Customer Reviews

7,000 Clams: A Novel

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What's as much fun as a barrel of monkeys? Well, you might try 7,000 CLAMS, the first novel by college history professor Lee Irby. And that's "clams" as in bread, dough, scratch, jack, moolah and dinero. Seven thousand of which was a pretty good chunk-of-change in 1925 at the height of Prohibition, the era during which this story is set and which is depicted with accuracy and lavish detail by the author. A few pages into this book and you will hear the rattle of a Tommy gun, the throaty roar of a Model T down-shifting as it careens around the corner making its getaway and, last but not least, smell the booze being dispensed from hundreds of local speakeasies in blatant contravention of the Volstead Act. So hop up on the running board and hold on tight, you're in for one wild and entertaining ride!

Frank Hearn is just an ordinary guy trying to make an honest living. Well, as least as honest a living as is possible for a bootlegger in Asbury Park, New Jersey during the roaring Twenties. Set to make a big score on a shipment of top-shelf hooch, Hearn is double-crossed and his booze is hijacked. Frank finds the mug that set him up but it's too late to get either his liquor or his money back. What he does get, however, is an IOU for $7,000 in gambling debts signed by none other than the great Babe Ruth himself. With his prospects looking pretty dim up North, Hearn decides to make the trek to St. Petersburg, Florida where the mighty Yankees are set to begin spring training. There he hopes to brace the Babe and force the slugger to pay up before Frank goes public with the story. Along the way Hearn hooks up with ex-torch singer Ginger DeMore, a dame with curves in all the right places and the guts to use the gun she packs in one of the few places she has that doesn't curve.

7,000 CLAMS is both entertaining and evocative. Irby's guys and molls not only talk the talk but they walk the walk as well. Most impressive is the manner in which the author subtly portrays the schizophrenia of the era - a façade of morality and law and order covering a situation rapidly deteriorating into anarchy and lawlessness. Portrayed here is a country of seemingly limitless possibility but one which is at the same time beset by a palpable sense of desperation. Those larger cultural issues of the day are deftly reflected in the chaotic personal lives of the characters in this story. All of those elements more than make up for the places in this novel where the plot - which takes a long time to get rolling in the first place - nearly grinds to a halt.

That being said, anyone looking for a good, old fashioned hardboiled story set in an era when the men did what they had to do to get by and the women were as dangerous as they were glamorous will enjoy this novel. Irby expresses a special interest in the 1920's. The quality of his stylish first effort -a few minor blemishes notwithstanding - should leave most readers hoping that he will return again to that same era in subsequent books. (James Clar - MYSTERY NEWS)

I really enjoyed the characters and the writing style. Irene, the flapper, and Ginger, the moll, remind us that ours isn't the first era of strong, intelligent, and interesting women! Usually my reading stays on my nightstand. This book followed me all over the house--I couldn't put it down!

My grandmother, Toots, often bemoaned the fact that she'd been so busy raising her family that she missed out on being a flapper, yet she could do the Charleston 'til the cows came home. Irby captures the talk, the characters, the larger-than-life Babe Ruth, still giving them a human quality that rings true. This book is not my usual read, but I found it captivating.

You shouldn 't like the characters that Irby writes about, but you do. His details captivate you.

This book is a fun read. Every chapter stands on its own. The ones on Babe Ruth are mesmerizing. They remind me of the stories my grand uncle used to tell me about his baseball years in the 20s and his accounts of the Babe.

Wouldn't surprise me that they make this one into a movie.

Can't wait for Irby's 2nd book.

This is an amazing book for a debute. This author is well on his way. I learned about this book from the authors brother in law as I shopped for furniture in Richmond VA. I ordered it but wasn't really sure It was my kinda book. 1920s, baseball, Babe Ruth, not interesting to me. I did start reading it and was very surprised! I absolutely could not put it down. The best book I've read in a long time. could not wait to get to the end and then was so sorry when it was over. I'm checking all the time for Lee Irby's next book. Can't wait. Would love to e-mail him but can't find a cite.

What makes this mystery a stand out is it's sense of history and of place. You get the feeling that Irby, a professor, knows every building in old St Pete, has read every newspaper article, spent months in archives and in the library. His encompassing knowledge of the rough, free-wheeling twenties seeps in to every scene-the mystery, the love story, and the adventure all play out against a lively, realistic backdrop. Plus, it's got the Babe in it. You can't beat that. Check this book out. It's worth it.

I came upon this book by accident and found it a pleasant surprise. At first it seemed a bit scattered in its narrative technique: it is all in the first-person like Damon Runyon and moves from character to character, people who do not seem connected for a time.

The central figure has to be Babe Ruth himself, because everything that happens revolves about him, one way or another. A bootlegger in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in winter, has his latest shipment of booze stolen and sets out to find it. Instead, he comes into possession an IOU for $7,000 signed by none other than the Bambino. At this point the bootlegger, his sometime girl friend, Babe Ruth, and Chicago mobsters descent upon St. Petersburg, Florida, where the New York Yankees are in spring training and where there the Florida real estate scam is near its acme.

The plot is complicated and fascinating. It never drags. The characters are marvelous and multi=dimensional. The atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties feels right on the money. There are some grammar and syntax problems, e.g.: "A few pelicans descend on the deck of the speedboat, wiating to be fed." That last phrase should refer to speedboat, but surely the watercraft is not waiting to be fed. There are other similar problems that the publisher's editor should have ironed out, but no matter. This is still a very, very good book. that's two verys, as Woody Allen would say. I'm eager to read the sequel to this.