The Death of Frank Sinatra: A Novel [Hardcover]

Michael Ventura (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1996

The author of The Zoo Where You're Fed to God now writes a novel set in Las Vegas, starring a cast of characters who have neon in their blood. When his schizophrenic brother Alvi unwittingly says the wrong thing at the wrong time, it sets in motoin events that will make P.I. Mike Rose confront both his family's Sicilian past and Las Vegas itself.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's 1993 in Las Vegas. They're about to blow up the historic Dunes Hotel to make room for some new architectural marvel; Frank Sinatra is making his last appearance at the Desert Inn; and private eye Mike Rose is trying to keep himself and his delusional brother Alvi alive. In this tremendous new mystery from veteran L.A. Weekly columnist Ventura, the emotional geography of Vegas comes to life as never before. Rose's parents were connected to some of the the city's darkest hours. Now, to pay off old debts and protect fragile friends, he has to shed some blood and look under some nasty rocks. Sinatra, of course, doesn't die -- but lots of other people do.

From Publishers Weekly

The Chairman of the Board acts as both metaphor and player in Ventura's intense, dark-hued new novel (after The Zoo Where You're Fed to God). Small-time Las Vegas PI Michael Rose is the son of an old-time Sicilian Mafia enforcer who mysteriously disappeared shortly after John F. Kennedy's assassination. When Rose takes a case involving a woman hell-bent on killing her husband, he follows in his father's footsteps by finding himself on a Mafia hit list?because his schizophrenic brother has asked a seemingly innocent question in the club owned by one of their father's fellow assassins, a longtime family friend. The action intensifies with a confrontation during a Desert Inn concert by the ancient Sinatra. Lust, betrayal, murder and hints of far-reaching political machinations run rampant as Rose is forced to become a ruthless predator and the suspense builds to a nail-biting conclusion. Ventura ably captures the contrasts among the sun-splashed, forbidding desert outside Vegas, the shabbiness of the daylight city and the neon-lit nighttime surrealism of a place where there are no clocks and no one sleeps. The impending demolition of the landmark Dunes hotel to clear the way for a new generation of bigger and better casinos is typical of the brooding symbolism he employs to highlight the vanity and transience of materialism. Ventura vivifies the myth of Vegas here, inducing a sense of a place that is its own reality as he offers a chilling look at the influence of organized crime in today's Sodom and Gomorrah. Rights (except electronic): Melanie Jackson.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 305 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co; 1st edition (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805037381
• ISBN-13: 978-0805037388
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,733,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First rate, March 11, 2000

By 

Frank Demarco "[e-mail]" (Charlottesville, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Death of Frank Sinatra: A Novel (Hardcover)

Michael Ventura really knows how to tell a story that's more than just plot or characterization, but also SAYS something. I bought this book, read it right through, and then re-read it in bits right away, just for the enjoyment of it. This is as good as it gets.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A 'Must Read' book!, January 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Death of Frank Sinatra: A Mystery (Dead Letter Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I live in Las Vegas and have read over forty books about it, trying to get a handle on the bewildering nature of this carnival town. Believe me, no author comes close to capturing the soul of this monster city the way Michael Ventura does.Ventura is a brilliantly funny cynic and it took an illuminated mind like his to write this definitive Las Vegas novel. He may be the most underrated author of our time. This is revolutionary and courageous writing and Ventura knows exactly what rules he is breaking every step of the way. He writes more between the lines than he does on them. This book throws a spiritual mirror in front of the face of contemporary society through the two day story of a Las Vegas Private Eye and his personal resurrection (and hopefully, by osmosis, our's also). I loved this book and if you like break-thru literature, you will too."Nobody comes to Vegas to be innocent"."Fremont Street just after dawn. It's not on any postcards". "What a perfect place for human beings, a place where you could do anything yet leave no mark- except upon yourself". "The city...It'll sing and cry and strip for strangers. One big dancing hooker of a town, leading everybody on with neon in her eyes".

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Technicolor Noir, February 17, 2002

By 

Richard DeLisi (Dulles, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Death of Frank Sinatra: A Novel (Hardcover)

OK, I picked up "The Death of Frank Sinatra" as an impulse-buy $2.99 hardcover from the "used library books" aisle...so I was pretty much purchasing it by-the-pound...no expectations, other than it was Vegas-fiction and sounded fun.

Now, I feel like I owe somebody. Which is not a good feeling in the hardboiled world Ventura describes so bristlingly.

I have been turned on to a fusion of genres so rich and bountiful, that a full $24.99 pricetag seems only fair. So...if anyone wants to collect the remainder, no pistol-whipping will be necessary.

It's quite simply pulp poetry.

Crackling descriptions of the blood-in-your-urine doings of a Vegas private dick, featuring characters that jump off the page to pin your arms back while kicking your nuts and a geo-real Vegas that resonates with anyone who can "recite" the Strip from the Alladin to the Sahara and whose secret desire is to be buried at the YESCO graveyard.

It's great stuff, and if you've never heard of Michael Ventura, (cause I sure as hell hadn't) you'll soon be saying the same thing I am now..."How the hell is this guy not being read on every Flight 711, instead of Grisham?"

...