Stop This Man! (Hard Case Crime) [Mass Market Paperback]

Peter Rabe (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hard Case Crime | Publication Date: August 2009

SOME MEN AND SOME MERCHANDISE ARE JUST TOO HOT TO HANDLE 

All Tony Catell knew when he broke into the university science lab was that they had a gold ingot on the premises for some sort of experiment.  So he stole it.  What he didn’t know was that the experiment involved nuclear power – and that the gold was dangerously radioactive.   

Now the cops and the FBI are on Tony’s trail, Tony’s underworld contacts don’t want anything to do with him, and the loot he’s lugging around is leaving a swath of radiation sickness and death in his path.

And since he’s just come from his third stint in prison, if they catch him, he’s not going back to jail – he’s going to the electric chair…

--This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A Ph.D. psychologist born in Germany in 1921, Peter Rabe fled to the U.S. in 1938. During the post-war paperback era he wrote many penetrating and insightful suspense novels, including The Box, Anatomy of a Killer, and Murder Me For Nickels. Among other authors, Donald E. Westlake has cited Rabe’s work as an influence. --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Hard Case Crime; Reprint edition (August 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843961201
• ISBN-13: 978-0843961201
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,287,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read this book?, August 13, 2009

By 

mrliteral - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stop This Man! (Hard Case Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

Hard Case Crime is a publisher that, to quote them, "brings you the best in hard-boiled crime fiction, from lost pulp classics to new work by today's most powerful writers." Of late, however, only the former is true: every release this year has been an older work. Even the one "new" work, "The Dead Man's Brother" by Roger Zelazny, was really an old story that had been previously unpublished.

Stop This Man! by Peter Rabe fits into this "lost pulp classic" category also. This short novel follows Tony Catell, a middle-aged heist man who has pulled off a perfect crime, stealing a 36-pound gold brick from a university. What he was unaware of at the time was that the gold was radioactive and dangerous to anyone near it.

Even in 1950s terms (when this book was written), the $20,000 or so that the brick is worth may be a nice bit of change but hardly a big, retirement-worthy amount. Nonetheless, to Catell, it is the big score, or would be if he can cash it in. Unfortunately, the word has gotten out that this gold is lethal, forcing him to hit the road to find a buyer. This will take him on a journey in which he will meet all sorts of shady figures - including a sadistic sheriff - while he evades the FBI agents who are after him. And, though he is reluctant to face the fact, the gold is making him sick as well.

Peter Rabe is almost unknown nowadays, and while this book is good, it lacks that standout excellence that could make an author immortal. Catell seems to be a precursor to such literary heist men as Richard Stark's Parker, with both the skill and emotional detachment that would be done to perfection in that latter character. As with most of these older Hard Case Crime books, Stop This Man! has a tough, lean feel to it; it may not be the best such novel, but it'll do nicely as a quick, entertaining story.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ugh, October 4, 2010

By 

Frank Burger (Michigan near Detroit) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stop This Man! (Hard Case Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have been purchasing a few of the "Hard Case Crime" books here and there to get a look at some different writers, and because these seemed to be like the books I grew up with. This title just did not measure up in my opinion. The plot was transparent and the prose was turgid. I would not recommend this book to anyone.