One Monday We Killed Them All, first published in 1961, is a tight crime thriller. The story is a stand-off between a cop and a robber. Detective Lieutenant Fenn Hilyer ( what a name?) is a by-the-book hardworking police detective with a no-good brother-in-law, Dwight McAran, who is out for revenge for the five years he spent on a manslaughter charge for beating a woman to death, a heiress who was slumming line a sailor on endless shore leave. No one in town wants him back, not even the hoodlums, no one that is except for Meg, Hilyer’s wife who has a soft spot for her brother and can’t believe he would do anything bad. When McAran has served every day of his five years and is released, there’s no parole officer to report to and Hilyer is stuck with this vicious man in his house with the two of them snarling at each other. This is a solid terse story with there is a clear demarcation between good and evil with no confusion there.
Pulp, Crime, & Mystery Books 