by Lee Irby
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Product Description
Frank Hearn is a down-on-his-luck bootlegger and bruiser, looking for the big score in the heart of the Roaring Twenties. When he loses a shipment of top-quality booze to a double-crossing government thief, Frank hunts him down, roughs him up, and finds something that catches his eye. What at first appears to be a scrap of paper is actually a handwritten and unmistakably authentic IOU for $7,000, signed by Babe Ruth.
Seven-thousand clams is a lot of money--and when Frank gets a tip that the Yankees are about to begin spring training in St. Petersburg, Florida, he wastes no time leaving New Jersey to track down the Babe. Frank thinks he's covered his bases: Along for the ride is a dangerous and curvy blonde named Ginger DeMore. She’s smart, she packs a snub-nose pistol in her purse, and she’s the perfect accomplice to help convince the Babe to cough up the dough. It seems like the perfect plan, but Frank and Ginger aren’t the only ones seeking their fortunes in Florida. 1920’s St. Pete is a veritable nest of vipers. Hustlers, gamblers, Yankee fans, and even a sociopath are lurking in the booming burg—not to mention a team of gangsters sent by a prominent Chicago mobster named Al Capone (who’s instructed his boys to scour the town for a curvy dame by the name of Ginger DeMore).
In this taut Roaring Twenties crime novel, filled with colorful characters both real and imagined, Lee Irby takes readers straight into the authentic heart of the era, bringing to life all the sizzling style—from the slang and the fashions to the smell of bathtub gin. Worthy of a place at Elmore Leonard’s table, 7,000 CLAMS is an enormously entertaining tale and a superb fiction debut.
Amazon.com
The next best thing to being in Florida this winter is curling up with this lively debut romp through the Sunshine State in the company of a host of colorful characters--a down-on-his luck bootlegger and the upper class college girl who loves him, a sultry lounge singer whose testimony could put Al Capone behind bars for life, a cold-blooded killer on the lam for murdering his wealthy step-mother, and especially Babe Ruth, the hard-living, hard-drinking legend whose $7,000 IOU is the curve ball in this colorful tale of the Roaring Twenties. Frank Hearn lost the shipment of booze that was his ticket to the easy life, but in his pursuit of the perp he found something even better––a handwritten gambling marker signed by the Babe. Now all he has to do is cash it. And since the Babe and his teammates have just left for spring training in St. Petersburg, Frank follows their trail, pursued by the legitimate owner of the marker and accompanied by lovely Ginger de More, who's on the lam from a pair of major league hit men who want to make sure she never makes it to the witness stand. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this screwball comedy set in the Roaring Twenties, but you’ll be rooting for its well-drawn characters and charmed by their light-hearted love story. --Jane Adams
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Pleasant Surprise, 2008-06-22
I came upon this book by accident and found it a pleasant surprise. At first it seemed a bit scattered in its narrative technique: it is all in the first-person like Damon Runyon and moves from character to character, people who do not seem connected for a time.
The central figure has to be Babe Ruth himself, because everything that happens revolves about him, one way or another. A bootlegger in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in winter, has his latest shipment of booze stolen and sets out to find it. Instead, he comes into possession an IOU for $7,000 signed by none other than the Bambino. At this point the bootlegger, his sometime girl friend, Babe Ruth, and Chicago mobsters descent upon St. Petersburg, Florida, where the New York Yankees are in spring training and where there the Florida real estate scam is near its acme.
The plot is complicated and fascinating. It never drags. The characters are marvelous and multi=dimensional. The atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties feels right on the money. There are some grammar and syntax problems, e.g.: "A few pelicans descend on the deck of the speedboat, wiating to be fed." That last phrase should refer to speedboat, but surely the watercraft is not waiting to be fed. There are other similar problems that the publisher's editor should have ironed out, but no matter. This is still a very, very good book. that's two verys, as Woody Allen would say. I'm eager to read the sequel to this.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The Babe in old St. Pete. , 2005-11-04
What makes this mystery a stand out is it's sense of history and of place. You get the feeling that Irby, a professor, knows every building in old St Pete, has read every newspaper article, spent months in archives and in the library. His encompassing knowledge of the rough, free-wheeling twenties seeps in to every scene-the mystery, the love story, and the adventure all play out against a lively, realistic backdrop. Plus, it's got the Babe in it. You can't beat that. Check this book out. It's worth it.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Great Authors!, 2005-06-22
This is an amazing book for a debute. This author is well on his way. I learned about this book from the authors brother in law as I shopped for furniture in Richmond VA. I ordered it but wasn't really sure It was my kinda book. 1920s, baseball, Babe Ruth, not interesting to me. I did start reading it and was very surprised! I absolutely could not put it down. The best book I've read in a long time. could not wait to get to the end and then was so sorry when it was over. I'm checking all the time for Lee Irby's next book. Can't wait. Would love to e-mail him but can't find a cite.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Enter the 20's, 2005-04-17
My grandmother, Toots, often bemoaned the fact that she'd been so busy raising her family that she missed out on being a flapper, yet she could do the Charleston 'til the cows came home. Irby captures the talk, the characters, the larger-than-life Babe Ruth, still giving them a human quality that rings true. This book is not my usual read, but I found it captivating.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Quirky but fun characters!, 2005-02-21
You shouldn 't like the characters that Irby writes about, but you do. His details captivate you.
This book is a fun read. Every chapter stands on its own. The ones on Babe Ruth are mesmerizing. They remind me of the stories my grand uncle used to tell me about his baseball years in the 20s and his accounts of the Babe.
Wouldn't surprise me that they make this one into a movie.
Can't wait for Irby's 2nd book.
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