Benny Muscles In

Peter Rabe (1921-1990) is mostly forgotten today, but he wrote some of the more original and stylish pulp crime novels of the 1950s and 1960s. His books are often sloppily plotted, but they have interesting characters and as a result are far more engaging than most of his pulp peers. Benny Muscles In is Rabe’s second novel, the story of a minor hood (Benny) who fights his way up the mob hierarchy only to be derailed by love and drugs. The book’s plot is at times an odd mix of the thrilling and tender, but Benny and his girlfriend Pat are complex and memorable characters.