Tabloid Novel

LITTLE MEN, BIG WORLD (308 pp.)--W. R. Burnetf--Knopf ($3).

In a way, Arky had made good. From the scorching cotton fields of Arkansas he had moved into the rich, tough mob that ran the rackets of a Midwestern city. Now he could wear tailored suits, fondle thick rolls of money, enjoy the taste of power over men. That seemed real success to him.

Arky got into the gang almost on a fluke. Up for a manslaughter charge, he drew unexpected mercy from Judge Greet, who made him his chauffeur. To Arky's surprise, Judge Greet, admired civic leader, was also the local racket boss. Out of loyalty, Arky became his trusted agent.

The downfall of Arky and Judge Greet is the subject of Little Men, Big World, a speedy tabloid novel. The mob is beset by two enemies: a big-city gang trying to muscle in, and a dull but startlingly honest police commissioner who is trying to clean up the town. In a flash-bang climax, the judge is killed by the rival mobsters, Arky avenges the murder in a downtown hotel, is caught by the cops, slips away, is caught again. In the end, facing the chair, he feels a sudden surge of relief, which may even be the first dim proddings of moral conscience.

Little Men, Big World moves fast, beats with excitement. Veteran Crime Novelist W. R. Burnett (Little Caesar; High Sierra) knows the underworld jungle and has a keen ear for its talk. In his study of Arky's misplaced loyalty, he even tries to find some human motive behind the squalor of his story. In the search, he overdoes the idea that most of Arky's hoodlum ways can be explained by a poverty-stricken boyhood. Otherwise, the book is almost as unsentimental as Frank Costello on television.

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