The Sinatra Game

an Original Novel of Suspense by John Ballard

LAPD Detective Robert “Frankie” Peloquin lives the life of Frank Sinatra. He dresses like Sinatra, he talks like Sinatra, he tries to think like Sinatra and he even sings a little at the local Kareoke bar. His idol guides every aspect of Robert’s life with great success until a murderer gets Old Brown Eyes in his sites.... Oh, Baby!

From chapter 2:

Frankie lifted the 45 Colt in the air with the end of a yellow pencil and held above the brim of his pork pie hat. He looked closely and then sniffed the barrel. Jocko held open an evidence bag. "Mark this baby as deadly" he said and let the gat fall into the bag.

The corpse's face was frozen in an expression of surprise and pain. Her mascaraed eyes stared blindly at the slowly rotating ceiling fan. One hand covered the blood stained hole in an ample breast. The other held a dime store notepad, her thumb inserted into a page.

Frankie got down on one knee and looked close at her face and then her hands. He pulled the notebook gently from the woman’s grip, preserving the location of the grim bookmark with a bent corner of the page. He stood up, putting the notebook in the breast pocket of his raincoat.

“That’s one dead broad” he said.