Ohio author Robin Yocum will be here with his latest novel "The Last Hitman". Shoppers can chat with the author and purchase signed and personalized copies.
Synopsis
The Last Hitman
By Robin Yocum
Angelo Cipriani was a loyal and trusted member of the Fortunato crime family for more than four decades, and a hitman without peer.
But times have changed. The new generation is now in charge of the family and forsaking the traditional family revenue streams of gambling, prostitution and loan sharking in favor of drug dealing. Angelo has been put on the shelf by Little Tommy Fortunato, as there is little need for an aging white guy.
The proud Angelo is living in a dump of an apartment in Steubenville, Ohio, driving a car that sounds like a washing machine full of nickels, and waiting for the phone to ring, hoping for a day when he’ll be welcomed back into the family. He spends much of his time at the local diner, in love with a waitress that he believes is out of his league, and visiting his old comrade, Joey “Nickels” Nicolosi, who is in a nursing home following the amputation of one leg, and who believes Alphonse Fortunato, his former boss, makes early mornings visits and brings him a fig Danish from Hourning’s Bakery. Alphonse has been dead twenty years; he died about the same time Hourning’s Bakery went out of business.
But Angelo isn’t the only one aware that he has outlived his usefulness to the family. The FBI knows, too, and Agent Lawrence G. Ross is in relentless pursuit of Angelo with offers of a new life and identity in exchange for the information he possesses.
When Little Tommy learns that Ross has been trying to flip Angelo and Nickels, he marks them both for death. Angelo must figure out how to save himself and Nickels, convince the waitress to run away with him, and extract a final revenge before the FBI reneges on its deal, or Little Tommy finds him.
Angelo grew up in the Spaghetto, a conclave of poor, Italian-Americans that was wedged between the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel mill and the Ohio River in Steubenville. He wanted to be a fireman, but a chance meeting in Bixby’s Pool Hall when he was seventeen put his life on a different trajectory. Crime boss Alphonse “Iceman Al” Fortunato liked what he saw in the kid and recruited him to work in his organization.
In The Last Hitman, we follow Angelo from a street-tough kid as he makes his way up through the ranks of the Fortunato family. The story documents his climb, while following Angelo through the summer of 2019, when the FBI is at his door and he must decide the direction of the rest of his life.
The reader will like Angelo, who tells his story in first person. It is alternating tense, funny, and sad. Although Angelo is a hitman and a made member of the mob, he is a likeable guy with a sense of humor. He swore an oath to the family, but he believes that loyalty should be a two-way street. These two facts put him on a collision course with Little Tommy.
About the Author:
Robin Yocum is known for his fiction set in the Ohio River Valley.
His most recent novel, The Sacrifice of Lester Yates, was a finalist for the 2021 Dashiell Hammett Award for outstanding crime writing.
His next novel, The Last Hitman, is set for release Dec. 2, 2025, from Crooked Lane Books.
He is the author of five additional works of fiction:
A Perfect Shot (2018 – Seventh Street Books)
A Welcome Murder (2017 - Seventh Street Books)
A Brilliant Death (2016 - Seventh Street Books);
The Essay (2012 - Arcade Publishing); and
Favorite Sons (2011 - Arcade Publishing)
Favorite Sons was named the 2011 Book of the Year for Mystery/Suspense by USA Book News. A Brilliant Death was a Barnes & Noble No. 1 bestseller and a finalist for both the 2017 Edgar Award and the Silver Falchion Award for best adult mystery.
He has written two works of non-fiction: Dead Before Deadline . . . and Other Tales from the Police Beat (2004 – University of Akron Press); and Insured for Murder (1992 – Prometheus Books), which he co-authored with Cathy Candisky.
He also is the host of the podcast, Dead Before Deadline, a true-crime podcast that features crimes Yocum covered when a police and investigative reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. He worked at the paper for 11 years, including six years as the senior reporter on the investigative desk. He won more than 30 local, state and national journalism awards in categories ranging from investigative reporting to feature writing. Before joining the investigative team, he covered the police beat for four years, which was the basis for his book, Dead Before Deadline.
Prior to joining the Dispatch, Yocum was the associate sports editor of the Martins Ferry, Ohio, Times Leader, and a reporter for the Lancaster, Ohio, Eagle-Gazette.
He is the owner of Yocum Communications, a public relations and marketing consulting firm in Galena, Ohio, which he founded in 2001.
Yocum grew up in the Ohio River village of Brilliant, Ohio, and has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University.
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