Lionel White (1905–1985)

L'únic bo d'aquesta novel·la és la història. L'argument és sòlid i manté la tensió fins al final.

Ara bé, com a exercici artístic, el text no val res. L'autor es perd en una infinitat de detalls que no aporten res. Només són palla que serveix per a farcir el mínim de pàgines que l'autor devia pensar que feien falta per a fer una novel·la i no un conte.

Pel que fa a la traducció de Josep Vallverdú, és mecànica, un català absolutament artificiós. Els personatges pareix que s'han empassat una gramàtica per dinar. Uns diàlegs que no te'ls creus ni fart de vi. La tria va ser molt adequada: un traductor mediocre per a un escriptor mediocre.… (mais)

The other books I have read by White have been of a pattern. A crime is planned out in detail, then carried out, then something unravels. This book, published in 1968, is much different. A young wife, while her husband is out of town, has a car breakdown in the black part of town and is raped. It takes place in Delaware, in a town described as being like the Deep South. In fact, it seems most of the leading citizens, with the exception of the Chief of Police and the Jewish Department Store Owner are members of the Ku Klux Klan. This book is full of some of the most disgusting characters--and incidents--you will ever read. The woman was badly beaten--attempted murder--and can't identify her attacker. So White takes us through the Chief of Police's investigation. We are constantly reminded that he is a decent man, but he does so many stupid things that result in horrible things happening that never should happen, that the story becomes almost maddening. Of course, as readers we don't expect the obvious solution, and in the end, we don't get it. But there is just so much stupidity going on here, it is hard to take. For instance, despite threats, the recovering wife doesn't want to leave town and return to the safety of their former home. Also, White doesn't seem to understand the geography of Delaware. He says, for instance, that the Chief of Police has to drive the prisoner a couple of hundred miles. But Delaware is only 96 miles long and at most 35 miles wide. I guess the Chief is trying to avoid all the toll booths! (That's a joke; maybe that hadn't learned how to build them in 1968.) In any case, this is a definite sub-par book by White, whose earlier novels are some of the best of their type. I'm sure he was trying to be topical, but it just doesn't quite work. The book is not badly written--just badly plotted and reasoned.… (mais)

Hostage For A Hood is a top-notch pulp era novel which featured a Ozzie and Harriet type couple accidentally getting mixed up with a crew of armored car robbers. White does a great job of describing everyone involved in the caper which feels like one of the crews from Westlake's Richard Stark novels with each member of the crew playing a vital part. Juxtaposed against the backdrop of this violent professional crew is the newlyweds and their little French poodle who are as straight and innocent as they come. Well-written, succinct, not a wasted paragraph. Precisely what I look for in crime fiction from that era.
… (mais)

"The Big Caper" by Lionel White is first-class hardboiled crime fiction. Make no mistake about that. Like White's novel, "The Killing" (aka "Clean Break"), "The Big Caper" is the story of how a criminal mastermind plots a crime by bringing together a team of individuals. Here, it's a bank robbery in a small Florida town. Flood, the ringleader, pulls together a crew of characters from all walks of life in order to pull of a well-planned down to the most minute detail. As such and because of the sparse, stripped-down prose, it has a similar feel to many of Donald Westlake's Parker novels, although White published "The Big Caper" in 1955, a decade before many any of the Parker novels came out.

In this book, White's writing is not flowery. His writing is detailed, but is written in such a stark manner that the details flow through the writing naturally, not as an added enhancement. It is told in a matter- of-fact manner. And, this style of writing, at least in White's hands, is top-notch and establishes his place as one of the top crime fiction writers of the fifties and sixties.

The heart of this book is not the plot, which is not terribly complex or hard to understand. Rather, the meat of the book is about the characters that Flood brings together to pull off this caper. Flood is the ringleader and he has been gathering people for quite some time just because he might need them for such a caper. Unfortunately for Flood, these people are characters and they act and interact in ways that are sometimes detrimental to the caper that he planned.

Kosta was the explosives man. He had unusually large eyes of "an odd russet brown and they bulged out from their sockets." They reminded one "somewhat of the eyes of a very sick person or a sick animal." He was short and obese. Frank Gerald Harper and Kay were assigned the task of establishing themselves in a rented house, pretending to be a married, square couple, blending into the town and casing the bank and the police department. Harper had leased a gas station and made friends with everyone in town.

Kay "looked exactly like what everyone that they knew in Indio Beach believed she was - - the young, extremely attractive wife of a nice- looking ex-Marine." She was only supposed to play a part with Harper since Kay had been Flood's mistress for the last four years. Despite her connection to Flood, she never knew whether he was married or where he spent his time when he was away from her. The safecracker was Hans Paulmeyer, an old man "well past seventy" and "set in his ways." This was going to be his last job and, when it was done, he would take the train home and sit on the porch and wait for death.

Rounding out the group pulling off this caper was Roy Cluney, who had the "round, half-formed face of a baby" and small ears set close to his head. Cluney's buddy, Wally, barely has any more sense than Cluney. While waiting for the caper to start, Cluney read comic books with his lips moving laboriously as he spelled out each word. There was also Candle, who was a big man with a hard face, and Shorty.

Of course, none of these people are as interesting as Flood himself, James Xavier Flood to be precise.
Lionel White knows how to spin a yarn. That much is true.… (mais)