Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand): A Rat Pack Mystery [Hardcover]

In 1961 Vegas, Sammy Davis Jr. knows that Sands Casino pit boss Eddie Gianelli has come to the aid of his Rat Pack pals (see Dean Martin's tale EVERYBODY KILLS SOMEBODY SOMETIME and Frank Sinatra in LUCK BE A LADY, DON'T DIE). Since he needs help and knows he can trust Eddie, he hires him to make an exchange with a blackmailer. Someone broke into Sammy's home, stealing an embarrassing career ending photo and now wants 25 grand for its return.

Eddie and his friend Jerry Epstein show up at the exchange point only to find a corpse with no photo. The pit boss and his buddy find themselves in a cat and mouse game across Nevada with blackmailers, cops, FBI and high ranking DC politicians though neither the two friends on the lam can understand why Hoover or the White House seem to be in on the chase.

Once again as with the previous two Rat Pack historical thrillers, Robert J. Randisi paying homage by making his real players come to life especially the entertainers whom the author clearly thinks highly of. The story line is zany and a bit over the top, but no one will care as the Rat Pack steals the show in spite of Eddie and Jerry's excellent adventure.

Harriet Klausner

A great story!! Hey There (You with the Gun in your Hand): A Rat Pack Mystery, by Robert J. Randisi, is a great story that takes place in the Las Vegas of the 1960s. Sammy Davis, Jr. is being bribed for a photo that he took as part of his new photography hobby. The roll of film was stolen from his house, and Sammy cannot even remember what photo on that roll was so important that somebody would bribe him for it.
Eddie Gianelli is a casino floor supervisor during the Las Vegas heyday of the 1960s. Some of his acquaintances include Las Vegas' famous Rat Pack----Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis, Jr. Eddie won the reputation as a problem solver based on a previous case he worked for the Rat Pack. He receives a personal invitation from Big Frank himself to help Sammy when someone is bribing him. Eddie's friend Jerry, a freelance hood from New York, travels to Vegas to help Eddie.
The identity of the blackmailer is unknown. Eddie's task is to meet the blackmailer at a remote location and buy the photo, Jerry is much-more street wise than Eddie, and helps him plan some of the details and the contacts as they go to meet the blackmailers. Unfortunately, at the first meeting, the man that Eddie and Jerry go to meet is dead when they arrive. Eddie and Jerry wind up with more problems than they bargained for. A second group is also looking for the photo and for Eddie by default. Eddie and Jerry continue running and searching, with a bit of Dino, Frank and Sammy in between. As the plot unfolds, the photo turns out to be of someone VERY important, this really makes a great climax for the novel.
The early book reads in a narration style similar to Noire. I could hear the narration in my head as I read. The style is very entertaining, especially with a bribery and mobster story. Later though, after the background of the bribery case is developed, the plot turns more into action than narration. Eddie and Jerry run through a lot of action they solve the case.
Although billed as a Rat Pack story, the novel is really about Eddie Gianelli solving the bribery crime. If you are not a fan of the Rat Pack, you will still enjoy the novel. Rat Pack lovers will enjoy the book because it involves the rat pack, and because it is a good story.
On a side note, the novel opens and closes in current time at the Rat Pack tribute act at the Greek Isles Casino in Las Vegas. I saw the show in 2006, and I loved it.

Robert Randisi revisits the Rat Pack in HEY THERE, YOU WITH THE GUN IN YOUR HAND, the third in the Rat Pack Mysteries series.

In HEY THERE, YOU WITH THE GUN IN YOUR HAND, Sammy Davis Jr. calls on the ever-dependable Brooklyn-born Eddie Gianelli, former street kid-turned-CPA-turned-Sands pit boss-turned-Vegas Strip Go To Guy for the Rat Pack. It seems that somebody has gotten ahold of an embarrassing photograph taken by Sammy, the kind of photo that could torpedo not only his career, but the aspirations of a Very Important Person who has just started his new job in the year 1961.

Eddie has tripped across more than his share of dead guys in the series so far, and here he trips across even more, but he's developing a real sang-froid in dealing with the stiffs, the cops, the strongarm boys, the celebrities, the pimps, the hookers, the con artists, and the other denizens of Sodom-in-the-Desert. This includes his demanding boss at the Sands Hotel, Jack Entratter, who he mostly keeps out of the loop in this particular tale. Part of Eddie's cool is his right hand man and friend, Jerry Epstein, a New York hitman par excellence, but a good bit of it is his own comfort in being able to move easily and unobtrusively between the seediest and glitziest that Vegas has to offer. Eddie has the town wired. No longer tongue-tied and star-struck, he's even able to cope with kissing Marilyn Monroe, and is becoming a truly effective fixer.

Just like Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime (Rat Pack Mysteries)and Luck Be a Lady, Don't Die: A Rat Pack Mystery (Rat Pack Mysteries), HEY THERE, YOU WITH THE GUN IN YOUR HAND is a light, breezy, and easy visit to the circa 1960 Las Vegas of mobsters, molls, guys and dolls, a sunny day beach blanket special. You might just strain your thumb and forefinger turning the pages in this quick moving tale, some chapters of which are measured in short paragraphs. Hopefully, Randisi will run with this series for several more volumes. By then, who knows? Maybe Eddie G.'ll be the Mayor of Sin City.

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