Lawbreakers #2

A tense rooftop standoff anchors this 1951 Charlton crime anthology, with a woman in red struggling desperately against a police officer's grip — her anguished plea, "Let me go! That's my husband you're shooting at!" — while another cop draws a bead on a man in the background against a smoky city skyline. The cover delivers exactly the kind of charged, street-level drama promised by the stories inside, including "Henpecked Murderer," "Death at High Tide," "Wages of Crime," and other crime thrillers. At a dime a copy, Lawbreakers #2 offered mid-century readers a pulse-quickening package of urban noir.