Peter Rabe – författare

Waler Lippit makes music all over town. He owns the juke boxes 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.

Benny Tapkow has worked as a 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. Pendelton’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.

Jimmy Gallivan is only three-and-a-half weeks from his prison release for trying to kill his wife’s lover seven years ago. But fellow-inmate Rand has other plans for Gallivan. A break-out is engineered, and now they’re hiding out in a sanitarium. But the whole set-up seems suspicious. Rand’s boss wants Gallivan to help him with his drug operation. But is that all there is to it? Because it begins to seem like the whole escape was engineered just for him. And what about Jesse? Where does she figure in all of this? Is she the bait - or has she become Gallivan’s new jailor?

Punching Dixon had gotten Jake Spinner thrown in jail, but now that he’s out all he wants is a fresh start back on his farm. Suddenly Dixon is dead and Spinner is on the run, escaping town in the getaway car with Dixon’s assassin in the back seat! He knows the cops won’t believe his innocence. He knows his only chance is to keep the cold, clubfooted little killer known as Loma with him. Because Loma is his ticket to a new life. His respectable life shattered, Spinner figures the only ones who’ll take him in now are the guys who hired Loma. The choice is easy - until he meets Ann.

Quinn thought he had all the angles figured. After all, taking over the Organization should be a piece of cake for such a smart guy. But what he didn’t figure was that boss Ryder would stuff him in a large crate with enough food and water to sustain him - and ship him around the world. When the freighter ports at the North African town of Okar, the captain of the boat decides it''s time to unload the box. It''s starting to make noises, and it smells bad. What emerges from this wooden coffin looks barely human. But once Quinn recovers, he starts to look around. Is this a new chance at life, or an opportunity to cash in on another racket, halfway around the world?

There was a robbery that went bad and a girl was accidentally shot dead. Just an accident. But to John Bunting, it was the end of all his hopes. The girl was his fiance. What could he do? The cops weren’t looking. He had to find the killers himself. And that’s when he ran into Linda. She had lost her husband, had stopped caring. But she knew the men responsible for the killing. She could get Bunting close to them while he figured out who fired the actual shot. They were two wounded souls, one filled with hate, the other trying to find a reason to live. It’s funny how much they needed each other . . .

Anthony Wheeler didn’t want the job. When Major Pitt called him into the London office, Wheeler was trying to track down his old mentor, Fairchild. It had been Fairchild who had pulled him into the business. Not everyone is cut out to be a spy - Wheeler excelled at it. And Pitt would simply not accept his refusal. Now he is off to Kaden in North Africa, where three Arab chieftains who had been feuding for years are suddenly acting very friendly. Wheeler’s mission - find out why. The last person he expects to run into is Fairchild. It is good to see his old friend - so why did it feel so wrong?

Charley has a sweet set-up in Naples. He and his partner Joe Lenken run a tight black-market operation. But tonight there is trouble and Charley is shot - and worse, he is recognized. Fleeing the police, he has to get his hands on a passport fast. Luck is with him in the form of a dead American drunk. All Charley has to do is get rid of the body. Weighting it, he lowers the body into the Tiber, his body wracked with pain from the bullet wound. But his luck runs out - he is seen! She is standing on the bridge overhead. But instead of crying "murder" she helps him up the bank and takes him away to tend to his wounds. But is she Charley’s guardian angel - or the sweet angel of death?

Sam Jordan never lets emotion interfere with his work. He is a precise and ruthless killing machine, dealing out death for hire. But his last job had ended wrong for Jordan, and now Sandy is sending him out again - without a break, yet - to take care of someone named Kemp. Hell, he even has to case the job himself. The whole thing feels jinxed. That’s when Jordan meets Betty, who works at the diner. To her he is Mr. Smith, a button salesman. But to Jordan, Betty is a sweet moment in his life, a safe haven. And that’s where he makes his first mistake - he allows himself to feel human.

Jack Jesso knows that Gluck wants him out of the syndicate. Still, when Gluck sends him on an errand to find a missing guy named Snell for a shady client of his, Johannes Kator, Jesso doesn’t figure it to be anything more than a test. He finds the guy alright - sick and rambling - but Gluck double-crosses him, and tosses Jesso on a Europe-bound steamer with Kator’s crew, their orders to kill him. Jesso quickly realizes that he holds the key to a big money deal in Snell’s ramblings, information that Kator desperately needs. All he has to do to stay alive is keep Kator interested. It’s a simple enough scheme - until Jesso meets Kator’s beautiful sister, Renette.

Matty Matthews has been to the town of Forza d’Aguil before. Stationed there with a small group of soldiers during WWII, it was here that Matty fell in love with Rosanna. It was a sweet, short-lived affair until the soldiers unexpectedly got orders to pull out. Matty never got to say goodbye. Now he’s back in Sicily, drawn to the mountain town after all these years. But the citizens of Forza d’Aguil are easy to offend, and when Matty inadvertently crosses Pino, the Mafioso sabotages his leaving. Trapped in Forza d’Aguil, hemmed in on all sides by the oppression of the town and its silent citizens, he’s stuck in the middle of Mafia country with no way out. He has only the help of the innkeeper Vinciguerra, a man he can’t understand, and the passion of the sweet Sophia. Or is she part of the sinister web, too?

Marvin Palaver dies at the worst possible moment in life, just when he is coming out even with his nemesis, fellow scrap seller Sidney Minsk. He is so close. The contract is signed and Sydney has just bought back his own scrap, the deal of a lifetime. Marve knows happiness supreme. But as the tears of joy make his eyes swim, there comes a bump in his chest, and he is dead before he hits the floor. But death doesn’t stop Marvin. His masterful schwindel must be complete. So Marve finagles his way back to the material plane for a bit of artful ghosting. Sidney has hidden the contract away, confident that he’s the only one who knows about it. All Marve needs to do is get him to reveal it - he should live so long!

He was a tall, cleanly attractive young man, the kind you''d like to have for a neighbor. Press the wrong button and he''d mow you down with the ruthlessness of a Sherman tank. His name was Daniel Port. He was a gangster, the brain and spirit behind the machine that milked the dirty pennies from the city. Now Port wanted out. He had a bellyful of corruption, a one-way ticket to New York, and a dark, shining girl to go along with it. The problem was to get there alive, because the one way out for Daniel Port was over his own freshly dug grave...

Pander wore dark glasses and fancy suspenders and he moved into the San Pietro rackets like a sandblaster gone berserk.

Fell, the boss, was mysteriously away and Pander grabbed the chance to bury his hands in the heavy money. Then Fell came back. At his side was Cripp, the human adding machine with the beautiful face and the twisted leg.

With them came murder... wholesale.

Charley''s Rope was about frayed out. The caribinieri were after him, he had a bullet in his hip and no goddamn passport. Charley needed a passport bad. He needed that intricate piece of paper—signed, sealed, and innocent looking—the way only a G.I. in italy could need one. A G.I. deserter with a sweet fortune in blackmail lire and the carabinieri lusting to lay hands on him...