Peter Rabe
Description
Peter Rabe (born Peter Rabinowitsch, November 3, 1921 – May 20, 1990) was a German American writer who also wrote under the names Marco Malaponte and J. T. MacCargo (though not all of the latter's books were by him). Rabe was the author of over 30 books, mostly of crime fiction, published between 1955 and 1975. After his first book, Rabe wrote almost exclusively crime fiction, the exceptions being three soft core books for Beacon in the early sixties, and a novelization of the war movie Tobruk for Bantam in 1967. In an essay included in the book Murder off the Rack, edited by Jon L. Breen,Donald E. Westlake opens with the line, "Peter Rabe wrote the best books with the worst titles of anybody I can think of." When Gold Medal changed the titles of Rabe's first two books from The Ticker and The Hook to Stop This Man! and Benny Muscles In, a pattern was set that would last throughout his career. Stop This Man! appeared in August, 1955 (Gold Medal 506), followed closely by Benny Muscles In (Gold Medal 520, September, 1955), and A Shroud for Jesso (Gold Medal 528, October, 1955). Clearly capable of writing books quickly, Rabe published eighteen books by 1961. In 1962 came one of his best books, The Box (one of only two Rabe books to use his own titles, the other being A House in Naples). Then there were the three soft core books for Beacon, the last two under the pseudonym of Marco Malaponte. After this came the three books about his second series character, Manny DeWitt, the novelization of Tobruk, and then the final books to appear under his own name. These were a pair of Mafia related books, again for Gold Medal (War of the Dons (Gold Medal M2592, 1972), and Black Mafia (Gold Medal M2939). The last books Rabe published before he backed off from his writing career were novelizations of episodes of the television series "Mannix" using the pseudonym "J. T. MacCargo." This was apparently a house name for Belmont, with an unknown author penning the first and third books of the series. Rabe wrote the second and fourth books, A Fine Day for Dying and Round Trip to Nowhere, both appearing in 1975. They were the last of his books to be published in his lifetime.
Books
Kill the boss good-by
A psychopathic gangster returns from a self-imposed exile in a sanatorium and must combat an underling who took over his bookmaking operation while he was missing.
Girl in a Big Brass Bed / The Spy Who Was 3 Feet Tall / Code Name Gadget
384 pages ; 22 cm
A House in Naples
A GI deserter turned blackmailer falls in love with a woman he meets while trying to flee Italy and forge a new life.
Anatomy of a killer
A contract killer becomes unhinged when human emotions, for a waitress and for his target, threaten his ability to perform as a bloodless sociopath on a job that seemed wrong from the start.
It's My Funeral
An ex-mobster is tempted out of retirement to stop a blackmail scheme involving an alluring female movie star.
Stop This Man!
When the thirty-six pounds of gold he steals from a lab turns out to be radioactive, down-and-out thief Tony Catell has to stay one step ahead of the FBI while trying desperately to find someone willing to take it off his hands.
Murder me for nickels
Caught in the middle of a hostile takeover of the local jukebox market, an essential employee must survive his violent boss, the boss' wife, and the Chicago Mob.
Anatomy of a killer ; A shroud for Jesso
Anatomy of a Killer: Sam Jordan never lets emotion interfere with his work as a precise, ruthless killing machine. That is, until the day that Sandy sends him out on the Kemp job where there is Betty, the waitress, a willing brown-haired girl who doesn't seem to want anything from him. Jordan makes his first mistake: he begins to feel human. A Shroud For Jesso: Jack Jesso is an American gangster exiled in a strange household in Hanover, Germany. It is the home of Kator, an arrogant spy and total bastard, Kator's sister, Renette, and her strange husband, Baron Helmut. Jesso upsets the delicate balance in the house, fighting for Renette and a half million dollars, and his life.
Agreement to Kill
Determined to become what he was accused of being, an innocent man escapes with the real killer, forming a weird partnership in an attempt to get a new lease on life.
My lovely executioner
Forced into a jail break, a convict desperately plays for time as he tries to find out who to trust and how to save himself.