The Snatch

by Harold R. Daniels, Eileen Walton (Illustrator)

a selection from Chapter 1: Mollison turned his heavy car from the traffic-burdened main street into the comparative solitude of a backwash of asphalt alley that split two buildings built of old pink brick. Even in the way he drove his car, Lou Morgan thought, Mollison had a flamboyance, a dash. He was not certain that he liked it in Mollison, but he envied Mollison's ability to change his mannerisms as he would have changed a suit. Mollison followed the asphalt between the two walls of brick that shut out the June sunlight until, where still another brick building dammed it, it widened into a long pool of parking space. Here Mollison stopped the car and pointed.

"There," he said. "You couldn't find a more perfect place. In a hundred years they wouldn't look for the kid there." He sat back with the air of having achieved a minor triumph. Morgan glanced unwillingly in the direction of Mollison's gesture. Until now, Mollison's plan had been some thing they just talked about; something they might someday do. They had the place now, and there remained only the time to be set. The plan was taking on a sickening reality.

Mollison had pointed in the direction of a tiny abutment to the main building; a low shed of brick from which sprouted a tremendous chimney, round at the base and tapering at the top like some mighty cannon aimed at the sky.

Mollison talked on. "I've got a key," he said. "I kept it when I was with Decker, Real Estate." He added with a touch of scornful condescension, "I told him he'd never make a dime from the account."

And Decker and Son are worth three quarters of a million dollars, Morgan thought sourly. What was Mollison worth? A hundred dollars? Two hundred maybe?

The two men got out of the car and walked toward the small building at the base of the chimney. Once away from the alley that led into this brick cul-de-sac, they were surrounded by towering pink walls. The old Maynard Mills they were called; a complex of weave sheds and spinning rooms that spread over many acres. The textile machinery was gone, sold for scrap metal long years ago, but the old brick buildings still stood. Too expensive to maintain-too hard to pull down.

There was a scattering of cars in the open court between the buildings. Morgan hesitated. "Won't they notice us going into the building?" he asked.

Mollison waved his hand. "These people? Don't worry about it. Somebody gets hold of a few dollars and starts a business in this old rats' nest because Decker lets them have floor space for nothing. Next month he's broke and somebody else comes in. Don't worry about it," he repeated.

They reached the low building and Mollison unlocked the door and pushed it in. "The old boiler room," he said proudly. "This is the place. It's perfect."

Morgan, glancing about, saw a maze of piping festooning the room. The boiler itself, its great doors open, took up one wall. Against the opposite wall stood an army cot with a filthy blanket for a cover. Against the third wall a pile of coal was heaped. Mollison kicked at a chunk that had rolled from the pile. "They haven't used it in ten years," he said. "Decker put in a little oil-fired boiler for a heating plant in the mill itself. This coal used to be piled up in the yard outside but Decker was afraid some of the poor bastards that live around here would steal it so he had it thrown in here." He paused. "What about it, Lou?"

Morgan hesitated, not wanting to confirm his participation in Mollison's plan. He was afraid of Mollison and of the act that Mollison wanted him to commit, but at the same time he did not want to give this thing up entirely. It had sounded, in earnest discussion on a score of occasions, so simple; so easy. And he wanted the money. He needed the money. He said doubtfully, "I guess it's all right."

Genres: 20th Century, Noir, Mystery

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Daniels graduated from college in Milford, Connecticut, and became a specialist in the metal industry. From 1958 to 1972, he was editor of the magazine Metalworking. In the 1950s, he published numerous short stories, and in 1956 he published his first novel, In His Blood, nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Little known in France, Harold Robert Daniels, however, writes Claude Mesplède and Jean-Jacques Schleret "remarkable works for the quality of the realistic plot and description of the small towns of the United States". His fourth novel, The Snatch, published in 1958, is described by John D. MacDonald as "one of the modern classics of crime and punishment. His sixth and last novel, published in 1966, House On Greenapple Road, is appreciated by Claude Mesplède as "undoubtedly his most complete book" and adapted for television in 1970. One of his new Death does not wait (Road Hog) is adapted twice in each of the two series Alfred Hitchcock presents.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniels is a terrific writer who effortlessly captures the thoughts and feelings of the characters in his stories. What could be interesting about three small time kidnappers? If you are asking that question, then you certainly are not familiar with Daniels' work. This author delves into each character with such a fine sense of who they are and what motivates them that you feel what they feel. You understand why they feel trapped no matter which way they turn. This is truly good stuff, my friend. Drink up.

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three desperate men plot and carry out a botched kidnap the 8 year old son of a mafia boss.

Masquerading as just another piece of 1950s pulp fiction, this is actually far more than that.
There is far more characterisation than the usual pulp novel, the two kidnappers are brilliantly described, one, a career criminal and a sociopath, and the other an apparently boring bank clerk. As the novel unfurls the difference between them increasingly manifests itself.

The backdrop plays a key role also, of sleazy bars, seedy apartments and squalid areas of the city a night, so much so, that as with the best noir, moments of implausibility are brushed over as they don’t in any way deter from the enjoyment of the piece.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

John D. MacDonald called this 1958 noir caper “one of the modern classics of crime and punishment”. Well, I wouldn’t go that far…, author’s blurbs, you know. Still it’s a really excellent, well-crafted, and intelligent noir pulp novel from the hands of an amateur hobbyist pulp writer.

[John Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent suspenseful caper novel about some amateurs trying their hands at that oh-so-tricky kid kidnapping racket

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great novel about what is probably the worst planned and executed kidnapping in pulp fiction.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent characters. The mystery was not terribly mysterious, but the looks inside the minds of the bad guys more than make up for the lack of typical chases and plot twists you find in crime pulp.