''The Rip-Off'' is a

crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

by Jim Thompson. The book was rejected for publication during Thompson's lifetime; the date of composition is assumed to be sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, when Thompson's health was in decline. Thompson died in 1977. ''The Rip-Off'' was initially published as a heavily edited and abridged serial in ''The New Black Mask Quarterly'' in 1985. The book version appeared four years later.

Plot

Britton Rainstar is deeply in love with a woman named Manuela Aloe and the longer he stays with her, the closer to death he comes.

References

1989 American novels Novels by Jim Thompson English-language books American crime novels Novels published posthumously {{1980s-crime-novel-stub