The Corner Men — John E. Gardner

London's underworld was quietly and profitably controlled by the Magnus boys -- two men of compelling evil. Their methods were simple because no terror, no act of brutality, was too extreme. Their orders were always carried out, or had been, until their American counterparts -- in London to plan a mutual expansion of crime -- were found murdered.

This act of war forms the nucleus of a story of retaliation and appalling revenge. John Gardner's novel sends Derek Torry on a swift excursion through the squalid back alleys of London, where he finds his only companions to be sex, violence, and death.