Bal Harbour Blues

by John Scheinman

Overview

In 1991, John has a good life running the numbers racket In Brooklyn and Staten Island until his mob boss, Louie the Finger, pulls him out with a late-night phone call. New York state lottery is moving into the mob's turf, so The Finger is shifting business to crack and prostitution. In his mid-fifties and with no interest in the drug trade, John takes Louie's offer to retire on a mob pension to a tacky South Florida high-rise with his wife, Eleanor. Cast out of New York and adrift without purpose, John begins to dissipate in the heat. But Eleanor has other ideas and quietly begins making forays into the Miami underworld with one goal in mind - to develop the perfect crime to help her husband get his mojo back.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935874416
Publisher:	Lost Valley Press
Publication date:	07/01/2021
Pages:	94
Product dimensions:	4.00(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.23(d)

About the Author

John Scheinman grew up on Long Island and is a writer and editor living in Baltimore. The last turf beat writer for The Washington Post, he is a two-time Eclipse Award winner for excellence in writing about thoroughbred racing. His piece "Memories of a Master" was named a notable sports story in "The Best American Sports Writing 2015" anthology. His headline writing and general reporting has been honored by the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association and Society of Professional Journalists. His sketch comedy has been performed at the Warehouse and Source theaters in Washington, D.C. and Theatre Odyssey in Sarasota, Florida. He made his standup comedy debut in 2019 at the DC Improv Comedy Club. A graduate of American University, he studied writing with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor and improvisational comedy and performance at The Theatre Lab in Washington. He began his journalism career at The Ring, "The Bible of Boxing."

Editorial Reviews

"In an era before most horseplayers bet with a computer or a smartphone, racetracks were among the most colorful places on earth, filled with wise guys and hustlers and an assortment of characters looking to make a fast buck. John Scheinman's Bal Harbour Blues, set in Miami in 1991, evokes these memorable days. John has a Runyonesque feel for the lingo of the racetrack, and an irrepressible affection for even the crooks and con men who populate it. I loved this story."

- Andrew Beyer, author of Picking Winners

"What do you do when you get an offer from Louie the Finger that you can't refuse? Unless you believe that a lead pipe against the side of your head is beneficial to your health and happiness, you take it. John Scheinman has crafted a novella as funny as it is literate."

- Jerry Izenberg, Hall of Fame sports columnist

"If you like plain-spoken, hard-boiled pulp fiction written by Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler, you will love Bal Harbour Blues. In a spot-on noir voice, his story of scams, numbers and racing goes deep, as it's also about family, love, and trust, with a touch of humor in all the right places."

- Sasscer Hill, multi-award-winning author of Flamingo Road and Full Mortality

From the Publisher