The Betting’s in His Favor

It seems to be something of a Robert J. Randisi day here at The Rap Sheet desk. This morning, I received a copy of The Picasso Flop, the premiere installment of a high-stakes poker-based mystery series, which Randisi is writing with former child star Vincent Van Patten (Apple’s Way), who now hosts the Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour series. Then just now, I came across a note from Randisi at Ed Gorman’s blog. He reports that his own first “Rat Pack Mystery” was “reviewed well enough” that St. Martin’s Minotaur has asked for two more entries in the entertaining series. “That’s four, counting the one I just delivered,” Randisi explains. “The first two are Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime and Luck Be a Lady, Don’t Die. The third will be Hey There, You With the Gun in Your Hand.”

If Randisi sounds pumped, there’s ample reason. “I published my first book with SMP in 1984,” he tells Gorman, “[and] have been on a book every other year schedule with them. This is the first time they’ve ever given me a two-book contract. Go figure.”