Crime and Punishment #17

Tip Darrow looks like a polished businessman—tailored suit, manicured hands—but behind the façade is a calculating criminal determined to claw his way to the top. After his release from prison, he starts small as a cab driver, then spots an angle: running bootleg liquor across the border in his taxi, building it into an operation ambitious enough to rival established gangsters. When a rival cab company owner turns up dead, Darrow finds himself locked in a dangerous game with both the underworld and a determined detective from headquarters.

Captain Roger Hanley's only lead is a single .38 bullet left at the scene of a bakery owner's murder—but his sharp detective work and clever interrogation tactics soon turn suspicion toward Joe Manson and two accomplices. With minimal physical evidence and only an eyewitness account, Hanley devises an ingenious plan to break the case before the three hoods can coordinate their stories. Can the resourceful captain extract a confession and send the guilty parties where they belong?

Ben Seldon graduates at the top of his police academy class and is assigned to the most dangerous beat in Worton City—right in the heart of the Weasel's criminal territory. When a bribe attempt lands on his desk during his first weeks on patrol, the idealistic rookie refuses to play ball, setting off a dangerous confrontation with one of the city's most ruthless crime bosses. As the Weasel's gang plots their response, Seldon must learn whether principles alone can survive the streets of 1930s big-city crime.

During Prohibition, small-time hoodlum Joe "Dizzy" Baker schemes to hijack beer trucks from the ruthless Dan Auriel, convinced he can become a major player in the underworld—but Captain Holcomb and the police have their eyes on him from the start. As Dizzy's crimes spiral into violence and murder, the walls close in faster than he can run, and his desperation leads him down a path he can't escape.