The Secret Squad — David Goodis

In David Goodis's bruising crime novel The Secret Squad, Corey Bradford is on the skids and on a quick trip to boozeland. He was a plainclothes cop who got caught with his hands in pockets where they didn't belong and he was pushed out the precinct door. But he was still just as fast with his mitts as he was his wits, and others took notice. Such as mob kingpin Walter Grogan, a man who didn't take no for an answer. But Bradford is also recruited by the notorious Night Squad, a secret arm of the police that doesn't knock before entering. And they don't take no for an answer either.

Originally titled The Night Squad, this vintage noir page-turner features flying fists, smoking barrels, lipsticked blondes, and a very bad part of town called the Swamp. All told in Goodis's carbon steel prose and featuring the evocative illustrations of Martha Kelly.