Peter Rabe was born in Germany as Peter Rabinowitsch in 1921, immigrating to the U.S. with his father in 1938 to escape the Nazis. He enrolled at Ohio State University and received his Ph.D. in psychology from Western Reserve in Cleveland. Married, he began his writing career by turning in a humorous story about the birth of his first daughter. Soon after, he began submitting hardboiled stories to Gold Medal where he found an enthusiastic editor and a ready market.

After a divorce, health problems and the death of the paperback original, Rabe eventually quit writing and took up teaching psychology at California Polytechnic State University in the late 60's. He died in 1990 at his home in Atascadero, California.