Brain Guy / Plunder - Benjamin Appel

BRAIN GUY

It is the Depression and Hell's Kitchen rent-collector Bill Trent has just lost his job. But Bill is a smart guy. He figures right away that if he hooks up with McMann, together they can make a bundle holding up the businesses that used to pay him rent—McMann's got the muscle and Bill knows when the safes are loaded. Then his younger brother Joe comes to stay, and it's hard to keep up a respectable front for the kid, particularly when plainclothes cop Hanrahan gets wise to the heists.  McMann calls Bill the brain guy but how smart can you be when you've got nobody to trust, no way out, and no place to go but down?

PLUNDER

Joe and Blacky are two awol GI's in post-WWII Manila. They've escaped the stockade and are loose in the world of pom-pom houses and sweet buy ' sell deals. And Joe has plans—big plans. He's going to get a piece of this action. Posing as officers, Joe and Blacky begin to build a little financial empire for themselves. But Joe isn't satisfied with a small piece. He wants it all, whether it's black market goods or someone else's woman. And all Blacky wants is an end to the conniving. Between Joe's schemes and Blacky's conscience stretch the obliging back streets of Manila. The rape of the Philippines has begun.