Cherry, a Perry Compton mystery

When Perry Compton waves his model girlfriend Sue Jerzyk off at the airport, the last thing he expects is to have a case fall into his lap. But it does, when he witnesses an assault in the car park. Stepping in to help, he then takes the intended victim - an attractive blonde - for a drink. As they talk, she reveals that her name is Cherry and she works as a Burlesque dancer. She’s also been receiving death threats, though this is the first time anyone has tried to attack her.

Finding Cherry charmingly naïve as she is sexy, Perry can’t help but get involved and soon finds himself in the middle of a case that features dancers, strippers, bent cops and an Assistant DA who is very keen for Cherry not to spill the beans.


Cherry - a Perry Compton mystery.

Pan Books, September 1982

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.

Rampage, by Peter Raft

Carolyn Baron was a young girl, caught up in the wrong crowd, doing the wrong things. The petty theft wasn’t too bad, the blue movies were a step in the wrong direction, but when her friends sold her off to be a sex-toy, that was the last straw.

As she is about to be raped, Carolyn lashes out at her “owner”, killing him outright. With her owner’s gangster friends after her, she goes on a rampage, to take out everyone who had led her to that situation.

One scumbag at a time.

Rampage

Published by Corgi Books (552 07850 6), February 1981

(the only Corgi book Raft ever published. Following the two book deal with Fontana (itself following the end of his Mayflower contract), he tried Corgi as they were primarily a UK house and he thought it would help with his homeland book sales. Unfortunately, the book was sold to completely the wrong market - blue movies and revenge, stalwarts of Raft’s work, do not necessarily appeal to the crime crowd. As it was, Pan - who published Raft’s ‘proper’ crime series, wouldn’t touch this with a bargepole).

Dice, a Perry Compton mystery

Perry Compton is enjoying some downtime - his girlfriend, Sue Jerzyk, is in town and she wants to hit the beach. Never wanting to pass up the opportunity to see her without too many clothes on, they find a quiet spot. Quiet, that is, until the woman comes running across the sand, blood pouring from a gash in her head, screaming for help.

In that moment, Perry is a target - hitmen are after a prime witness but the problem is, nobody quite knows who they’re looking for. The girl on the beach was simply the last in a long line of failed hits. And now Perry is in their sights. And so is Sue.


Dice - a Perry Compton mystery.

Pan Books, September 1983

Blue Movie Killer, a Perry Compton mystery

Porn is coming to Miami Beach and Perry Compton gets called in by an old friend when the lead actress is kidnapped. When she is found dead, several days later, tensions runs high. Very soon, another actress is kidnapped and, this time, local stations are issued a stark warning - “Stop the film, or the whores get it”.

Delving deep into the seedy underbelly of Miami and Dade County, Perry Compton is faced with his toughest case yet.


Blue Movie Killer - a Perry Compton mystery

Pan Books, July 1981

Neon Bruise, a Perry Compton mystery

Perry Compton is called in to help out an old friend. Gayle Anderson runs “Neon Nights”, the hottest nightclub on Miami beach. The problem is, some of her customers are winding up dead in the toilets. Everything points to rival nightclub owners, so it’s up to Perry to prove it.

But there’s a new drug in town - Neon Bruise - that strips away every moral impulse of its users. Some take sex to the next level, some take even more drugs, some decide to settle old scores.


Neon Bruise - a Perry Compton mystery

Pan Books, August 1984

(With this book, Raft and Pan parted company. By all accounts, it was a completely amicable agreement, but sales were known to be dropping on the series and Raft was desperately unhappy with the cover art).

Red Lady, by Peter Raft

International model and lover to Kings and princes and movie stars, Heidi Benson was known the world over. Devastatingly beautiful, intelligent and funny, women wanted to be her, men wanted to bed her.

But Heidi Benson had a secret. One that was locked up deep down inside, from things that her step-father had shown her and taught her. Things that sometimes, just sometimes, Heidi had to act upon.

When she meets movie star Steve Lockhead, sparks fly. Until they go to Acapulco, to shoot a movie and Steve says that one word that always tipped her over the edge and into a murderous rampage.

Red Lady

Published by Signet Books (T3768), December 1973
(published as a “second-string-quickie”, this actually performed better than “The Possession” and Signet never published Raft in a cheaper edition again)

Zombie, by Peter Raft

Jack & Sally Otter are on holiday in the Caribean, enjoying everything the islands have to offer. Until one day, on a beach, when Sally is assaulted. Coming to her aid, Jack inadvertently kills her attacker and as they flee for their lives, they hear curses being shouted at the sky.

That night, as Sally recovers, she notices something moving about in the trees outside their bedroom window. Jack, recovering with the aid of a whiskey in the bar, notices a commotion in the pool area.

Their hotel, it seems, have undergone a zombie siege. And the Otters are their targets, but not before they’ve had their fill of the hotel guests.

‘They came back from the dead…with a taste for the living!’

Zombie

Published by Signet (421-AE1202), April 1975

Avenge Me, by Peter Raft

When Diane Peters witnesses the brutal murder of her lover, she suffers a mental breakdown. Placed in medical care, everyone thinks she’ll make a complete recovery but no-one anticipated the ghosts who now surround her.

They don’t want Diane to get better - they want to use her body for their own means, to wreak their vengeance on those who brutalised, abused and murdered them.

And Diane, slave to the ghosts and unable to break free, much become a pawn in a murder game.

Avenge Me

Published by Mayflower Books (583-12429 1), August 1978

Co-ed Killer, by Peter Raft

Josie James is new on campus, at the exclusive Dawson School. Quickly fitting in with the other girls in her dorm, she has a lot of fun - late night parties, meeting the boys in the dorm across the quad and sexual experimentation with her new friends.

But there’s somebody else in the dorms, enjoying watching all the fun and it’s not long before he wants to get involved too.

So Josie has a new admirer. The trouble is, if she turns him down, it might be the last date she ever goes on!

Co-ed Killer

Published by Dell Books (4338), July 1982

Legs - a Perry Compton mystery

Perry Compton agrees to do a friend a favour and look after his beach-front house. Good timing, as it’s being rented out by Si Deed, a photographer who likes to dabble in the sleazy side of life.

Astra Garland is now a model, though she was once one of the sweethearts of American cinema. Drink and drugs have worn away that gloss, but her legs are still worth a fortune and she’s having them photographed by Si Deed.

The first attack on her is foiled by Compton but, a day later, her car is run off the road. It obvious that someone wants to get Astra “Legs” Garland out of the way - it’s up to Perry Compton to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Legs - a Perry Compton mystery

Pan Books, August 1980

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

Vampiress Returns, by Peter Raft

Kathleen Bennett is back, tracking down the hottest news for Miami’s fabulous Channel 5. Her experiences with Demelza, the Vampiress who killed her boyfriend Steve, have left scars that no amount of cheap sex and strong Bourbon can cure.

Then bodies start to appear across the city, drained of blood. Letters arrive at the station, addressed to Kathleen, supposedly from Steve.

Could it possibly be that Demelza, the last surviving member of the family Vlad Dracul, is back? It’s up to Kathleen to discover in a grisly race against time.

Vampiress Returns

Published by Dell Books (4381), July 1984

The Possession, by Peter Raft

Angie Dewar is an IT Girl, living life to the full with parties, pills and plenty of men. She and some of her friends decide to spend a week in the country, at the old Dewar Mansion in the middle of Dartmoor. Quickly, they’re skinny-dipping, taking drugs and enjoying each others bodies.

But something else is in the Dewar Mansion, an entity that has waited a long time to taste the spoils of youth, of firm and supple skin and moist lips. And when Angie pricks her finger one night, the dripping blood finds the entity. And the entity finds Angie.

The Possession - A Novel Of Sexual Terror!

Published by Signet Books (451-AE1205), July 1974

Vampiress, by Peter Raft

Kathleen Bennett is the hottest news reporter on Miami’s fabulous Channel 5, sexy and assured and great at bagging a scoop. On a rare night off, she attends the local nightclub with her boyfriend Steve, who disappears almost as soon as they arrive. After a fruitless search, Kathleen finally spots him being led away by a glamourous looking young woman.

What Kathleen doesn’t realise, as she tracks down her boyfriend, is that she’s on the verge of the biggest scoop of her career. Because Steve has been spirited away by Demelza, the last surviving member of the family Vlad Dracul.

Demelza is The Vampiress and she will stop at nothing to enslave Miami.

Vampiress

Published by Dell Books (6345), August 1983

Witch Hole - Cellar Bitch, by Peter Raft

Carla St Thomas is excited to be on her first modelling trip overseas, exploring the castles and scenery in Yugoslavia. Separated from her friends and colleagues, she falls into the hands of white slave traders, who take her to the Castle Ost, known locally as “Witch Hole”. There, deep in the dungeons, lie the remains of Elizabeth, Witch Queen, who needs the blood of a young virgin to regain life.

Can Carla survive her vicious captors, the lascivious attentions of her fellow slaves and, ultimately, the attention of Elizabeth, who will stop at nothing to kill again.

Witch Hole - Cellar Bitch

Published by Mayflower Books (583-12430 5), September 1977
Reprinted 14 times

Fetish, by Peter Raft

A deadly game, but the killer knew her

Siobhan Rees is a fashion photographer, who likes to push the envelope in terms of nudity and rawness. Her work is admired and reviled, but the fashion magazines keep picking up her work.

The Killer is aroused by Siobhan’s work and wants to take his own photographs, with Siobhan as his model. Slowly, methodically, he works his way into her life even as he builds the ultimate fetish den in his seedy little house.

Soon, Siobhan won’t turn up for work. Instead, she’ll be fighting for her life in The Killer’s sleazy den, trying to survive his…

Fetish

Published by Signet Books (452-AE1225), August 1973
Reprinted 12 times

Peter Raft - potted biography

Peter Raft was born in Somerset in 1943 and worked in marketing for ICI, before his first novel “Fetish” was picked up by Signet in 1973. An instant hit, appealing to sleaze afficionados and horror lovers alike, Raft left his job and began to produce at least a book a year. Competition from James Herbert meant that he never really took off in England, but he was embraced in the United States until the mid-80s.

Raft’s last book, “The Final Film”, was published in 1988. It was rumoured that he was working on more material, but to date, nothing has been seen since. At one point, it was hoped that a well-known small press publisher might be bringing out his back catalogue in collectors edition but that too has proved to be a fleeting rumour.

Peter Raft, so far as anyone knows, currently lives in New York with his wife Carla and some goldfish his kids left behind when they moved out. It’s not known what he does.

A bit about me, I suppose

My name is Jason Morgan and, really, I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing this blog except that it seems a great shame to me that nobody seems to know anymore who Peter Raft is.

I mean, come on, this bloke was huge through the seventies and into the eighties. Huge, I tells ya!

Anyway, I hope to use this blog to post as much information as I can gather, plus details of all the books that were published through the years.