Johnny was a crap game hustler, but when he blew into town they pegged him wrong. The cops said, ‘Killer,’ and slugged him simple. ‘Lover,’ the rich gal said, and got him even worse mixed up. Next came the ex-striptease queen with the heart of gold or pewter, and the Happiness Boys from the Syndicate…
All Johnny had going for him was a fast pair of legs, a faster set of wits, and just maybe, the one female around who could be counted on to win it or lose it for keeps. A fickle broad named Lady Luck.
Christmas Eve, 1949. A man wakes up dazed on the streets of Baltimore after suffering a beating that wipes away his memory…and becomes the target of vicious mobsters who are convinced he’s faking amnesia to hide a $300,000 secret. Now he’s on the run, fighting for his life, and searching for his past…leading to a stunning climax in a snowy, deserted amusement park on a cold, dark, winter night.
Johnny Babcock was the name on the life insurance policy for $100,000. Johnny Babcock was the name on all the identification found on the crumpled, burnt body found at the body of a ravine. Johnny Babcock’s grieving widow gratefully accepted the cashier’s check from the insurance company. And all the while, Johnny Babcock lived on Skid Row, doubled-crossed by the wife he loved…and facing murder charges if he ever revealed his true identify. Is there a way out for Johnny that doesn’t put him in the grave… or behind bars?
An uncensored wanton was Marie, an unadulterated adultress who lived in a world of men — and enemies. There was a raging furnace fueled by greed and desire. Her passion was to inflame men and then consume them, leaving behind her the ashes of dead loves. In the summer resort where she reigned, man after man felt the touch of her fire, woman after woman shriveled up in her fierce glow…and the human debris mounted. Then the stranger came among them, a man with a past too heavy to carry, with a granite heart and hands to tear the world apart… or snuff out a life. And so they met, fire beat against unmelting rock, and the air of summer was charged with the stifling heat that comes before the storm.
They call him Johnny Berlin and he has an instinct for cards… for trouble… and for women.
Banker Randall McCarey is an extremely dangerous ex-spy, skilled in handling a variety of weapons and lethal women, who is drafted by the CIA for a secret mission in France tied to his work in counter-espionage during the war … and who is targeted for death from the moment he lands.