ONE FOR OUR BABY

Classic, hard-boiled noir hand-picked by Otto Penzler – and it's a terrific read. For the sake of Ol’ Blue Eyes, a pilot searches California for the woman they both love.

When World War II ended, fighter ace Joe Buonomo didn’t make it back for the parades. After nearly a decade adrift in troubled seas, he washed up in California, determined to re-claim his life. But he didn’t really begin again until he met Helen. For a brief, blissful while, everything was perfect—until his post-war past intervened, and he lost his fiancée forever. Years later, he’s running an air freight business and doing the occasional odd job for a certain crooner named Frank Sinatra. One afternoon, Joe agrees to give Frank’s latest honey a lift to Los Angeles. Not until she arrives at the airport does he realize it’s Helen. Tormented by old feelings, he drops her in L.A., where she has a screen test the next morning. But Helen never makes it to the studio. To find her, Joe will have to go up against the mob, the FBI, and the forces behind presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. The only catch is, who is he rescuing her for—Sinatra? Or himself? John Sandrolini (b. 1965), a native Chicagoan, is a captain for a major US airline, with more than 14,000 hours of domestic and international flying in his logbook. He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and a veteran of eight years in the Air National Guard. Living aboard his sloop, La Sirena, in Southern California, he encounters new characters at every port of call. One for Our Baby (2013) is his first novel.