The Ham Reporter

Robert Randisi has long been held as a master of the genre.—Michael Connelly Bat Masterson is no longer a sheriff in the Old West. He's moved East to New York City where he gets a job as a sport's writer for The Morning Telegraph. But when his friend and fellow-newsman, Inkspot Jones, disappears, Masterson's wife Emma asks if he could look into it as a favor to the man's wife. Old habits die hard, and Masterson enlists the aid of young Damon Runyon to play detective and try to locate the missing Inkspot. It doesn't look hopeful—Inkspot had something on somebody, and that somebody may have decided to play rough. Pretty soon they're up to their eyeballs in crooked politicians, hired thugs and a woman of mystery. And it's before it's done, Bat may have to strap on his Colt again for some old-fashioned Western justice. Randisi gives us the real story. Masterson ended up in New York working on a newspaper as a columnist and reporter. And because he was outspoken he got into one hell of a lot of trouble. Randisi brings the city to real life, high and low alike. There's a particularly good chapter on the street gangs of New York. A fine,rich novel that just about any reader will enjoy and appreciate. —Ed GormanThe astonishingly prolific Randisi . . . may be one of the last true pulp writers. The Ham Reporter (1986) is an enjoyable romp through 1911 New York City, in which crime-solving duo Bat Masterson and Damon Runyon's search for a missing sportswriter leads them into a world of thrown fights, crooked cops, and powerful Mob bosses. —Booklist