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The Money Trap / Love Trap
THE MONEY
It starts with a break-in. Detective Joe Baron and his partner, Pete Delanos, interview a Dr. Pantell who has just shot a man he found breaking into his office. Before he dies, the thief confesses that he was there to rob the safe, which though now empty, had earlier held at least a million dollars. So right away, Baron and Delanos know that something here is screwy. And then there’s the thief’s girlfriend who claims that Pantell set him up for the killing. Convinced that Dr. Pantell is not what he seems and that the cash in the safe is drug money, he and Delanos set about a robbery of their own. If only things had stayed that simple….
LOVE
What would you do if you were an aspiring architect, more or less happily married, and working for two guys who had made their fortune on your designs? You resent the hell out of them, but don’t want to quit. And one day you overhear a plot to rob the business on payroll day. Would you warn your two bosses? Call the cops? Tell your wife? Harold Wilkenson doesn’t do any of these things. He doesn’t feel he owes the business a thing. But on the day of the robbery he’s dragged along by his boss to deliver the payroll cash. There is a crash, a stickup, guns fired. Harold wakes up in the hospital. Now what can he do? If he confesses that he knew about the heist, he’ll be arrested. If he rats on the thieves, they’ll kill him. Quite a trap…
It starts with a break-in. Detective Joe Baron and his partner, Pete Delanos, interview a Dr. Pantell who has just shot a man he found breaking into his office. Before he dies, the thief confesses that he was there to rob the safe, which though now empty, had earlier held at least a million dollars. So right away, Baron and Delanos know that something here is screwy. And then there’s the thief’s girlfriend who claims that Pantell set him up for the killing. Convinced that Dr. Pantell is not what he seems and that the cash in the safe is drug money, he and Delanos set about a robbery of their own. If only things had stayed that simple….
LOVE
What would you do if you were an aspiring architect, more or less happily married, and working for two guys who had made their fortune on your designs? You resent the hell out of them, but don’t want to quit. And one day you overhear a plot to rob the business on payroll day. Would you warn your two bosses? Call the cops? Tell your wife? Harold Wilkenson doesn’t do any of these things. He doesn’t feel he owes the business a thing. But on the day of the robbery he’s dragged along by his boss to deliver the payroll cash. There is a crash, a stickup, guns fired. Harold wakes up in the hospital. Now what can he do? If he confesses that he knew about the heist, he’ll be arrested. If he rats on the thieves, they’ll kill him. Quite a trap…
330 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 8, 2022
1 person is currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Lionel White
94 books39 followersLionel White was a crime reporter who wrote around 38 suspenseful thrillers beginning with The Snatchers in 1953 and ending with The Walled Yard in 1978.
Most of his books were translated into a number of different languages and his earlier novels were published as Gold Medal pulp hard-boiled crime fiction, but when Duttons began a line of mystery and suspense books, he also wrote for them.
He was most well known for what a New York Times review described as "the master of the big caper."
A number of his books were made into movies and Stanley Kubrick liked his book 'Clean Break' (1955) so much that he licensed the rights for his film "The Killing" in 1956.
In Quentin Tarantino's film "Reservoir Dogs", Lionel White is listed as an inspiration for the film in the credits.
Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2011
Most of his books were translated into a number of different languages and his earlier novels were published as Gold Medal pulp hard-boiled crime fiction, but when Duttons began a line of mystery and suspense books, he also wrote for them.
He was most well known for what a New York Times review described as "the master of the big caper."
A number of his books were made into movies and Stanley Kubrick liked his book 'Clean Break' (1955) so much that he licensed the rights for his film "The Killing" in 1956.
In Quentin Tarantino's film "Reservoir Dogs", Lionel White is listed as an inspiration for the film in the credits.
Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2011
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 15, 2024
White is an acknowledged master (and pioneer?) of the heist novel. The Killling (Clean Break) is most famous because of Kubrick’s terrific film adaptation in 1956. White does a lot of heists, but often he comes at the heist from a different angle, suburban noir and/or the “wrong man” scenario. He’s a master of tension, cold hard and desperate criminal types, femme fatales, as well as neurotic, dark, compulsive types who blossom from average law abiding folks. Unexpected comic touches now and then as well.
Love Trap is a 1st person “wrong man” heist novel, but it quickly goes in a surprising direction. Really dark ending, with well crafted sexual neurosis.
Money Trap offers yet another instance of White’s unconventional angle on a crime novel. This time a law abiding cop gets drawn into a caper, and of course things go wrong quickly. Great character building, a textured but deeply flawed protagonist, with insecurities about money, marriage, and masculinity. A slower budd in the first third, but the payoff is worth it. Still quite short at 120 pages.
Love Trap is a 1st person “wrong man” heist novel, but it quickly goes in a surprising direction. Really dark ending, with well crafted sexual neurosis.
Money Trap offers yet another instance of White’s unconventional angle on a crime novel. This time a law abiding cop gets drawn into a caper, and of course things go wrong quickly. Great character building, a textured but deeply flawed protagonist, with insecurities about money, marriage, and masculinity. A slower budd in the first third, but the payoff is worth it. Still quite short at 120 pages.
Displaying 1 of 1 review