What a great 1950s B movie this thriller by Clay Reynolds would have made! Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster, or Sterling Hayden could have played Eddy Lovell to perfection: a smarter-than-average muscleman who drifts into crime almost by accident. As Eddy's employer, a minor league Dallas mobster named Moria Mendle who sells sex and mobile homes, Sam Jaffe would be a top choice. And Elizabeth Scott was born to be Vicki Sigel, a gutsy actress who gets to play the role of her life when kidnappers mistake her for Eddy's daughter. But Reynolds's edgy, stripped-down prose works just fine today; it keeps a complicated story about stolen government CD-ROMs and Eddy's extremely nasty siblings moving like a burning 16-wheeler on a Texas highway. Other books by Reynolds available in paperback include Franklin's Crossing and Rage.

Genre: Mystery