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Hell to Pay
A Tom Kincaid crime mystery ...
They’d hurt a lot of innocent people. They’d tortured women, stolen money for dope, committed rape and murder. Like everyone else, Tom Kincaid, a freelance gambler, ignored them, figuring it was up to the police or the syndicate to settle the score.
But, this time, it was different. That was Sally lying there in the rubble heap, her twisted, broken body crying out for revenge. This time, they’d pay. Kincaid would see to it, personally. He’d track them down, ferret them out … and kill them, one by one.
Here’s a tough, tense thriller about a gambler with an edge, a gambler with death up his sleeve. And who will bring death to all sides.
William R. Cox (1901-1988) worked in the family ice, coal, wood and fur businesses before becoming a freelance writer. A onetime Western Writers of America president, he was said to have written 80 novels, 1,000 short stories, 100 tv scripts and screenplays. He averaged nearly 600,000 words a year for 14 years during the pulp magazine era.
They’d hurt a lot of innocent people. They’d tortured women, stolen money for dope, committed rape and murder. Like everyone else, Tom Kincaid, a freelance gambler, ignored them, figuring it was up to the police or the syndicate to settle the score.
But, this time, it was different. That was Sally lying there in the rubble heap, her twisted, broken body crying out for revenge. This time, they’d pay. Kincaid would see to it, personally. He’d track them down, ferret them out … and kill them, one by one.
Here’s a tough, tense thriller about a gambler with an edge, a gambler with death up his sleeve. And who will bring death to all sides.
William R. Cox (1901-1988) worked in the family ice, coal, wood and fur businesses before becoming a freelance writer. A onetime Western Writers of America president, he was said to have written 80 novels, 1,000 short stories, 100 tv scripts and screenplays. He averaged nearly 600,000 words a year for 14 years during the pulp magazine era.
175 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1960
1 person is currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
William R. Cox
92 books6 followersSee also: William Robert Cox
William Robert Cox (1901-1988) was a writer for more than sixty years, and published more than seventy-five novels and perhaps one thousand short stories, as well as more than 150 TV shows and several movies on film. He was well into his career, flooding the market with sports, crime, and adventure stories, when he turned to the western novel. He served twice as president of the Western Writers of America, and was writing his fifth Cemetery Jones novel, Cemetery Jones and the Tombstone War, when he passed away. He wrote under at least six pen names, including Willard d’Arcy, Mike Frederic, John Parkhill, Joel Reeve, Roger G. Spellman and Jonas Ward.
William Robert Cox (1901-1988) was a writer for more than sixty years, and published more than seventy-five novels and perhaps one thousand short stories, as well as more than 150 TV shows and several movies on film. He was well into his career, flooding the market with sports, crime, and adventure stories, when he turned to the western novel. He served twice as president of the Western Writers of America, and was writing his fifth Cemetery Jones novel, Cemetery Jones and the Tombstone War, when he passed away. He wrote under at least six pen names, including Willard d’Arcy, Mike Frederic, John Parkhill, Joel Reeve, Roger G. Spellman and Jonas Ward.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 31, 2025
Cox’s 1958 novel, “Hell to Pay” is a remarkable hardboiled journey through New York City. Seen through the narrative and eyes of one Tom Kincaid, an older tough guy who played in card and dice games and thought he knew his way around, “Hell to Pay” is a story of his world being turned upside down as warring mobster factions go to war with Kincaid, not quite understanding how he got in the middle of things that had gone so wrong. Bullets are flying. Young innocent dames are brutalized and beaten in abandoned tenements. Gun battles take place on any highway.
It all begins in a card game down the hall of the hotel where Kincaid had a suite, though this night he was not running the action. “This one cookoo was young and wore his hair long and oily and had fish eyes and he was pushy, fading the dice out of turn, elbowing his neighbors, laughing too loudly. He looked like a switchknife boy and he didn’t belong there. The other one was quiet and seemed a stranger, probably the way he wore his clothing, not New York, could be Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit.” Right away, the narrative voice reels the reader in to Kincaid’s world where he sizes up the opposition in moments. When the young punks come up with guns, Kincaid describes them as “one of those new weapons the ladyboys are using. Humpty Dumpty didn’t have a better fall.”
“In my business,” he tells us readers, “you have to learn all the angles or you are bankrupt, and maybe also you are dead.” He tells us he is 38 and has half a life to live and little to look forward to but a fight for survival between the Syndicate and some new gang of slobs.
But this fight hits Kincaid home with his girl and Pat’s girl Sallie under threat and even his ex-wife getting in the action. Pat was the ex-boxer Kincaid took under his wing. Somehow Kincaid is a target of just about every slob in the city.
This novel is top-notch from cover to cover, but be forewarned it is one constant explosion of unprecedented action over and over again with no let up. The action might remind you of Spillane: “His eyes were open, staring. The man died hard. One shoe was off. His toes were blistered. The odor was awful. They had stabbed him many times, killing him by inches. There was a lot of blood.” Everything about this novel is just top-notch.
It all begins in a card game down the hall of the hotel where Kincaid had a suite, though this night he was not running the action. “This one cookoo was young and wore his hair long and oily and had fish eyes and he was pushy, fading the dice out of turn, elbowing his neighbors, laughing too loudly. He looked like a switchknife boy and he didn’t belong there. The other one was quiet and seemed a stranger, probably the way he wore his clothing, not New York, could be Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit.” Right away, the narrative voice reels the reader in to Kincaid’s world where he sizes up the opposition in moments. When the young punks come up with guns, Kincaid describes them as “one of those new weapons the ladyboys are using. Humpty Dumpty didn’t have a better fall.”
“In my business,” he tells us readers, “you have to learn all the angles or you are bankrupt, and maybe also you are dead.” He tells us he is 38 and has half a life to live and little to look forward to but a fight for survival between the Syndicate and some new gang of slobs.
But this fight hits Kincaid home with his girl and Pat’s girl Sallie under threat and even his ex-wife getting in the action. Pat was the ex-boxer Kincaid took under his wing. Somehow Kincaid is a target of just about every slob in the city.
This novel is top-notch from cover to cover, but be forewarned it is one constant explosion of unprecedented action over and over again with no let up. The action might remind you of Spillane: “His eyes were open, staring. The man died hard. One shoe was off. His toes were blistered. The odor was awful. They had stabbed him many times, killing him by inches. There was a lot of blood.” Everything about this novel is just top-notch.
November 4, 2025
Tom Kincaid is a gambler, specializing in dice and poker. He is well known by the mob, but they haven’t moved in on him to date. Tom feels fatherly towards a young fighter named Pat Granger. They are pulled into a mob action against a dangerous group of young men, late teens to early twenties. Unlike the mob, these young men kill for the sake of killing. This story takes place in about 1958, and these youths would be greasers from their descriptions. Both Kincaid and Granger have sweethearts and one of them is killed by this second group. Kincaid finds himself working closely with the mob to bring justice to what has been wrought. The action starts on the second page of this book and just doesn’t let up. The novel has a terrific climax. This is a fine hard-boiled story.
February 24, 2016
Madeline Stanford. Wattpad. (Like hell series book 2)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews