Gangsters, thieves and professional codes under pressure define W. R. Burnett's hard-boiled crime fiction. Little Caesar follows the rise and collapse of Rico, an ambitious criminal whose pursuit of status helped establish the modern gangster novel. The Asphalt Jungle shifts to a carefully planned jewel robbery and the group of specialists assembled to carry it out, treating the mechanics of crime and the vulnerabilities of the crew with unusual seriousness. High Sierra follows Roy Earle, an ageing criminal drawn into one more robbery while trying to imagine a life beyond it. Burnett's prose is lean, unsentimental and plot-driven, with urban systems and criminal organisations often more important than detective work. Useful discovery categories include noir, gangster fiction and heist novels, especially for readers of Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain. Read more Less
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