One Endless Hour — Dan J. Marlowe

One of the most unusual hard-boiled novels, this story traces the efforts of the brutally effective bank robber in Dan Marlowe's The Name of the Game is Death to recover from devastating fire damage to his face and resume his career. One Endless Hour begins with a summary of the end of The Name of the Game is Death, but quickly moves on to a tale that is both peculiar and nerve-wracking. The protagonist, who calls himself Earl Drake, hooks up with a gambling addict named Preacher Harris and a pornographic film maker named Dick Dahl to try to pull off a huge, complex heist that even he fears will fail.