Israel Rank

Chapter 2: A Preliminary Note

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British Literature Crime, Thrillers & Mystery

About This Book

A first-person narrator traces his path from modest childhood through a deliberate turn to criminality, explaining the resentments, ambitions, and calculated choices that enable him to remove obstacles to social advancement. The account mixes episode-driven memoir and ironic social observation as he reflects on conscience, the workings of law, and the hypocrisies of polite society. Through detailed scenes of family life, planning, and consequence, the narrative examines moral rationalization, the mechanics of wrongdoing, and the costs and rewards of ruthless cunning.

A Preliminary Note

There is an old saying, ‘Murder will out.’ I am really unable to see why this should be so. At any rate, it is a statement impossible of proof, and one which must always remain a matter of opinion. Because certain clumsy criminals have placed themselves in full view of that dull dog, the Law, we are asked to believe that crime is invariably awkward. The logic is not very obvious. I am convinced that many a delightful member of society has found it necessary at some time or other to remove a human obstacle, and has done so undetected and undisturbed by those pangs of conscience which Society, afraid of itself, would have us believe wait upon the sinner.

Israel Rank.