I Feel Bad Killing You - Leigh Brackett

Novelette

Number of words : 10000
Percent of complex words : 5.4
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 8.8

READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 5.7
Flesch : 80.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 4.2



SETTING

Surfside, Los Angeles, California USA


CHARACTERS

Paul Channing

A ex-detective in the Surfside division. Was tortured by a criminal gang. Wants to show his brother was murdered.


Marge Krist

Old girlfriend of Hank Channing. Sister of Rudy, and she is also a gangster.

Rudy Krist

Employee of Jack Flavin's. Brother of Marge and a young punk out of his depth.

Jack Flavin

Surfside haberdashery store owner. Criminal racketeer. Acquaintance of Dave Padway.

Max Gandara

Surfside Division police captain, L.A.P.D. Was boss of both the Channings.

Budge Hanna

Woman that likes a drink, and reporting. Used to be the ither way around. Contact of Paul's.


Henry Channing

Paul Channing's dead brother, was also a Surfside cop. Had been corresponding with his brother. Supposed to have committed suicide.

Millie

Witness who saw Budge Hanna on the night Henry was killed. Helps to set Paul up.

Joe

Gunman hired to work Paul over. Enjoys his work.

Dave Padway

Gang leader that Paul helped to put away. Now out and working with Jack Flavin sometimes.


PLOT

Paul Channing is a police officer that quit the force - possibly because of being tortured in pursuit of taking down the Padway gang.

His brother was still a cop, and he had been corresponding with him, but hadn't seen him for a while. He seemed to be going well, when suddenly he finds out he has apparently committed suicide. Or done the Dutch as they call it.

He meets with his old police captain and a reporter contact. The former things they Channing boys lost their nerve, the latter knows something is hinky, drunk or not. However, more likely rocking the boat: "All right. Hank said that Surfside was a dirty town, dirty from the gutters up. He said any man with the brains of a sick flea would know that most of the liquor places were run illegally, and most of the hotels, too, and that two-thirds of the police force was paid to have bad eyesight. He said it wasn't any use trying to do a good job as a decent cop. He said every report he turned in was thrown away for lack of evidence, and he was sick of it."

Channing's investigations turn up criminal connections, and the showdown shows that the problem with being a criminal is that your own side might blow you away. In this case, Marge Krist: "You've done a good night's work, Marge. You killed Rudy just as much as you did Flavin, or Hank. Rudy had decent stuff in him. You forced him into the game, but Hank was turning him soft. You killed Hank."


4 out of 5