The Ruby

by Leonard Wise

TOUGH. SMART. DANGEROUS. SEXY AS HELL. AND ALL WOMAN… When Lee Schonfeld meets Tony Fortuluni, she figures the handsome young Mob runner is her ticket out of poverty. Loony Tony, as he’s known, works as a fence for smalltime Italian, Jewish and Black Mobs. A goodnatured guy, everyone likes Tony. But when Harlem thug Russell Barnes rips off all three gangs, Lee and Tony are stuck in the middle. Barnes comes to Lee and Tony and entrusts them with the loot—including an enormous 10 carat ruby. Most importantly of all, Barnes asks Lee to take care of his six-year-old son, Richard. Barnes knows the gangs are gunning for him and he fears for his life. When the guns start blazing, Russell Barnes will be the target. And that’s when Lee comes into her own—dealing with the mobs, she buys herself some time. Then she grabs the jewels, the kids and Tony and heads west. She changes their names and settles the family in Beverly Hills, where Lee parlays the jewels into incredible wealth and power among the sex and glitz of the L.A. real estate and film worlds. Just when she thinks their dark past is behind them, the mobs find her. They not only want the money for the jewels—but now they want Russell Barnes’ son whacked. The mobs are afraid Richard will become a carbon copy of his notorious father and seek revenge on them. But with someone in the shadows helping Lee, the mobs begin to realize they’re up against a force of nature. Events finally pull Lee back to New York for the final showdown where she’ll prove she’s tougher than anyone the mob can throw at her.

283 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 13, 2016

About the author

Leonard Wise has been published by Doubleday, Bantam, St. Martins Press, Hastings House, and Holloway, as well as in foreign countries including England, France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, and Japan. He is also a professional Ghost Writer, having completed four to utter satisfaction.

Born and raised in Hudson, New York, Wise spent three years in the 82nd Airborne Paratroopers. After service, he received his F.C.C. Engineering License and worked in radio for a few years before studying writing at the New School in Manhattan.

With 59 film options on all of his material, including novels, scripts, short stories, plays, and film treatments, Leonard has become one of the Option Champions of Hollywood.

He has received many grand reviews on his novels, but one of the best of all time came from Publishers Weekly which said of The Big Biazarro – “The Pages Almost Turn Themselves.”