WAR OF THE DONS The Guarda brothers run capo Messina’s territory. Pepe, the oldest, is the muscle. Nuncio, the younger brother, is the accountant. And Marco, he’s the wolf. Restless, hungry, he’s through taking orders. It’s his idea to get rid of Messina and take over. But to do that, the hit has got to look like an accident, or they risk the wrath of Messina’s boss, Don Angelo. So Marco hires a twitchy drug addict with a penchant for danger, a guy who knows how to turn Messina’s simple hospital visit into a fatality. It’s all going so well, so smoothly. Then Don Angelo steps in to take control, and the Guarda brothers really go to war. BLACK MAFIA Cutter used to be part of the movement, but got busted for knocking over a bank. He did his time, now he’s out. But things have changed. His former mentor is now a teacher, and wants nothing to do with him. It’s all Cutter can do to stay one step ahead of the Man. And now some white guys are coming into the Belt to stir up trouble, busting the local action and making it look like a Perrini job. But Perrini is quite happy with the status quo. Sure he skims the Belt, but he’s not looking for trouble. Trouble finds him anyway in the form of Don Santino’s nephew, Angelo, who’s got a hidden agenda all his own. And that’s when Cutter figures it’s time to make his move. Rabe's stories deal with the dark underbelly of America and yet are surprisingly lithe and loose, nimble even. These aren't plodding detective novels or methodical whodunnits: his antiheroes are usually criminals, up against fellow criminals. --Nick Jones, Existential Ennui Lots of dead bodies, tough guy mob patter, double-crosses, and violent action are what you find here. The humor is dry much like Westlake's. --GoodReads "Peter Rabe was a kind of fictional surgeon. His novels are skillful operations performed with scalpel-like precision on the underbelly of American society." --Bill Pronzini Stark House's ongoing project—reissuing high-class crime fiction from a vanished time—strikes gold with this double-decker release of two fine novels by the nearly forgotten Potts. Go, Lovely Rose dates from 1954; The Evil Wish from 1962. Employing techniques both classic and contemporary, the two tales share the meticulous build-up of tension typical of the Golden Age and the modern tendency to use a crime as an excuse to explore the lives affected. The "Rose" of the first novel is dead when the narrative begins, a crumpled heap with her skull bashed in. There's some detective work here—keep an eye on that headband—but Potts uses rich, vivid language to examine the damage Rose did to a handful of people with their own secrets. If Hitchcock had written a novel, it would have been similar to The Evil Wish, with its study of the corroding effects of guilt. Two sisters plot to murder their father and his fiancée. Turns out they don't have to, but their obsessions—What did the neighbors overhear? What's in that diary?—lead them to near madness. And real crime. Two masterpieces here. — Don Crinklaw, Booklist WAR OF THE DONS The Guarda brothers run capo Messinas territory. Pepe, the oldest, is the muscle. Nuncio, the younger brother, is the accountant. And Marco, hes the wolf. Restless, hungry, hes through taking orders. Its his idea to get rid of Messina and take over. But to do that, the hit has got to look like an accident, or they risk the wrath of Messinas boss, Don Angelo. So Marco hires a twitchy drug addict with a penchant for danger, a guy who knows how to turn Messinas simple hospital visit into a fatality. Its all going so well, so smoothly. Then Don Angelo steps in to take control, and the Guarda brothers really go to war.BLACK MAFIA Cutter used to be part of the movement, but got busted for knocking over a bank. He did his time, now hes out. But things have changed. His former mentor is now a teacher, and wants nothing to do with him. Its all Cutter can do to stay one step ahead of the Man. And now some white guys are coming into the Belt to stir up trouble, busting the local action and making it look like a Perrini job. But Perrini is quite happy with the status quo. Sure he skims the Belt, but hes not looking for trouble. Trouble finds him anyway in the form of Don Santinos nephew, Angelo, whos got a hidden agenda all his own. And thats when Cutter figures its time to make his move. Peter Rabe was born in Germany as Peter Rabinowitsch in 1921, immigrating to the U.S. with his brother in 1938 to escape the Nazis. He enrolled at Ohio State University and received his Ph.D. in psychology from Western Reserve in Cleveland. Married, he began his writing career by turning in a humorous story about the birth of his first son. Soon after, he began submitting hardboiled stories to Gold Medal where he found an enthusiastic editor and a ready market. After three divorces, health problems and the death of the paperback original, Rabe eventually quit writing and took up teaching psychology at California Polytechnic