A Grave Undertaking

by Lionel White

A gang of criminals plans to rob a New York City bank in broad daylight. That part of the caper will be easy, they figure. But how do they escape from Manhattan once the alarm is raised? For that they need a down-on-his-luck undertaker and a dead wino destined for Potter's Field who no one will miss. It's a perfect plan - perfect, that is, until a rookie newspaper reporter desperate for a scoop identifies the corpse and notifies his next of kin, resulting in rival claimants for the dead man who no one cared much about when he was living.

Genres: Mystery

160 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1961

About the author

Lionel White was a crime reporter who wrote around 38 suspenseful thrillers beginning with The Snatchers in 1953 and ending with The Walled Yard in 1978.

Most of his books were translated into a number of different languages and his earlier novels were published as Gold Medal pulp hard-boiled crime fiction, but when Duttons began a line of mystery and suspense books, he also wrote for them.

He was most well known for what a New York Times review described as "the master of the big caper."

A number of his books were made into movies and Stanley Kubrick liked his book 'Clean Break' (1955) so much that he licensed the rights for his film "The Killing" in 1956.

In Quentin Tarantino's film "Reservoir Dogs", Lionel White is listed as an inspiration for the film in the credits.

Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2011

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire the neatness of Lionel White's writing. He lines up all his ducks in a row and everything is so clear and clean there is little room for error. Then he makes sure the ducks have their motivations and personality sketch and we're off to the business at hand. Of course, there is always some unexpected error or human foible that spoils his plotters' capers, and the fun comes in watching their carefully laid plans crumble.

It's not as gung-ho as Spillane and not depraved as Chase, it's more of an uncomplicated straight down the middle but perfectly entertaining all the same kind of thing.

[Neer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast paced entertaining caper. More here: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpr...