Florida coastal town bypassed by the great highways and bridges and nearly forgotten.
It also has all the ingredients for a great crime thriller novel. The lead character is New York reporter Jeff Martin who is on a two or three week jaunt to this forgotten burg where he fishes and drinks and wonders why he would ever go back to New York City. Jeff helps an old drunk known locally as “the Senator” for his pompous and long winded speeches while drunk on a bender and befriends the young tomboy who lives on a houseboat with the Senator. Eventually, Jeff will come to realize he has no choice as a reporter but to expose “the Senator” for his past as well as the young lady Judy Carter who —when dressed as a lady not a fisherman in dungarees — is quite captivating. One of the tensions in this novel is Jeff’s job as a reporter clashing with his affection for these two people and the knowledge that, if he doesn’t break the news, some other enterprising reporter will.
Jeff’s vacation is interrupted by a call from his editor who tells him to run over to Palm Beach because a mobster has just been released from prison and is supposedly headed there. Edward Valenti is N old toe mobster, who had a reputation on par with Capone. The editor wants to know what he’s up to. Jeff quickly realizes that there are some interesting loose ends – like whatever happened to the proceeds from the armored car robbery.
Valenti comes down to Florida with a small crew. The most harmless is Doris, a beautifully proportioned blonde in her sharkskin shorts, but the other two are quite lethal, including Michael, the cool as ice consigliere, and Booker, the muscle bound ape. They are soon joined by Marcia, whose brother had been part of the heist before he turned rat, but she still thinks she deserves a share of the loot. She turns out to be a tough as nails femme fatale.
Valenti is pursued by Mr. Hathaway, an insurance investigator who never gave up on the case after twenty years. Does he want to bring he loot back to the insurance company or make a deal if his own. He followed Marcia from New York.
Sheriff Longworth has his eyes on Valenti too. Longworth is one of these local characters who have the wisdom of the ages inside their skulls. Of Doris in her sharkskin shorts, he says “Girls like that one take an awful booting around. They start out all starry-eyed, and then little by little the stars disappear. Even a good dog will turn mean if it is kicked by everyone it meets. So what do you expect from a girl? It isn’t her fault. The worst one like her expects is that she’ll be laid and, probably, left. Who’s to tell her that she’s going to get her teeth knocked in?” Sheriff Longworth also tells us: “The majority of people are decent, law-abiding, wanting to put down roots and willing to grind away at the same old job day after day. But along the edges are the frustrated and the envious. They’re the guys on the prowl, and the honest man is unable to protect himself against them because his mind doesn’t work as theirs do. Someone has to give him a hand.” Solid philosophy from that one.
Perhaps Jeff can’t add everything up at first – although the astute reader can probably piece it together- but he knows the boat he sees Valenti and his motley crew on will find its way to Redemption Cay and all hell will let loose because the mysterious Senator is somehow connected with Valenti and no one will be safe until the buried treasure is uncovered.
Wilder doesn’t hit a wrong note in this novel. He has the various rivals conniving to find the missing millions and the peaceful lost town suddenly thrust in the spotlight never to be peaceful again. Wilder offers us a reluctant hero and a seemingly doomed romance. A Terrific thriller!
Walk With Evil has all the ingredients for a hit movie from the ace reporter on vacation, the mobster released from prison after twenty years, $1.25 million dollars missing from an armored car robbery, and the romance with the young innocent nineteen-year-old. It is set on Redemption Cay, Florida, a fictional small Florida coastal town bypassed by the great highways and bridges and nearly forgotten.
It also has all the ingredients for a great crime thriller novel. The lead character is New York reporter Jeff Martin who is on a two or three week jaunt to this forgotten burg where he fishes and drinks and wonders why he would ever go back to New York City. Jeff helps an old drunk known locally as “the Senator” for his pompous and long winded speeches while drunk on a bender and befriends the young tomboy who lives on a houseboat with the Senator. Eventually, Jeff will come to realize he has no choice as a reporter but to expose “the Senator” for his past as well as the young lady Judy Carter who —when dressed as a lady not a fisherman in dungarees — is quite captivating. One of the tensions in this novel is Jeff’s job as a reporter clashing with his affection for these two people and the knowledge that, if he doesn’t break the news, some other enterprising reporter will.
Jeff’s vacation is interrupted by a call from his editor who tells him to run over to Palm Beach because a mobster has just been released from prison and is supposedly headed there. Edward Valenti is N old toe mobster, who had a reputation on par with Capone. The editor wants to know what he’s up to. Jeff quickly realizes that there are some interesting loose ends – like whatever happened to the proceeds from the armored car robbery.
Valenti comes down to Florida with a small crew. The most harmless is Doris, a beautifully proportioned blonde in her sharkskin shorts, but the other two are quite lethal, including Michael, the cool as ice consigliere, and Booker, the muscle bound ape. They are soon joined by Marcia, whose brother had been part of the heist before he turned rat, but she still thinks she deserves a share of the loot. She turns out to be a tough as nails femme fatale.
Valenti is pursued by Mr. Hathaway, an insurance investigator who never gave up on the case after twenty years. Does he want to bring he loot back to the insurance company or make a deal if his own. He followed Marcia from New York.
Sheriff Longworth has his eyes on Valenti too. Longworth is one of these local characters who have the wisdom of the ages inside their skulls. Of Doris in her sharkskin shorts, he says “Girls like that one take an awful booting around. They start out all starry-eyed, and then little by little the stars disappear. Even a good dog will turn mean if it is kicked by everyone it meets. So what do you expect from a girl? It isn’t her fault. The worst one like her expects is that she’ll be laid and, probably, left. Who’s to tell her that she’s going to get her teeth knocked in?” Sheriff Longworth also tells us: “The majority of people are decent, law-abiding, wanting to put down roots and willing to grind away at the same old job day after day. But along the edges are the frustrated and the envious. They’re the guys on the prowl, and the honest man is unable to protect himself against them because his mind doesn’t work as theirs do. Someone has to give him a hand.” Solid philosophy from that one.
Perhaps Jeff can’t add everything up at first – although the astute reader can probably piece it together- but he knows the boat he sees Valenti and his motley crew on will find its way to Redemption Cay and all hell will let loose because the mysterious Senator is somehow connected with Valenti and no one will be safe until the buried treasure is uncovered.
Wilder doesn’t hit a wrong note in this novel. He has the various rivals conniving to find the missing millions and the peaceful lost town suddenly thrust in the spotlight never to be peaceful again. Wilder offers us a reluctant hero and a seemingly doomed romance. A Terrific thriller!
April 9, 2015
I loved this book. I like the plot, layout, characters, pace, writing, cover, type, size of paper, binding, whoever binded it, the planet it is on....oh, and, of course, the setting. That might be a bit extreme.
It's been quite awhile since I poured through any book like this. Characters are usually what get me and the characters in this book are so diversely written and defined that you just have to know what happens to them next. Wilder is constantly raising questions as to who is what and where and why. I just had to get through the book to find out what on earth was going on.
I loved the answers peppered through the book that lead to more questions and more questions.
About Florida: the setting is very well done. It is a fictitious town with a name that chalks up the biggest minus to the book: Redemption City. More than a bit much.
To me, whatever might be a bit much is little to how well this book is constructed.
Here's the BIG question: Why the heck is this, at this point, the ONLY review of this book in Goodreads. People, hunt this book down and take no prisoners. You'll have no time for prisoners 'cause you'll be reading this book!
Bottom line: Guess. 10 out of 10 points.
It's been quite awhile since I poured through any book like this. Characters are usually what get me and the characters in this book are so diversely written and defined that you just have to know what happens to them next. Wilder is constantly raising questions as to who is what and where and why. I just had to get through the book to find out what on earth was going on.
I loved the answers peppered through the book that lead to more questions and more questions.
About Florida: the setting is very well done. It is a fictitious town with a name that chalks up the biggest minus to the book: Redemption City. More than a bit much.
To me, whatever might be a bit much is little to how well this book is constructed.
Here's the BIG question: Why the heck is this, at this point, the ONLY review of this book in Goodreads. People, hunt this book down and take no prisoners. You'll have no time for prisoners 'cause you'll be reading this book!
Bottom line: Guess. 10 out of 10 points.
October 31, 2023
A carefully crafted crime novel with multiple protagonists weaving their own little plots around each other. But maybe it was all just too neatly plotted for me, so much so that all the thrills had been sucked out and just the author's steady march of words remained.
October 25, 2021
Good
Dated but interesting. Kept the pages turning. Sort of like a poor man’s John D. Pulpy to be sure. Recommended.
Dated but interesting. Kept the pages turning. Sort of like a poor man’s John D. Pulpy to be sure. Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews