Praise for Lee Irby’s 7,000 Clams


“Lee Irby instantly transports the reader back to bootleggers, brothels, and the Babe. A rousing and fun tale with characters aplenty to love and hate, 7,000 Clams is, as the Babe showed us 714 times, a home run.” —David Baldacci

“7,000 Clams is a rip-roaring caper novel full of tough guys and tougher dames, snappy patter and bursts of violence, all wrapped around that much-bigger-than-life historical character Babe Ruth . . . In this impressive first novel, Irby keeps his story twisting and turning, and he writes in a sleek take on hard-boiled style that tips its fedora to masters like Chandler and Dashiell Hammett without overdoing the similes. And he handles the history lovingly but deftly, never letting it slow down the headlong pace.”
—St. Petersburg Times

“7,000 Clams is fiction. Hard-boiled fiction, in fact, the kind of two-fisted, wisecracking tale that makes you think of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall trading double-entendres through wisps of smoke.” —Miami Herald

“A rollicking debut novel . . . Irby weaves their stories together to produce a crime caper that is both historically accurate and wildly entertaining.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A frenzied debut . . . Irby’s writing is brisk and the distinctive characterizations are vivid enough to keep readers engrossed.” —Publishers Weekly

“With a style that emulates James Carlos Blake’s use of historical characters and events and Elmore Leonard’s wicked sense of humor and retribution, Irby has hit a home run his first time at bat. Move over guys; make room for the new kid.” —Library Journal

“Lee Irby scores with 7,000 Clams, an entertaining read full of sharp dialogue, crackling writing, and historical tid...