Frank Hearn is a down-on-his-luck bootlegger and bruiser, looking for the big score in the heart of the Roaring Twenties. When he loses a shipment of top-quality booze to a double-crossing government thief, Frank hunts him down, roughs him up, and finds something that catches his eye. What at first appears to be a scrap of paper is actually a handwritten and unmistakably authentic IOU for $7,000, signed by Babe Ruth. Seven-thousand clams is a lot of money--and when Frank gets a tip that the Yankees are about to begin spring training in St. Petersburg, Florida, he wastes no time leaving New Jersey to track down the Babe. Frank thinks he's covered his bases: Along for the ride is a dangerous and curvy blonde named Ginger DeMore. Shes smart, she packs a snub-nose pistol in her purse, and shes the perfect accomplice to help convince the Babe to cough up the dough. It seems like the perfect plan, but Frank and Ginger arent the only ones seeking their fortunes in Florida. 1920s St. Pete is a veritable nest of vipers. Hustlers, gamblers, Yankee fans, and even a sociopath are lurking in the booming burgnot to mention a team of gangsters sent by a prominent Chicago mobster named Al Capone (whos instructed his boys to scour the town for a curvy dame by the name of Ginger DeMore).In this taut Roaring Twenties crime novel, filled with colorful characters both real and imagined, Lee Irby takes readers straight into the authentic heart of the era, bringing to life all the sizzling stylefrom the slang and the fashions to the smell of bathtub gin. Worthy of a place at Elmore Leonards table, 7,000 CLAMS is an enormously entertaining tale and a superb fiction debut.