MAXIMUM ROSSI

A Bostonian relocates to Las Vegas and becomes the prime suspect in the murder of an organized crime boss in this novel.

Massimo “Max” Rossi visits Vegas “for a friend’s bachelor party and wedding” but decides to stay for months, intoxicated by the city’s glamorous bustle and its endless supply of showgirls. Local mobsters take note of Max’s extended stay disapprovingly—his father is a “fixer” in Boston, a man whose job is to “make things go away,” and whose clientele largely comprises members of the Mafia. Insistent on staying put, Max is invited to participate in an exclusive, high-stakes poker game by Frank “Fingers” Abbandandolo, attended by Joe “The Barber” Bilotti, a coarse, angry crime kingpin perpetually on the hunt for conflict. Joe assaults his girlfriend, Jeanie Gardner, a Copa dancer, a stroke of ungentlemanly violence too much for Max to bear. Max knocks out Joe and leaves with a stunned Jeanie. Max expects some kind of fallout—one can’t simply attack a made man—but is astonished the next day when he learns that Joe is dead and Jeanie has disappeared. Papa conjures an enticingly dramatic predicament for Max—he’s now the quarry of both the police and the mob, compelled to find Jeanie in order to clear his name before he’s either arrested or murdered. Max is something of a cliché—a chapeau-donning lover of showgirls and meatballs: “I was Italian after all. I took a pledge to love the church, my mother, and a good meatball; I was a sucker for a good meatball.” Still, the author delivers a lighthearted version of pulp-fiction detective noir: plenty of violent action, suspense, and witty one-liners without the nihilistic moral elements.

A companionable mob tale, enjoyably unserious and dramatically immersive.