James Dybas

Unemployed and desperate, Bill Ellis pays an eccentric criminal $4,000 for a job opportunity. As a last-ditch effort to turn his life around, Ellis plots a daring heist at an underground suburban casino to get the money back.

A stripper and her bodyguard become involved in a murder.

A female parole officer discovers a secret death row prison under a meat plant, that's being run by the plant's unhinged vigilante owner and his reverend friend. A politician with a shady past becomes its latest "guest". But is he guilty?

A sheltered young high society woman joins the US Army on a whim and finds herself in a more difficult situation than she ever expected.

In 1853 Japan, the story follows the Westernization of Japan, mainly through the story of Kayama, a samurai, and Manjiro, a fisherman. The lives of both men are radically changed by the coming of American ships to Japan.