
A routine day at a small-town bank erupts into chaos when three masked men in identical shabby suits storm in, brandishing a pistol and a satchel full of cash. The tellers and customers are forced against the back wall while Miss English makes a frantic dash for the exit, only to be knocked unconscious by the gunman. The robbery spirals into a frantic shoot‑out as the thieves race to a nervous driver’s car, and police sirens wail down the street, their own guns blazing in the confusion.
The getaway quickly unravels when the criminals’ vehicle stalls after a reckless collision, leaving them vulnerable to the arriving officers. As detectives Stevenson and Pauling begin to piece together the botched heist, a shadowy figure known only as “the Scorpion” watches from the sidelines, his reputation for relentless vengeance already striking fear into both crooks and lawmen. The stage is set for a relentless pursuit that will drag the city’s underworld into the light.
Language
en
Duration
~57 minutes (55K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2020-01-03
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1933–2008
A master of crime fiction, he brought wit, momentum, and sharp observation to more than a hundred books. He is especially loved for two very different criminal worlds: the comic misadventures of John Dortmunder and the hard-edged Parker novels written as Richard Stark.
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