The Kiss of Death by Eleazar Lipsky First Edition Penguin Paperback 1947

Description: ""The Kiss Of Death" is the story of a stool-pigeon -- or what the police euphemistically prefer to call an "informant"; it deals with a hardened criminal who has been bred by the code of his environment into a hatred of the police, to the belief that the informer is the lowest moral type -- that the supreme virtue is to be a "standup man": one who won't talk. How Vanni Bianco throws in with his traditional enemies and becomes a stool-pigeon -- through prison experiences, personal tragedy, despair, and to revenge himself on the accomplices who betrayed him, is at once a tragedy and, strangely enough, a story of moral regeneration. Although strictly a crime novel in the fast-paced realistic tradition of a W.R. Burnett or a James M. Cain, it has some of the overtones of Liam O'Flaherty's "The Informer." The story might be subtitled "the Open Door." This is the door to a new way of life, to an existence as a normal citizen with the responsibilities, freedom and security that this implies. Assistant District Attorney d'Angelo is the first to point out the symbol to Vanni. As a dramatic gesture he leaves the door to his office open with the promise that if Vanni turns in the names of his accomplices he can walk through it as a free man. Later, in prison, when he decides to give this information, the door is apparently opened. Vanni steps out to a reunion with his children, a new marriage, a new home, and a good job. Soon, however, he finds that for the ex-convict the bars still exist as actually and inescapably as in prison. New demands are made by the police and to help them, to follow his own code, and to protect his family, there is only one solution. Vanni courageously takes it. If there's any moral here, it's that when cornered by circumstances, a man may behave like a hero instead of a rat." Thank you for shopping my eBay bookstore! Your purchase helps our homeschooling, book loving, homesteading, Midwest living, family of 6, make ends meet. You can also be our partner in saving good books from the trash! Message with any questions and Happy Shopping!

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Location: Harrisonville, Missouri

End Time: 2024-11-21T01:40:17.000Z

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