Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand)

by Robert J. Randisi

Book Overview

It's 1961 and Las Vegas is still the place to be. Eddie Gianelli, pit boss at the Sands Casino, now considers the Rat Pack his friends. And this time, his friend Frank Sinatra wants him to help Sammy. Someone has an embarrassing photo of Sammy and wants $25 grand for it. All Eddie has to do is make the pay-off and collect the photo. Easy, right? But at the rendezvous, in place of a blackmailer, Eddie finds a dead body greeting him instead. Pretty...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312376421
• ISBN13: 9780312376420
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

All of this series I have read so far has been great.

Any one who loved the Rat Pack should love these. I just hope that the author keeps writing them.

"We'll make a thug outta ya yet, Mr. G."

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.

zany Rat Pack historical thriller

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