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Knockover
Cross was cool and bored and smarter than most people, so he made up a game, an exercise in icy logic, called armed robbery - and he recruited the perfect team: the muscle, the gun, the punk, and a lovely girl for bait.
The game worked. But Cross went for the bait, and ended up out-smarting everyone - even himself.
The game worked. But Cross went for the bait, and ended up out-smarting everyone - even himself.
159 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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About the author
Newton Thornburg
13 books48 followersBorn in Harvey, Illinois, Thornburg graduated from the University of Iowa with a Fine Arts degree. He worked in a variety of jobs before devoting himself to writing full-time (or at least in tandem with his cattle farm in the Ozarks) in 1973.
His 1976 novel Cutter and Bone was filmed in 1981 as Cutter's Way. The New York Times called Cutter and Bone "the best novel of its kind for ten years." Another novel-to film Beautiful Kate was filmed in Australia in 2009 and starred Bryan Brown and Ben Mendelsohn. It was directed by Rachel Ward, who is Bryan Brown's real-life wife.
Thornburg died on May 9, 2011, a few days shy of his 82nd birthday.
His 1976 novel Cutter and Bone was filmed in 1981 as Cutter's Way. The New York Times called Cutter and Bone "the best novel of its kind for ten years." Another novel-to film Beautiful Kate was filmed in Australia in 2009 and starred Bryan Brown and Ben Mendelsohn. It was directed by Rachel Ward, who is Bryan Brown's real-life wife.
Thornburg died on May 9, 2011, a few days shy of his 82nd birthday.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 14, 2026
This was just another random Fawcett Gold Medal paperback that sounded good to me. Luckily I scored it for ten bucks, because copies of this are not exactly flooding the internet and seem to be mostly priced in the ridiculous zone. As a heist novel I'd say KNOCKOVER was done quite well, so long as I didn't examine the actual heist too thoroughly.
A straitlaced man known simply as Cross, who has recently been screwed by life itself, decides to go to the bad in order to pull off that once-in-a-life score. The heist involves, among other things, a kidnapped child and syringes loaded with sodium pentothal. The heist crew is composed of five malcontents including Cross, three men and one woman. The notable action is mostly divided between Cross, a high priced call girl named Jan, and a psychopathic criminal whose nickname is Raven.
Raven reminded me of the Oklahoma kid, a character from Elmore leonard's City Primeval; someone with a tendency to pull guns and use them under slightest pretense. Without spoiling it completely, this tale came down to two men's greed for the entire hall, rather than settling for a fair split. Not unusual where these heist scenarios are concerned, but I couldn't predict with any certainty if mastermind Cross's plan would ultimately work or not. The whole scheme, though it says on the cover it was perfect, seemed to me, pretty far from perfect. Using injectable sedatives in an armored car heist? Kidnapping a child and using him in the heist? Dropping the loot in a river!? Like I said, it didn't seem anywhere near perfect. But Nonetheless, I enjoyed every page of it. This came out in 69, which was around the time the crime novel really started to benefit, in my opinion, from writers adding more sophistication while at the same time not pulling any punches when it came to sex and violence.
A straitlaced man known simply as Cross, who has recently been screwed by life itself, decides to go to the bad in order to pull off that once-in-a-life score. The heist involves, among other things, a kidnapped child and syringes loaded with sodium pentothal. The heist crew is composed of five malcontents including Cross, three men and one woman. The notable action is mostly divided between Cross, a high priced call girl named Jan, and a psychopathic criminal whose nickname is Raven.
Raven reminded me of the Oklahoma kid, a character from Elmore leonard's City Primeval; someone with a tendency to pull guns and use them under slightest pretense. Without spoiling it completely, this tale came down to two men's greed for the entire hall, rather than settling for a fair split. Not unusual where these heist scenarios are concerned, but I couldn't predict with any certainty if mastermind Cross's plan would ultimately work or not. The whole scheme, though it says on the cover it was perfect, seemed to me, pretty far from perfect. Using injectable sedatives in an armored car heist? Kidnapping a child and using him in the heist? Dropping the loot in a river!? Like I said, it didn't seem anywhere near perfect. But Nonetheless, I enjoyed every page of it. This came out in 69, which was around the time the crime novel really started to benefit, in my opinion, from writers adding more sophistication while at the same time not pulling any punches when it came to sex and violence.
January 24, 2026
book 2/52
original title 'knockover'.
classic 1960s crime novel. border line pulp.
Good story, well written and good ending.
original title 'knockover'.
classic 1960s crime novel. border line pulp.
Good story, well written and good ending.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews