Ross Klavan

Cut Loose All Those Who Drag You Down by Ross Klavan The story of what turns out to be a very, very bad night. A crooked reporter who fronts for the mob and who's been married eight times is minding his own business at home when he gets a sudden visit from his oldest friend, a disgraced and defrocked shrink. The man is in deep trouble. He needs a place to hide. The problem is, he refuses to admit to exactly what's wrong and so there begins a heated, drunken, drug-fueled discussion that runs through failed marriages, divorces, mistresses, murders, suicides, police raids that went wrong, meetings with strange women in the desert, a child with killing on his mind and more. When it's finished, the answer to what's wrong becomes horribly clear...and somebody is going to pay with his life. Beaned by Tim O'Mara Hours after successfully transporting smuggled maple syrup from Missouri to New York City, and picking up a truckload of maple-syrup related products for the return trip, Aggie and his new partners decide it's more important to help take down a sex-trafficking ring based out of Manhattan. Taking care of business first-trading the maple-syrup products for high-end coffee beans and distributing the new cargo-Aggie takes off for The Big Apple. His mission: help take down the billionaire who's funding the trafficking of under-aged children for the pleasure of other rich folks. His trip takes him to Manhattan's toney Upper East Side to a final confrontation in the US Virgin Islands. The Fifth Column by Charles Salzberg Several months after the shock of Pearl Harbor thrusts America into the war, Jake Harper, a young Connecticut reporter, gets his dream job on a New York City Newspaper. Returning to the city of his birth, Jake meets a young boy who's been bullied and savagely beaten in a schoolyard by a bunch of young toughs wearing Brown shirts and railing against Jews. Jake, who smells a possible story, suspects the resurgence of the German-American Bund on the Upper East Side. As he digs deeper, he begins to suspect that the supposedly disbanded Bund is alive and well and making plans to sabotage the American war effort.

Bartok's story is told by a driver for the mob, a guy who's heard it all and usually keeps his mouth shut because when he begins a trip, it's almost always one-way. "Jammed" by Tim O'Mara Aggie's back. After barely escaping with his life in "Smoked," Aggie disproves the old adage of "Once burned..." This time around he's heading from the Midwest to New York City with a sweet shipment of stolen maple syrup. He also has picked up an unwanted-and potentially dangerous-passenger; the fifteen-year-old daughter of his latest boss has hopped on for a free ride to the Big Apple and her on-line boyfriend. When they arrive in NYC, Aggie's worst fears are realized when the "boyfriend" turns out to be a group of human traffickers. Aggie knew that running one of the world's most valuable liquids across state lines was skirting the line between safety and danger, but he never knew it could get this sticky. "The Maybrick Affair" by Charles Salzberg It's a couple weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor and a young reporter, Jake Harper, who works for a small Connecticut newspaper, is assigned a routine human interest story. A reclusive, elderly woman, has quietly passed away in her small cottage upstate. Anxious for bigger stories, Jake begins his assignment by trying to find out who this woman was and what kind of life she led. As Jake investigates the old woman's death he finds that years earlier she was tried and convicted of murdering her husband in a well-publicized, lurid trial in London, England. And, after digging further, he, unearths evidence that she might have had a connection to an even more famous British serial killer and that the ramifications of this story might affect America's entry into the War.

1969. In advertising, there are mad men. On radio, there are funny men. Tune In....In 1960s New York, radio is king, and Elkin and Fox are the hottest morning team in town. Jerry Elkin is the funny half--a genius at dialects and double-talk, zingers and zany characters. Sinatra flies him to Vegas on his private plane, and Rocky Graziano drinks with him (and punches him). But Jerry's life? That's no laughing matter. Secretly, he seethes at his straight-man partner, Ted Fox, a handsome rake who'd rather shtup a secretary in the studio than entertain TV offers, a guy who makes Jerry feel less a star and more a schmuck. Turn On....And that's before Jerry ever hears the name Sari Rosenbloom. The stunning eighteen-year-old is a mystical American dream, irresistible to men--and her most obsessed admirer is Jake, Jerry's son. With the 1960s world spinning out of control, Jake is fighting for a girl who can have anyone she wants--from the world-famous artist who has sketched her nude to bon vivant Ted Fox, who's singing her name on air. Drop Out....And that's before Jerry gets a gander at Sari's father. Max Rosenbloom works in "salvage"--in other words, he burns down factories, sells poisoned pajamas to Chinese children and sometimes buries his enemies in cement. If Jake doesn't stop going after his princess daughter, Max might make Jerry's son, Jerry's career and Jerry's whole post-war world disappear right off the dial.... Schmuck. A raucous, wild novel of love, war, rioting and radio that's as funny as a heart attack and as serious as hell. Praise for Schmuck "A madcap morning-radio team hanging with Sinatra, intimate father-and-son conversations at the Friars Club, a mystery woman swiveling everyone's head.... Ross Klavan was raised on this canvas. No wonder I felt in such expert hands." -- David Pollock, author of Bob and Ray, Keener than Most Persons "Klavan's light touch and sharply drawn characters echo Carl Hiaasen, and are also very much his own." -- Emily Bazelon, author of Sticks and Stones "I laughed out loud and also wept reading this fast-paced novel of a Jewish Holden Caulfield." -- W. M. Bernstein, author of The Realization of Concepts "Delightful reading, but be forewarned. There is often seriousness beneath a tale whose Yiddish title means roughly 'a dope.' It's Jewish New York and will make you laugh one minute, wince another, but will let you find yourself in it, no matter who you think you are." -- John Bowers, author of The Colony About the Author Ross Klavan's work spans film, television, radio, print and live performance. His original screenplay for the film "Tigerland" was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, he recently finished an adaption of John Bowers' The Colony, and he has written scripts for Miramax, Paramount and TNT, among others. The "conversation about writing" he moderated with Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stringer was televised and published as Like Shaking Hands with God, and his short stories have appeared in magazines and been produced by the BBC. An earlier novel, Trax, was published under a pseudonym. His play "How I Met My (Black) Wife (Again)," co-written with Ray Iannicelli, has been produced in New York City, and he has performed his work in numerous theaters and clubs. He has acted and done voice work in TV and radio commercials and has lent his voice to feature films including "Casino," "You Can Count On Me" and "Revolutionary Road" and the new Amazon web series "Alpha House," written by Gary Trudeau. He has worked as a newspaper and radio journalist in London and New York City. He lives in New York City with his wife, the painter, Mary Jones.