Double Down

This welcome collection from MWA Grand Master Collins Skim Deep offers two gritty crime novels, both first published in 1981, starring heist man Nolan. In the superior Fly Paper, the 50-year-old veteran thief of 20 years begins to go stir-crazy in Sycamore, Ill., while managing a motel for a powerful Chicago crime syndicate. Sherry, his “almost obscenely young” girlfriend, has gone to Ohio to care for her sick mother, leaving him restless and frustrated. When his young, comic book–fanatic partner in crime, Jon, requests his help, Nolan relishes being drawn into a big-money heist involving vicious, double-crossing father and son crooks and facing off with a desperate antagonist, who has taken advantage of a wave of skyjackings. The less gripping Hush Money, set one week after the end of Fly Paper, revolves around the Mafia-connected DiPreta family, with Nolan tasked with finding the sniper who’s picking off the DiPretas. Collins’s careful plotting and attentiveness toward character development steer the narrative to a reasonably satisfying resolution despite some redundant backstory. Fans of old-school, hard-edged heist yarns will have fun. (May)