Book cover of The Name of the Game is Death

Book description

A rarely-published hard-boiled classic, The Name of the Game is Death is the story of a bloody-minded bank robber who mercilessly tracks down the killers of his partner and does them in. The end of the book carries such impact that horror writer Stephen King, a fan of hard-boiled fiction,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Name of the Game is Death as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book is a classic among fans of hard-boiled crime fiction. Stephen King called it the hardest of the hard-boiled, and I have to agree with him on that. The plotting is relentless and so is the main character. I’ve never seen a character who so purely embodies animosity and determination.

The story opens with Earl Drake and his partner Bunny robbing a bank in Arizona. Things go awry halfway through the job, and Earl shoots several guards before getting shot himself. To make things worse, their getaway driver loses his nerve just as they’re exiting, and he winds…

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