This is another favorite theme in hardboiled. I got a
wonderful taste of it in Lawrence Block's A Ticket to the
Boneyard. (Spoiler follows.) Scudder and his lady friend are
threatened and hurt by a killer who appears to be crazy. At
the end when Scudder subdues him, rather than call the police
and take a chance that the killer will be out on the streets
on some technicality or walk after only a few years, he wraps
the killer's hand around a .38 and gives him a round in the
mouth. Great story.
Vigilante killing runs deep in the hardboiled river. It was
one of the major themes of The Virginian also. It made
Spillane's I, The Jury a world record bestselling
novel.
miker
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