Rackets Inc A Johnny Merak Classic Crime Novel

Small-time crook Johnny Merak is determined to get Maxie Temple, a former crime boss who'd framed him for a three-year stretch in San Quentin, and is now returning home from Mexican exile. But the 1950s Los Angeles Underworld wants Temple and Merak dead, and decides that by killing Temple, they can remove both men with one shot. But Merak isn't having any of the deal--he wants to clear his name and escape his Syndicate ties. When beautiful Dawn Grahame shows up, he finally has a reason to fight for a better life. This is the dark side of the L.A. underworld: the unknown hoodlum who knows too much, a vicious killer named Madden, Madden's girlfriend, who has to be juiced with heroin to stop her from talking, and Clancy Snow and Dutch McKnight, two Underworld bosses who hover like black spiders of treachery and vice over the very core of Los Angeles, manipulating its social, legal, and political life to their benefit. Can Johnny find a way through this morass? A noir crime classic, filled with riveting action, the first of a stunning new series!

Small-time crook Johnny Merak is determined to get Maxie Temple, a former crime boss who'd framed him for a three-year stretch in San Quentin, and is now returning home from Mexican exile. But the 1950s Los Angeles Underworld wants Temple and Merak dead, and decides that by killing Temple, they can remove both men with one shot. But Merak isn't having any of the deal--he wants to clear his name and escape his Syndicate ties. When beautiful Dawn Grahame shows up, he finally has a reason to fight for a better life. This is the dark side of the L.A. underworld: the unknown hoodlum who knows too much, a vicious killer named Madden, Madden's girlfriend, who has to be juiced with heroin to stop her from talking, and Clancy Snow and Dutch McKnight, two Underworld bosses who hover like black spiders of treachery and vice over the very core of Los Angeles, manipulating its social, legal, and political life to their benefit. Can Johnny find a way through this morass? A noir crime classic, filled with riveting action, the first of a stunning new series!

The murder of Carlos Galecci, a kingpin of organized crime, was not unexpected. Only three days earlier, fearing for his life, he'd hired Los Angeles private eye Johnny Merak to discover who was threatening him. Then he's found seated in his private vault with a knife in his back--a vault whose combination only he knows, a vault no one else has entered in the interim. Summoned to the scene, Merak is hired by Gloria, Galecci’s statuesque blonde wife, to discover her husband's killer, and to determine how an impossible crime has been committed. But in accepting the assignment, Merak soon finds himself marked for death as well! The third entry in this exciting hardboiled crime series.

She was the kind of woman a man always noticed, mostly because of her eyes: deep and dark, they'd held a warmth that could easily kindle a fire in one's soul. Now they were staring sightlessly up from the sidewalk. It was a killing without a motive, just the first of a string of murders that led Johnny Merak, private investigator, from the teeming underworlds of Chicago and Los Angeles to the edge of the New Mexican desert, trailing a killer who left no clues. But Merak knew the Mafia, its methods and its hiding places--because he'd once been part of that scene himself. And now he was determined to exterminate the evil bosses who controlled the...SAVAGE CITY! The second great hard-boiled entry in a long-running crime series!

BLURB

Johnny Merak was determined to get Maxie Temple, who'd framed him for a three-year stretch in San Quentin. But the Big Men of the Los Angeles Underworld wanted both Temple and Johnny Merak and decided that by killing Temple they could do both with the same shot. But Merak wasn't having any of the deal and when Dawn Grahame showed up, he was more than ready to take on the whole of the Organisation. But first he had to meet the suspects.

Put your general knowledge to the test, and impress your family and friends with your astonishing brainpower and trivia genius. An addictive quiz book for all the family featuring 10,000 questions, The Big Quiz Book has something for everyone. With 10 different general knowledge categories - from Science & Technology, Art & Literature, and Natural History, to Food & Drink, Film & TV, and Sport & Leisure - and three increasing levels of difficulty, it offers a fresh and up-to-the-minute quizzing experience that will educate and entertain all the family. Bursting with fascinating facts to boost your trivia knowledge, whatever your specialist subject or your nemesis topic, The Big Quiz Book is perfect for home entertainment and virtual pub quizzes. You won't be able to put it down!

A pioneering work in oral history, this book tells the story of the rise and fall of the industrial revolution and the apogee and crisis of the labor movement through an oral history of Terni, a steel town in Central Italy and the seat of the first large industrial enterprise in Italy. This story is told through a combination of stories, songs, myths and memories from over 200 voices of five generations, woven with a wealth of archival material.