Crime Must Pay the Penalty #39

Augie Madden claws his way back into the underworld after serving hard time, only to devise a ruthless scheme: he blackmails fellow ex-convicts facing life sentences if caught again, forcing them to pull jobs while he skims the profits. When his operation hits a snag during one of his crew's elaborate capers, Augie must scramble to keep his criminal empire from collapsing under police pressure.

In 1954's "Deadly to Know," two rival Chicago mobsters, "Bull" Marlow and "Slicker" Smith, declare a truce to end their bloody gang wars—but when Slicker falls for Bull's sister Margo, the fragile peace shatters into something far deadlier than any business dispute. What began as ruthless greed in the underworld becomes a personal vendetta that neither gangster can walk away from.

Sheriff Art Carlson of Junius County, Tennessee has spent eighteen years contending with Jed Turlow, a 250-pound marksman whose extraordinary trick-shot skills have made him a terror to the backwoods and beyond. When Turlow's arrogance and violence finally land him in jail, his release only marks the beginning of a murderous vendetta against everyone who wronged him—including the sheriff himself. Carlson pursues the fugitive into the mountains, knowing that Turlow's deadly aim and ruthless nature make him one of the most dangerous men alive.

Danny Hooker starts as a petty criminal whose father keeps bailing him out, but when his dad finally refuses to help after a hijacking mysteriously hits the family trucking business, Danny joins forces with a ruthless mob crew—only to turn the tables on them when he discovers he's been cheated. Now leading his own operation, Danny orchestrates a sophisticated hijacking ring using a diner as cover to extract cargo information from unsuspecting truckers, but as the heat intensifies and his ambitions grow, the question becomes whether his hunger for "just one more haul" will finally catch up with him.