Peter Rabe 6 Noir Books (Hard Boiled)

Peter Rabe aka Peter Rabinowitsch, (1921–1990), was a German American writer who also used the nom de plumes 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.

A Shroud for Jesso:
A swift action story in which brazen gangster, Jackie Jesso, gets set up by his oily syndicate boss, only to find himself shipped overseas and into a taut espionage tale as he tangles with an unsavory German and gets a new lease on the life force in the passionate embraces of his enemy’s sister.

Anatomy of a Killer:
Things start to unravel when alienated hit man Jordan must touch one of his corpses, thence contracting a bad case of the shakes. Sent out again too quickly on a jinxed job in a small town, Jordan is forced into unsought proximity with his target and is enveloped in an existential crisis more reminiscent of Camus (or Jean Patrick Manchette) than Chandler. In Jordan’s case, no amount of pulchritude can pull him out of his violent tailspin. From breathless suspense to suffocating dread, Rabe shows his range in this fine addition to a catalogue stuffed with unburied treasures.

Benny Muscles In:
Benny Tapkow has worked as crime boss Pendleton’s chauffeur for seven years, but he’s itching to get ahead. He feels like he serves a piece of the action, but Pendleton won’t budge. So Benny strikes a deal with Big Al Alverato to kidnap Pendleton’s daughter Pat to get him in with the rival gang. But the snatch doesn’t come off as planned, and now Benny is stuck with Pat, a hellion with a temper and plenty of mood swings. Pendleton’s men are after him, and he has to dope her just to keep her in line. The last thing he figured on was falling in love.

Murder Me for Nickels:
Walter Lippit makes music all over town. He owns the jukeboxes that play the tunes that keep the bars and the diners hopping. Jack St. Louis works for Lippit, smoothing the customers and keeping the nickels coming. But then along comes Benotti and the Chicago syndicate to louse up the operation. It's everything Jack can do to stay one step ahead. One step ahead of Benotti's gang, Lippit, and Lippit's willing wife Patty, who wants to be a singer and is convinced that Jack can make that happen too. And maybe he can. It's all in a week's work.

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.

The Box:
James Quinn is a mobbed up lawyer from New York who literally finds himself deposited in the cutthroat town of Okar in a North African coastal country, probably Libya. He is without passport and he is without money. The only thing he posesses is a finely honed knowledge of how the criminal world functions. So he does the only thing he can do and that's to move in on Okar's ubiquitous smuggling trade. He also meets a beautiful woman, a jaded, world weary American expatriate named Beatrice. Beatrice quickly falls madly in love with Quinn, though the reader will be at a loss to understand why.