High Sierra

by W.R. Burnett

In California's High Sierra Mountains, a bank robber on the lam with his mother, his associates and the loot, meet a crippled, beautiful young woman. He must take a terrible choice. Bogart starred in the famous movie based on this novel by the author of "Little Caesar"

Genres: Fiction, Noir, Crime, Mystery, Novels, Pulp, Mystery Thriller

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

William Riley "W. R." Burnett was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel Little Caesar, the film adaptation of which is considered the first of the classic American gangster movies. Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio. He left his civil service job there to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over 100 short stories and five novels, all unpublished.

Burnett kept busy, producing a novel or more a year and turning most into screenplays (some as many as three times). Thematically Burnett was similar to Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain but his contrasting of the corruption and corrosion of the city with the better life his characters yearned for, represented by the paradise of the pastoral, was fresh and original. He portrayed characters who, for one reason or another, fell into a life of crime. Once sucked into this life they were unable to climb out. They typically get one last shot at salvation but the oppressive system closes in and denies redemption.

Burnett's characters exist in a world of twilight morality — virtue can come from gangsters and criminals, malice from guardians and protectors. Above all his characters are human and this could be their undoing.

Burnett worked with many of the greats in acting and directing, including Raoul Walsh, John Huston, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, Douglas Sirk, Michael Cimino, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Paul Muni, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood.

He received an Oscar nomination for his script for "Wake Island" (1942) and a Writers Guild nomination for his script for "The Great Escape". In addition to his film work he also wrote scripts for television and radio.

On his death in 1982, in Santa Monica, California,Burnett was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California

Reviews

[Francesc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta novela relata las aventuras del famoso atracador de bancos, Roy Earle, que fue compañero del mismísimo John Dillinger.
Roy Earle es liberado de prisión para encargarse del robo a un hotel junto a una banda de hombres a los cuales se les une Marie, que ha sido recogida por uno de ellos.
La novela profundiza, sobre todo, en la personalidad de cada uno de los personajes. A través de sus acciones, llegas a conocer qué tipo de persona es cada uno. A la vez, van planeando el golpe al hotel.
Por el camino hasta Los Angeles, Roy ha conocido a una familia de granjeros arruinados y se ha enamorado de su nieta, Velma.
Se crea un triángulo amoroso entre Velma, Marie y Roy.
La primera parte de la novela se basa, más bien, en los planes del robo. La segunda parte se centra en la escapada después del robo y en la manera de conseguir la parte correspondiente del botín.
Es una novela interesante.
La época de la depresión en EEUU: nadie tiene dinero y todo el mundo se queja de los cambios.
Es curioso como esto de quejarse de los cambios es algo cíclico.
Le falta un poco de acción a la primera parte. La primera parte es más sosegada, todo va despacio mientras esperan el día del golpe. Las descripciones de las montañas californianas y sus lagos son muy buenas.
La segunda parte es más dinámica y hay más acción.
Los monólogos interiores de Roy Earle son excesivos: sus dudas, sus recuerdos de niñez, su tía Minnie, la granja, etc.
En general, una novela sobre gángsters (crook story) muy bien desarrollada.

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This novel relates the adventures of the notorious bank robber, Roy Earle, who was the partner of John Dillinger himself.
Roy Earle is released from prison to take charge of a hotel robbery with a gang of men who are joined by Marie, who has been picked up by one of them.
The novel delves, above all, into the personalities of each of the characters. Through their actions, you get to know what kind of person each one is. At the same time, they are planning the hotel heist.
On the way to Los Angeles, Roy has met a family of broke farmers and fallen in love with their granddaughter, Velma.
A love triangle develops between Velma, Marie and Roy.
The first part of the novel is based, rather, on the plans for the robbery. The second part focuses on the escape after the robbery and how to get his share of the loot.
It is an interesting novel.
Depression era in the USA: nobody has any money and everybody complains about the changes.
It's curious how this complaining about change is a cyclical thing.
The first part lacks a bit of action. The first part is more sedate, everything goes slowly while waiting for the day of the strike. The descriptions of the Californian mountains and lakes are very good.
The second part is more dinamic, with action.
Roy Earle's interior monologues are excessive: his doubts, his childhood memories, his aunt Minnie, the farm, etc.
Overall, a well-developed gangster novel (crook story).

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burnett’s “High Sierra,” is best known perhaps as the 1941 movie of the same title starring Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino, which for the most part follows the plot of the book with some differences in the ending. The screenplay was co-written by Burnett and John Huston.

Roy Earle, the last of the Dillinger gang which had become known nation-wide in the 1930’s for their ferocity, has been paroled from prison, a parole bought somehow by a Los Angeles fixer, Mac, who because of Roy’s reputation, decides he cannot pull off the heist without Roy. Driving through the western desert, Roy reminisces about his small-town childhood and farm life. He meets a dust bowl type family on the route through the desert and befriends them, taking notice of their beautiful, but crippled, daughter.

Roy then continues on to meet the group of criminals that Mac has put together, finding them to be wanting and deciding that they were chumps and punks with little common sense. They have a woman with them in the hideout, Marie, a dime a dance girl, and they should not have her there and she should not be hip to what the plan is. They are in a high mountain hideaway in the Sierras, fishing in the lake, and awaiting word from a hotel clerk in Tropico Springs, a fancy desert resort, possibly a reworking of Palm Springs. The clerk, Louis, is to tell them when the safety deposit boxes are full of jewelry.

They spend weeks waiting and Roy grows impatient, running into the Goodhues and their daughter with the clubfoot, when he goes to Tropico Springs to case the hotel. While in Los Angeles, he arranges for Velma to have an operation on her foot, and fantasizes about marrying the angelic young woman. This is Roy’s pure good deed, although his motives were also intertwined with a sort of fantasy about sweeping Velma off her feet, now that she has been cured.

Roy has a sense that his partners in the operation might not be as professional as he would like them to be. Red and Babe seem like babes in the woods, fighting over Marie, and not seeming to take the whole thing seriously. In these type of stories, you know it will all go wrong somewhere along the line and it eventually does with the armed robbery of the hotel and the getaway going awry and Roy, with only Marie and a dog he adopted to back him up.

Roy is hotter than a furnace and his face spread on the cover of every newspaper in California. Mac, whose role besides setting everything up, was to fence the jewelry, which the the papers claim is worth a cool half a million, has a heart attack. Roy has almost no cash left and has to leave the jewelry with a stranger, hoping he can return to collect on it and that his reputation as a tough guy is enough to guarantee his money. But with his picture plastered everywhere and everyone on the lookout for him, Roy, Marie, and the dog are finding Southern California smaller and smaller and the sure thing that this hotel robbery was is looking more and more like a complete disaster.

Burnett does an excellent job of portraying Roy as a complex individual who, on the one hand, is a tough machine-gun wielding gangster who will shoot at the first sign of trouble. On the other hand, Roy pays for a poor cripple to be operated on, has a soft spot for the orphaned dog, and has a love affair with Marie while on the run with each having the other’s backs that reminds you of Bonnie and Clyde only Marie is just a tough broad, not a machine-gun wielding bank robber. It is for that reason far more than a simple caper tale.

[Still · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOTE:
The edition of the novel is not the edition pictured above. I read the Stark House Press edition, a twofer comprised of this novel and paired with THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

Watched the movie version last night after finishing the novel early Sunday morning. Hal Wallis, producer of the film felt the crackling, gem perfect novel was lacking and inveigled then-young John Huston to tackle a rewrite. Huston argued that the novel was (and is) perfect and would transfer easily to the screen but Wallis demanded a rewrite.

So Huston flew author Burnett out to Hollywood to help him do a rewrite yet maintain as much of the novel’s gritty, hardboiled dialogue as could be done.

There are some lousy but memorable lines written specifically for the movie (”Mister? What does it mean when a man says he’s crashing out?”)
that don’t really match the novel’s fatalistic main character, Roy Earle… former member of John Dillinger’s gang.

The novel is surprisingly sentimental at times. Odd since so much of the novel is a strictly hardboiled narrative of an ex-con released from prison after eight years “on ice” and embarking on a risky heist of a desert paradise resort hotel for the ultra-rich and celebrities.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Bogart-starring film directed by Raoul Walsh you should be ashamed. If you know the film all too well (one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time), I think you’ll find the novel even more enjoyable.

The characters are more fleshed out, the dialogue more believable, the heist and subsequent complications more suspenseful and the wrap-up and ending more realistic.

This is possibly the best written novel I’ve read all year. W. R. Burnett doesn’t waste a word. It’s as full of dread, suspense, and action as any two crime thrillers written.

Highest Recommendation Possible.

[Algernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since moonrise a chill had descended over the desert, and from time to time a cold wind blew from the northeast, ruffling the sagebrush. The moonlight lay over the flat land like a pale-blue carpet. Dim black shapes of mountains loomed ahead of him. He was like a man lost in a vast lunar landscape, the last human being in a dead world.

A lone rider in an unforgiving landscape, heading towards trouble. Is this a western story or a noir crime caper?
Why not both? Roy is like a melancholic gunfighter who outlived the Wild West from which he came. writes Cullen Gallagher in the introduction to the new edition of this classic story, noting that it has been adapted as a movie in both the noir and the western style. Regardless of genre tenets, this is just a damn good story, with memorable characters, suspense and sharp social commentary – as much a classic as the other two major books by Burnett : Little Caesar and The Asphalt Jungle .
Incidentally, it is also claimed that it gave Humphrey Bogart the role that turned him from a B-movie support actor into a legend of the silver screen. Or so the critics say.
I did watch the 1941 movie myself several times before I could purchase the book, as much for Bogart’s and Ida Lupino’s performances, as for the location shots in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

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Roy Earle is driving a rented car instead of riding a palomino horse. He has just been sprung from prison by a elderly mob boss who is planning a daring heist at a luxury hotel near the Sierra Nevada mountains. Once a happy farm boy in Indiana, Roy’s wild nature drove him to ride with the infamous Dillinger gang. When his boss Johnny was gunned down by government agents, Roy Earle ended up with a life sentence in an Illinois prison. He is old school gangster, as tough as they come, but he feels lost in the new world he no longer belongs to.

Yeah, he was prison conditioned. He just didn’t belong with the people outside. Didn’t know what to talk to them about. Didn’t know how to act with them. It made a mighty lonely guy out of you.

Nature itself, majestic and merciless, is a mirror to Roy Earle’s thoughts as he drives from desert to rocky precipice. Like the chorus in an old Greek tragedy, nature foretells the fate of the ant-like humans that wander lost in its vastness:

He began to understand what old Barmy had meant by the “indifference of nature.” Those big cold bleak mountains brought it home to him, all right. It was like the desert, only worse. In this country a coyote or a hawk was a better man than you were, and that wasn’t saying much.

Roy eventually meets with his boss and planner in San Francisco, then goes to a remote camping site on the mountain. He meets there with two younger hot blooded goons and with an inside man from the resort in order to prepare for the robbery. Contact with his fellow men doesn’t help much with Roy’s sense of alienation, nor does their ineptitude offer any comfort for the outcome of the heist.

“I never saw a caper go so haywire before,” said Roy. “I sure never did.”

A couple of women capture his attention, for completely different reasons. This is another classic setup in a crime caper. On one side, the angelic Velma, with her club foot and her impoverished family lifted wholesale from Grapes of Wrath . She reminds Roy of his youth on the farm in Indiana. He sees Velma as his one chance to escape from the descent into hell his criminal career is likely to lead him to.
On the other side, dancing girl Marie is the exact opposite of the sappy blonde with the doe eyes. She is fiery and independent, pragmatic and even ruthless in a predatory world ruled by violent men. And as lonely as Roy.
Marie sees the way Roy assumes control of the gang, his casual use of violence and his restrained yet persistent focus on the job in hand. When the younger guns start fighting over her attentions, Marie moves in with Roy, turning a deaf ear to his orders to run away before it is too late.

Her hand gripped Roy’s tightly as if it was the end of the world and they were the only two people left.
“I’m cold and I want to die. I’m no good. Nobody wants me. Let me in with you Roy. It’s just because I’m so lonesome. Honest it is.”

This heavy atmosphere, and Roy’s own conflicting emotions over Velma and Marie, reinforce the sense of loneliness in the man. A couple of humorous scenes with a coloured camp attendant do little to lighten the mood, but they do provide Roy with a companion whose loyalty is as complete as it is indisputable. [And me with a personal chuckle over finding my online nickname in the book]

“Boy,” he said, “where did you ever get a name like Algernon?”
“The old lady thought it up. Pip, ain’t it? Yessuh. It kind of gives me class. Most cullud boys is named Tom or Ed or something like that. I’m Algernon. How you like this dog?”

The stray dog is baptised Pard, probably short for partner in Roy’s underworld parlance. Pard has a dark reputation of being an unlucky mascot for his owners, but for Roy the dog is the only true friend in a nest of vipers. Roy, Marie and Pard : three lonelinesses that went the same way for a little while.

Pard barked loudly and Roy bent down to pat him.

>>><<<>>><<<

The novel has three distinct parts: the setup, the heist and the aftermath.
The first part spends quality time inside Roy Earle’s mind, the second is a brutal and uncensored look at living by your wits and your gun. The third part, and the most interesting for me, is the commentary on who Roy Earl is and what kind of world he has been living in.
Burnett is apparently of the ‘born that way’ school: some people live their lives quietly, within the confines of the law. Some are natural born criminals and rebels and must be put down if society is to survive. Yet, aren’t people like Roy and Dillinger and Billy the Kid the result of a larger, more insidious sickness instead of the rabid madmen the press and the establishment have labelled them?

When Johnny was running wild, a lot of people were with him. Back in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois half the farmers were getting their farms took away from them. The bankers foreclosed till there was nothing left to foreclose. And when Johnny’d knock over one of them banks for a big wad; the farmers would yell: ‘Attaboy, Johnny. You’re doing fine.’

A certain young boy named Luigi in 2025 might serve as proof that history repeats itself and that the issues that led to the Great Depression are still unresolved. On the run from the law, betrayed and shot at and desperate for any road out of the disaster the sure job became, Roy Earle turns back to his youth on the farm and to his stint in the Dillinger gang in search of answers. Most of the stuff he ponders on came to him during the long years inside the prison system, when his cell mate Barmy explained to him how some become winners while others are born losers.

Barmy was a Canadian himself and he knew all about foreign people such as French, British, Italians, and so on. He said the Americans were the crookedest people in the world and the biggest suckers for the con. In this country nobody’s straight. There ain’t one official out of a hundred that ain’t got his hand out. Coppers are so crooked they can’t lie straight in bed. Even judges can be had. I know. They cost me enough when I was riding high.

There is no shortage of examples to fuel Roy Earle’s rage against the machine. I bookmarked some that come a little too close for comfort to the stuff that is filling the news cycles in 2025:

... there was a banker in our town named Henry. He lost the depositors’ money in the stock market, and the bank folded. Lots of farmers and poor people dropped every cent they had. Dough they’d been saving up for years. What happens? Mistrial the first time. The second time he was convicted, with recommendation for mercy ‘cause he was a sick man. He served ten months. Sick man, my fanny. He weighed two hundred pounds. And he done all his time in the hospital at that!

Marie counters Roy’s arguments by saying they stink of Communism, that they are un-American and traitorous. Where have I heard this one before?

‘You know it’s funny. Take what I was talking about: a gypping banker, a crooked judge; coppers raking the community for a racket they can get a take on; a big-shot official selling jobs – stuff like that. Why do people stand it?
“Look. A few guys have got all the dough in this country. Millions of people ain’t got enough to eat. Not because there ain’t any food, but because they got no money. Somebody else has got it all.”

>>><<<>>><<<

“Ever hear of a guy called James Whitcomb Riley?”

Crime capers are not exactly rocket science. Read enough of them, and you become pretty adept at spotting where they lead to from an early stage. High Sierra is a classic not because it broke new ground in the genre, although it could be argued that it is one of the stories that established the rules of the game.
For me, this book is a classic because it has heart and depth, and an unexpected flair for a sort of dark poetry of despair, born in the gutters of the dispossessed instead of some ivory tower of misunderstood and eclectic modernism. The Riley mention by Roy is more of an example of how the gunfighter looks back at his childhood as a golden, unsoiled age of innocence.

He heard a strange flapping sound and he looked up. A huge bird was flying over him, headed toward the abyss – an eagle!
“Brother,” said Roy, watching the eagle’s lazy, effortless flight over the terrible chasm. “I wish I had wings!”

[Kristopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I already reviewed this book. High Sierra is a very impressive book, and a rare contribution from W. R. Burnett. The book is a semi-nostalgic look at the aging gangster. Roy Earle, "the last of the Dillinger gang," is released from prison through some political favors; but there's a catch. Roy is contracted for one last job (this was written well before such a plot became worn to death in Hollywood). The job, though, is in a ritzy town near the Sierra Nevada. Along to help are a couple of young, inexperienced neer-do-wells who are so green they've already got a girl along with them when Earle shows up - and both are ready to fight for her.

I don't want to give away too much (what I've told you you find out in the first few pages), but the book is an impressive chronicle of a man out of time and place - with everything really - and as such provides some excellent ruminations on Modernist themes, themes which 30s crime fiction is infrequently cited for, even though it should be. If none of these are reasons to read this, the fact that it's the basis for one of Humphrey Bogart's break-out roles ought to be one. The film involved such film noir stalwart's as Ida Lupino, John Huston, and Raoul Walsh. Upon its release, many figured the Warner's era of the gangster was over (fitting for Roy Earle's story). And it was, but it was making room for an exciting newcomer, the private detective, which Bogie would likewise play to perfection.

[Tim Orfanos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ίσως, το πιο ψυχογραφικό και κοινωνικό αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα 'νουάρ' του Μπερνέτ στο οποίο συμβαίνει το εξής: η επίδραση του βιβλίου στον αναγνώστη μεγαλώνει περισσότερο μετά τη ολοκλήρωση του, και όχι κατά τη διαρκεια της ανάγνωσης. Αυτό εξηγείται από το γεγονός ότι ο Μπερνέτ προβληματίζει με την εύστοχη περιγραφή της πάλης μεταξύ καλού-κακού στη ψυχή του κεντρικού ήρωα, Ρόι Έρλ, ο οποίος, αν και 'γαλουχημένος' με το αδίστακτο 'πνεύμα' της συμμορίας του διαβόητου Ντίλινγκερ, βασανίζεται από συχνές εσωτερικές συγκρούσεις.

Σε πολλά σημεία, ο αναγνώστης έχει την εντύπωση ότι ο Ρόι είναι ο άνθρωπος της 'διπλανής πόρτας', και όχι ένας κακοποιός πρώτου μεγέθους που σπέρνει τον φόβο και τον τρόμο. Αν και αρκετά 'βραδυφλεγής' η πλοκή του μυθιστορήματος, δεν αποπροσανατολίζεται από τον βασικό της στόχο - η δε τελική κορύφωση 'αναδύει' έναν απροσδόκητο 'νουάρ' λυρισμό. Αξέχαστος καί ο Μπόγκαρτ στο ρόλο του 'Ρόι Ερλ' , ενώ οφείλω να αναφέρω ότι η ομώνυμη κινηματογραφική μεταφορά είναι αρκετά 'πιστή' στο βιβλίο.

Βαθμολογία: 4,3/5 ή 8,6/10.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't pinpoint exactly when I first watched the film version of High Sierra, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino and directed by Raoul Walsh. It was probably on the late show on TV when I was in junior high. I've seen it a number of times since because, Humphrey Bogart. What I had never done, until now is read Bunbett's novel. Burnett was probably equally well known as a screenwriter as he was a novelist. He frequently adapted his own work including Little Caesar, uncredited work on the adaptation of The Asphalt Jungle and co-scripting High Sierra with the great John Huston.

If you've seen the movie you're going to already know the book. Burnett and Huston followed it very closely. The biggest changes are in the ending, which still rings true in the film but is a tad more Hollywood. Bank robber and Dillinger confederate Roy Earle has been sprung from prison on a paid for pardon in order to head up a robbery at a fashionable resort hotel in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. On the way he meets an older gentleman and lady from the Midwest traveling with their lovely granddaughter who suffers from a clubfoot. This constitutes a fairly important sub-plot. The other members of the group are all small-timers and one has brought along Marie, a dime-a-dance girl from L.A. Of course she causes dissension and the inexperience of the other three, in particular the "inside man" at the hotel cause the job to go awry.

This is one of those instances were the book and the movie are extremely similar and since I watched the film first (and a number of times at that) I can't help but see Bogie and Ida Lupino as Earle and Marie, Henry Travers as Pa, etc. Whether you've seen the film or not, this is a very solid crime novel from a writer who probably isn't as well remembered as a novelist as he should be.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part crime novel, part character study of a gangster in winter. The wooden dialogue is predictably quaint. The rambling plot feels surprisingly realistic. The aging gangster is unexpectedly affecting. All this, and a beautiful young blonde with a clubfoot. Calling Jim Thompson. . . .

[Hogfather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never read anything by W.R. Burnett, but I was about as aware of him as any Humphrey Bogart fan can be, and I was more than pleasantly surprised to discover how effortlessly beautiful he wrote. Reading High Sierra is almost like reading a play; the action is always clear, simple, and direct, and the emphasis is on the dialogue between the characters. The dialogue is a little corny; old-fashioned stuff like, "come and get me, copper!" though I excused it because whenever Burnett chose to make a mild digression to comment on Roy's background and inner life, I found it to be amongst the most beautiful and moving things I'd ever read.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A review by James Thane, an author I follow, made me want to read this 1940 classic of noir crime fiction (and watch the movie version with Bogart). It is obvious that things are not going to end well, and the telling of Roy Earle’s story is first rate, with strong descriptions of both main and supporting characters. Burnett, through Roy Earle, makes some astute observations about types of crimes, criminals, police and politicians. There is also an excellent introduction by Cullen Gallagher to both the writer and his work, where I learned Burnett had Ohio roots and was born and grew up in the town where I went to college. If you are a fan of the hard boiled crime genre, this is a must read.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μαθήματα δικαιοσύνης από έναν ρομαντικό εγκληματία.

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1940, High Sierra remains a classic of hard-boiled, noir fiction. The protagonist is Roy Earle, the last survivor of the John Dillinger gang, who is now in the September of his years and serving an eight-year stretch in prison for his previous crimes. But a mob boss named Big Mac finagles Roy's release from prison. Mac is planning to sponsor the robbery of a luxury hotel in California. He's putting together a gang to pull the heist and he wants Roy to lead the crew.

Roy turns out to be a pretty sentimental guy and he spends a lot of time reminiscing about the days of his youth on a farm in rural America. On his way to California, he meets an elderly couple and their granddaughter who have fallen on hard times and who are also on their way to Los Angeles. The granddaughter, Velma, is an attractive young woman who is somewhat disabled by a misshapen foot. Even though there is a huge gap in their ages, Roy falls for Velma and will do what he can to assist her and her grandparents even if the sentimental gesture interferes with the job he has agreed to do.

On arriving in California, Roy meets the other three men who are in on the robbery. He's decidedly unimpressed with these relative amateurs and is even more discouraged by the fact that they have brought a sexy woman named Marie along with them to the camp where they will stay until they pull the job. Roy knows instinctively that introducing a woman into the mix will inevitably cause trouble, and of course he proves to be right.

The real strength of the book lies in the insights it provides into the life of an aging criminal who finds himself reflecting on his life as he plans what he hopes will be his last job. But as the plan unfolds, complications will inevitably ensue, and Earle will find himself in an increasingly precarious situation.

In 1941, this book was made into an excellent film, directed by Raul Walsh with a screenplay by John Huston who was assisted by Burnett, and starring Humphrey Bogart as Earle. Reading the book after seeing the film, it's impossible not to imagine Bogart as Earle, but it's a great performance and Bogart does more than justice to the character. A great movie and an even better novel.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book taught me an important lesson: if you're planning a diamond heist, stay away from bad-luck dogs.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: in California's High Sierras, a bank robber on the lam meets a young woman. He must choose. In the movie, Bogart did the choosing.

[Jim Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book that was turned into a very good movie. I really can't add anything to the great review by Kristopher below.

[Diana]

This story of career criminal Roy Earle's last big heist is classic hard-boiled detective fiction: a lone-wolf male main character with a unique moral code ("don't hurt women and animals"); two femme fatales (if Pard were female, I'd include him); nostalgia for an idealized past and fear of a future he is -- at the ripe old age of 38 -- already too obsolete to ever fit into; and a fatalism that suffuses the book from the very first page (Ray's "westward expansion" does not end in a "land of milk and honey").

While I put it in the Roman Noir category, its critique of capitalism also places it in the gangster genre (the book was published in 1940). Roy frequently points out that the honest people he knows lost all they had in the Depression (Pa and Ma exemplify this), while corrupt judges and cops and lawyers and bankers simply get richer.

While I liked the storyline and Mr. Burnett's descriptions of space, admired the author's realistic depiction of prison's psychological toll, and appreciated that Marie's strength and loyalty made her an atypical femme fatale, I found it difficult to read. The version I have is poorly laid out: the print too small and confusing shifts in time and space not indicated by page breaks. I usually read very fast and this took me days to get through. In addition, it was extremely racist -- so casually and thoughtlessly so that it's impossible to believe that the author himself was not. Finally, while I realize that the author wanted us to empathize with Roy, it was often impossible to: he spoke of his "capers" as though they had no consequences, yet three men are shot. While I understand that the character is supposed to have two sides to his personality, Roy's lack of affect was disconcerting and his vaunted reputation as a top mobster belied by his tunnel vision and foolhardiness.

Note: The movie, co-written by W.R. Burnett, is surprisingly faithful to the book. I wish more Classical Hollywood noirs had been since many softened the books' bleakness.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is, in effect, a biography of Roy Earle, a fictional character, but one that reflects the lives of several notorious American outlaws of the 1920s and 1930s.

It begins..

Early in the twentieth century, when Roy Earle was a happy boy on an Indiana farm, he had no idea that at thirty-seven he’d be a pardoned ex-convict driving alone through the Nevada-California desert towards an ambiguous destiny in the Far West.

Burnett takes on quite something, the definitive story of Earle as he leaves jail, falls in love, and builds towards the heist that will mean his spell his downfall.

The image of Earle builds throughout the piece, from idealistic to naive, ruthless yet inevitably doomed. But he earns the reader’s sympathy because of his faults, perhaps we can see ourselves in him. He is easy to identify with.

The portrait Burnett ultimately paints of the 1930s outlaw is a sad one, but it is highly entertaining to read because of an element of the surreal, and a smattering of bleak humour.

For many I think, High Sierra is best known for John Huston’s film, with the outstanding Bogart performance. Huston concentrates on the romantic element, with a Robin Hood shade to it. Burnett stresses Earle as being a contradiction, full of passion and rage.
Maybe the film is a distant memory, as it was to me, seen too long ago.
My recommendation therefore is to read this, and then, watch the movie again..

[Γιώργος-Νεκτάριος Παναγιωτίδης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μια γκαγκστερική νουάρ ιστορία, από αυτές που ξέρει να δίνει καλά ο Μπερνέτ.
Πρωταγωνιστής ο Ρόι Ερλ, στην ώριμη νεότητά του (είναι-δεν είναι 38 χρονών) αλλά που έχει ψιλογκριζάρει από τις κακουχίες, που τον βγάζει από την φυλακή ο "παππούς" Μπιγκ Μακ, για να στήσουν μια μεγάλη ληστεία μισού εκατομμυρίου δολαρίων και διαμαντιών.
Στην πορεία, βρίσκει το χρόνο να γνωρίσει τον... έρωτα στο πρόσωπο της Μαρί, αλλά και να κάνει καλοσύνες πρωτοφανείς σε μια ανάπηρη κοπέλα, τη Βέλμα.
Στα πολύ υπέρ οι δολοφονικές σε σημεία ατάκες, αλλά και το γεγονός ότι μιλάμε, χωρίς υπερβολή, για ΚΑΛΉ ΛΟΓΟΤΕΧΝΊΑ!!!
Όσοι γράφουν (-με) ειδικά μυθοπλασία εγκλήματος, ας μάθουμε λίγη λογοτεχνική μπαλίτσα από τον Μπερνέτ...
Εν κατακλείδι, διαφορετικό από τον έξοχο "Μικρό Καίσαρα", αλλά επίσης πολύ καλό!!!

[Don Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3). Another great recommendation from the Goodreads master, a champion of classics and a creator of contemporary goodness, Jim Thane. This is indeed a classic, a fun throwback to a different style of writing, but so solid it will last forever. Roy Earle is a protagonist par excellance, and the story barely raises up to his level. Some fun side characters, an entertaining canine companion, and a plot that just has to end up the way it does, but I am certainly not going to give that away. Take a step back in time and enjoy this good stuff.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roy Earl gets released from prison with help from the heist boss who wants repayment by Earl taking charge of a caper with a very inexperienced crew that is never going to go smoothly. I was totally surprised by what appeared to be a straightforward hard boiled noir. The way it started by looking into Earl’s upbringing, the poor family he meets as they try to make their way west, the girl with the club foot, and the way the plot develops, make it much more that what was expected and was, in my mind, quite a special read. A short but powerful read.

[Steve Shilstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heist tale featuring vivid three dimensional gangster and moll inventions named Roy Earle and Marie Garson.

[Brett Wallach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know how Burnett flew under my radar. Great crime novel with some of the best dialogue I’ve read or heard. Slows a little towards the end, but still a great noir read.

[Paul Leafgreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, but the inner monologue gets tiring.

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vivid, touching and elegiac portrait of a simple man out of jail, trying to fit back into society while planning and heading a heist and later being on the run with the love of his life.

The novel begins with hardened criminal Roy Earle (the last of the Dillinger gang) reminiscing about his childhood on a farm in Indiana. He is driving on the Nevada-California highway up into the mountains to pull off a heist at a casino.

The first few chapters in which Roy stops over at a gas station and meets the bored husband and wife who run it and meets a family (Roy is attracted to the young crippled woman in the family) is everything you would want in a small town American crime novel. The attitudes of the people and how they treat Roy ..... Burnett easily shifts between the points of views of different characters.

Finally he reaches the mountains and Roy has a bad feeling immediately because one of his accomplices has brought a beautiful woman along to the auto-court shared by the gang. Never a good idea to have a beautiful woman around when men are living cooped up together. Roy knows this. But he goes ahead with the heist because he owes it to Big Mac, the man who got him out of jail.

The novel was a bit fat. It needed to be leaner. Burnett heaps it up with the characters, their attitudes, the descriptions of the mountains, lakes, small towns and bars . It is not really a complaint. I enjoyed it. High Sierra is a very sentimental sort of crime novel with the hardened main character constantly longing for his childhood world but he knows that world is never coming back.

The long descriptions of Roy and his woman's life, on the run with their dog Purd made me long for the outlaw life. Even though it is only 150 odd pages long, I felt like I had read a big novel.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Τέταρτο βιβλίο του Μπερνέτ που διαβάζω, ένα κλασικό αν και όχι τόσο πολυδιαβασμένο νουάρ μυθιστόρημα που έγινε μεγάλη κινηματογραφική επιτυχία, όπως και άλλα βιβλία του συγγραφέα. Ο Μπερνέτ δεν είναι τόσο γνωστός όσο άλλοι συγγραφείς του είδους (όπως π.χ. οι Τζιμ Τόμσον, Ρέιμοντ Τσάντλερ, Ντάσιελ Χάμετ), όμως είναι πραγματικά πολύ καλός.

Ο Ρόι Ερλ, ένας ξεπεσμένος ληστής τραπεζών που πλησιάζει τα σαράντα, παίρνει χάρη και αποφυλακίζεται. Ένας οργανωτής ληστειών και διαφόρων άλλων παράνομων κόλπων, ο οποίος βοήθησε στο να αποφυλακιστεί ο Ερλ, έχει στα σκαριά ένα μεγάλο κόλπο, την ληστεία ενός ξενοδοχείου, και θέλει τον Ερλ ως αρχηγό της συμμορίας. Ο τελευταίος θα έχει να κάνει με δυο νεαρούς, που δεν ξέρουν που τους παν' τ�� τέσσερα από μεγάλες δουλειές, και με μια γυναίκα, που θα μπλεχτεί στα πόδια τους. Όπως φαντάζεστε, τίποτα δεν θα πάει σύμφωνα με το πρόγραμμα...

Όσοι θέλουν έντονη δράση από την αρχή μέχρι το τέλος, ας διαλέξουν κάτι άλλο. Μικρό μέρος της ιστορίας αναλώνεται στην ληστεία, τα κυνηγητά και τα τοιαύτα, το μεγαλύτερο μέρος είναι η ανάλυση του χαρακτήρα του ξεπεσμένου εγκληματία πρωταγωνιστή και η περιγραφή της καθημερινότητας αυτουνού και της συμμορίας πριν και μετά την "μεγάλη δουλειά". Και αυτό μου άρεσε πολύ, μιας και είναι κάτι το διαφορετικό, κάτι παραπάνω από μια απλή ιστορία με κυνηγητά, πυροβολισμούς και σκοτωμούς. Η γραφή είναι πάρα πολύ καλή, στρωτή και ιδιαίτερα ευκολοδιάβαστη.

Αριστούργημα δεν είναι, όμως χωρίς αμφιβολία πρόκειται για ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον και καλογραμμένο αστυνομικό νουάρ μυθιστόρημα, με ρεαλιστική πλοκή, δράση χωρίς υπερβολές και απίθανη ατμόσφαιρα. Το προτείνω αποκλειστικά και μόνο σε όσους αρέσει να διαβάζουν τέτοιους είδους ιστορίες, δεν πιστεύω ότι υπάρχει περίπτωση να απογοητευτούν.

[Toni Wyatt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fan of this book. At all.

It is the story of Roy Earle, a man who, somehow was bailed out of prison, as if that is likely. He was supposed to be serving a life sentence, but was allowed out all because his big boss, Mac, wants him to orchestrate the robbing of a hotel. And, you know, had enough money to spring him. ??

Wanting to be a heist novel, this falls far short. I found it poorly written. Clunky. At one point the author spells 'clues,' clews. Roy is creepy as all get out. He falls for a young girl with a club foot, whom he sees while sitting at a gas station. He is far too old for her, but becomes obsessed. He pays for her to have surgery and works up a story in his head about how he'll marry her. She's as creeped out by him as I am. Turns him down. He is a serious weirdo.

So, he decides that the girl involved in the heist with him will be good enough. So, he shacks up with her. The story is written very plainly. It lacks depth. It is also riddled with racist remarks. Not a read that I would ever recommend.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Fantastic, classic noir, and also the basis for a great film.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, delightfully presented story that has become one of my all-time favorites in the fiction genre.

💥 Recommended.
🟣

[Duncan McCurdie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great novel of complicated, human characters from WR Burnett.