Toe Tags, by Peter Raft

Some men like breasts, some like bums, some like full red lips. Barry Charles loves women’s feet. He likes to stroke them, to pamper them, to kiss them and to do much more. So much more. Worse, Barry doesn’t care if the woman enjoys the attention or not.

Sweeping through the London of today, finding his prey in the clubs and disco’s that glitter in the capital, Barry is looking for the perfect feet. And when he meets Stef Sukowski, an American exchange student, it appears that he’s found them. But Stef has other ideas. And she certainly doesn’t want to end up wearing…

Toe Tags

Published by Fontana Books (97800061522137), December 1979

(following the collapse of his Mayflower contract - they wanted him to stay on, but terms couldn’t be agreed - Raft signed with the UK based Fontana in the hope that this would build his name in his beloved home country. The book sold well and a good, solid story helped).

Torso, by Peter Raft

Declan Aherne was trained to torture and kill in a dirty war. Once the government had no more need for him, they turned him loose on the streets. But he liked his job - and wanted to continue.

The only person who can stop Aherne is his old army buddy Kit Branigan, now a New York cop. When the bodies start turning up in his city, with the tell-tale marks on the torso, Branigan knows who’s behind it all.

When Jill Jones, Branigan’s partner, goes missing and he starts to receive mysterious phone calls and messages, the race is on.

Torso

Published by Mayflower Books (583-12545 x), August 1979

Publishers Weekly, in their review, called it "a scary mixture of Lucio Fulci and Ed McBain's '87th Precinct' series". Peter Raft, apparently, was thrilled at that.

Slice -a Perry Compton mystery

In an effort to either widen his reach and stretch his talent (my thoughts) or "pick up more of an audience, I had hungry mouths to feed" (Mr Raft, in an interview), Raft wrote a series of novels featuring private eye Perry Compton. Published through Pan Books in the 70s, going into the early 80s, all of them were set in Miami (where Raft lived at the time).

Perry Compton is down on his luck. Busted out of the police force, he sets up in private practise just as local socialite Hannah Harare is spotted driving erratically. Following her tyre-tracks, the police discover a hit and run victim, covered in knife slashes.

Did Hannah do it? Was the victim trying to blackmail her, since Hannah’s private life was anything but. Or is there something else going on, someone from Hannah’s past, who feels cheated out of the life he should have had and who will stop at nothing to get what he feels is rightly his?

Slice - a Perry Compton mystery

Pan Books, October 1979