You're Nobody ’Til Somebody Kills You: A Rat Pack Mystery

by: Robert J. Randisi

Published by: Minotaur Books

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

Author Robert J. Randisi starts each Rat Pack Mystery the same, and the fourth novel in the series is no exception. Long-retired Las Vegas pit boss, Eddie Gianelli, known around the Strip as Eddie G., is called upon to remember the Vegas heydays and his friendship with the boys–Frank, Dean, Sammy, Joey, and Peter.

In You’re Nobody Until Somebody Kills You, the time is 2003, and Eddie is pursued by a filmmaker who wants to learn some new info–anything–on one of the Lady Rat Packers, those bombshells who played with the boys. In particular, the young filmmaker is researching the well-documented life of Marilyn Monroe. Eddie remembers his encounter with Marilyn well; a story no one else knows.

Flashback to January 1962. Dean Martin asks Eddie to help Marilyn and her fears of being followed. Eddie is smitten with the sexy blonde and is alarmed at exactly how emotionally and psychologically fragile Marilyn is. Eddie agrees to help. After all, his pallys have asked another favor of him. However, before Eddie gets a chance to do much, his estranged mother dies back in Brooklyn. Eddie asks his PI buddy Danny Bardini to take over the case while he goes back east to attend his mother’s funeral.

Mrs. Gianelli isn’t in the ground very long when Danny, who has followed Marilyn back to Hollywood, turns up missing. In an attempt to unravel who’s following Marilyn and what happened to Bardini, Eddie calls Jerry Epstein. Readers will remember Jerry from the other RP mysteries as the tough guy. After they arrive in LA, Eddie and Jerry soon learn that Marilyn does have something to fear. They stash Marilyn in Palm Springs with Frank Sinatra and the hunt begins.

The RP mysteries are a lot of fun, and You’re Nobody Until Somebody Kills You ranks right up there. I would have like to have seen more with the boys, but author Randisi knows he has to work beyond the boys to keep the series going.

Armchair Interviews says: The Rat Pack is live and well in this book.