That Old Gang of Mine

· Random House
Ebook
248
Pages
Eligible
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About this ebook

At four-thirty one January afternoon a bus returning to Miami and Fort Lauderdale containing tourists who have been visiting a Seminole Indian Reservation is held up at gunpoint by five hooded gangsters. The combined ages of the 5 robbers total 320 years...

Leslie Thomas’s latest novel is the hilarious account of the adventures of a group of elderly gangsters in Florida – the Ocean Drive Delinquent Society, known as the ODDS for short. The members include Ari the Greek – he of the legendary nose; K-K-K-Katy, the aging dancing girl who can still manage a high kick; and Molly Mandy, whose metal detector uncovers the gang’s arms cache – and it’s the one and only bullet.

Along with Sidewalk Joe, Lou the Barbender, and one or two more, they form a daring band who have little to lose, and their audacious – and frequently unsuccessful – enterprises soon have Captain Salvatore of the local police baffled. Salvatore calls in an elderly private eye, George Zaharran, to help him out, but instead of simplifying the mystery, Zaharran’s presence serves only to multiply it.

That Old Gang of Mine is both a riotous adventure and an affectionate evocation of the geriatric gang’s bond with the beautiful girl and two younger men who lead it. It is wholly delightful book form the pen of one of England’s funniest storytellers.

About the author

Leslie Thomas was born in Newport, Wales on March 22, 1931. Both of his parents died around 1943 and he was sent to an orphanage. He flunked out of bricklaying school but did better in a journalism course. At the age of 17, he found a newspaper job in north London, first folding newspapers and then reporting. In 1949, he was drafted and sent to Singapore as a member of the Royal Army Pay Corps. After serving a year, he found work with a news agency, then with The Evening News as a feature writer. He covered the war-crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann. His first book, This Time Next Week: The Autobiography of a Happy Orphan, was published in 1964. His first novel, The Virgin Soldiers, was published in 1966 and was adapted into a movie in 1969. He wrote more than 30 books during his lifetime including Onward Virgin Soldiers and Stand Up Virgin Soldiers, which was also adapted into a movie in 1977. In 2004, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to literature. He died on May 6, 2014 at the age of 83.

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