CHICAGO, Nov. 20, 2009 — After having stumbled into an organized crime ring, Gary Evanoff moved from the Midwest to the Sierra Mountains of Lake Tahoe where he took pen to paper and laboriously recounted his experiences. What followed is “Operation Barbeque” (published by iUniverse), a novel based on actual events from the author’s life. An interesting twist to this story is the recent investigation that actually led to 118 arrests for illegal guns and drugs possession along Mannheim Road in Leyden Township. Sometimes fiction does mirror reality in many of the details.
In “Operation Barbeque” it is 1979 and protagonist Hunter Nielson is a nineteen-year-old small-time slinger forced to leave town after a man he owes money to is found dead in his bathtub with a bag of blow between his legs, a gun on the floor and a McDonald’s straw between his fingers. Unfortunately, Hunter’s attempt to flee was useless, the thugs having tracked him down. In order to free his brother as ransom from the clutches of these thugs, Hunter lands a job as a disk jockey in a local strip club to pay off the money he owes.
Readers may recall the 1980s as a time of rampant corruption in Chicago where several high-profile political scandals took place, including the Operation Greylord and Operation Gambat judicial scandals. Hunter discovers such similar corruption when he is unwittingly thrust into a dangerous world of mobsters and a nationwide sting operation that begins in New Orleans with tentacles reaching to Denver, Las Vegas, and, of course, Chicago.
Readers will root for Hunter, who becomes a key FBI informant for an organized crime ring and must help investigators take down the mob in “Operation Barbeque.” Readers will also wonder what parts of the story actually happened to the author and what parts are from his very intriguing imagination.
About the Author
Being of Russian and Polish descent, Gary Evanoff came from a long line of bohemian storytellers and “Operation Barbeque” is the first in his series of novels about Hunter Nielson’s adventures. Evanoff is also a talented guitarist who recently joined the band One Night Stand that will soon be releasing a CD. The author is single and the father of an 18-year-old daughter and 15-year-old twins, having recently relocated from South Lake Tahoe, California to the suburbs of Chicago. For more information about the author and his writing, go to http://www.hunternielsonnovel.com. He is available for interview.
“Operation Barbeque”
Available from: http://www.iUniverse.com, http://www.bn.com, and http://www.amazon.com.
ISBN: 978-1440166952 – 6 x 9 – Paperback – 316 pages – $18.95
Contact: Carol Hoenig
Personal Media Publicist
516-435-7545
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