Who was Peter Rabe? He was born Peter Rabinowitsch in 1921 and, in 1938, he and his family fled Nazi Germany, escaping just months before Kristallnacht. They settled in the Midwest and Americanized the last name to Rabe. Rabe wrote thirty books, almost all of which were crime fiction between 1955 and 1975. Stop This Man! was the first of his crime novels to be published in 1955 and he published at least two more that same year, Benny Muscles In and A Shroud for Jesso. Other crime novels by Rabe include A House in Naples, Kill the Boss Goodbye, Dig My Grave Deep, and My Lovely Executioner.
His books are not filled with heavy descriptions. The reader gets a feel for who the characters are through the action and dialogue. This book is typical of the crime pulp genre in the fifties, except that it is better written than most and stands the passage of time quite well.

Tony Cantrell has finished his sentence and Otto Schumacher has a job for him. The job involves stealing a gold brick en route from Fort Knox to a research laboratory, where it is to be subjected to radiation. Back then in the fifties, atomic energy and radiation were big things on everyone's mind. They hadn't gotten used to such things yet. The job goes off without a hitch, except that the gold brick leaves a line of destruction in its wake. Starting with the rooming house in which Cantrell spends a night or two, people around him start getting sick, nauseous, everywhere he goes. And the feds are after him or at least after someone who they know is carting around this radioactive mess.
Schumaker realizes too late that the gold is no good and that he can't unload it and doesn't want it around. He certainly doesn't want Cantrell hiding it under his floorboards, getting him and his squeeze all radioactive sick and burning.

The alternating storyline between Cantrell's movements and the federal agents who are on his tail works just fine.
The entire atmosphere of the book feels dark and gloomy, no peaches and roses.

A lot of the action takes place in Los Angeles as Cantrell tried to unload the merchandise and finds that the gangsters he is doing business with will pay the price, but also require that he does some work for the organization. There are shootouts, heists, bare knuckle brawls, fancy nightclubs, tawdry bums on skid row, double crosses, and a shining romance with the young cigarette girl.

The story moves along at a great pace and is simply a great read. Rabe does a great job of mixing some humor with tough-nosed noir action and there simply is not a dull moment at all in this book. Great reading. ( )

There was a lot of potential, but Stop This Man! suffered from unbelievable characters. The protagonist, Tony Catell, has an incredibly one-track mind and is oblivious to the danger and the changes in the world since he last went to prison. Even worse is the shrill drunk moll named Selma, who comes off as the worst sort of caricature. ( )