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According to Booklist, Robert J. Randisi “may be one of the last true pulp writers.” The author of nearly 700 novels and over sixty short stories, Randisi has also edited more than 35 anthologies and written a screenplay.
In 2009 he received the Life Achievement award from The Private Eye Writers of America. In 2016 he was presented the Peacemaker Life Achievement award by the Western Fictioneers and the John Sigenthaler Legends Award at Killer Nashville, for humanitarian work. In 2017 he received the Derringer Award for Life Achievement from the Short Fiction Mystery Society.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Randisi grew up reading comic books, “The Hardy Boys,” and paperback novelizations of television shows such as I Spy and The Wild West West.
Everything changed after he saw the Paul Newman movie, Harper, in 1966. Upon reading the novel on which the film had been based — Ross McDonald’s Moving Target — Randisi decided that he wanted to become a writer. “I owe my life to is Ross Macdonald. He and Paul Newman put me on this path when I was 15 years old, and I will always owe them.”
Randisi sold his first story in 1974, “Murder Among Witches.” It was published in the October 1974 issue of Renown Publications’ Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine. According to the author, “I thought I had it made, didn’t sell another one for two years.” His next sales were made to Mystery Monthly and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in 1976.
While working as a civilian employee of the New York City Police Department, Randisi sold his first novel, The Disappearance of Penny. Based on a short story published in 1976 by Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, it featured an investigator for the New York Racing Commission named Henry Po. Meant to be the first book in a series, it was published in 1980 by Charter Books. Unfortunately, soon thereafter, the publisher froze the buying of further mysteries, and no more Po novels appeared.
Randisi began writing westerns in 1981. According to an interview published on the Western Fictioneers blog, Charter asked the author if he could write westerns:
I had never thought about it because I was writing mysteries, but I said, “Of course, I can!” That’s how The Gunsmith was born. I wrote the first one and the editor said, “It’s good, but we have to break you of this hardboiled style.” I said, “In westerns, it’s not hardboiled, it’s hardcase!” I’ve been producing a Gunsmith book every month since January of 1982.
Published under the J. R. Roberts pseudonym, the Gunsmith series concerns ex-lawman Clint Adams. Considered to be the fastest gun in the West following Wild Bill Hickok’s demise, Adams had been a deputy for the famous lawman. Nicknamed “The Gunsmith,” Adams wanders the west in a wagon containing the tools of his gunsmithing trade.
Perhaps the most popular adult western series ever published, Randisi’s Gunsmith series not only features such traditional western themes as range wars and gunfighters after a reputation, it sometimes delves into the mystery field, as well as martial arts fiction and weird science. The Gunsmith has tracked killers into New York and London, tangled with Chinese Tongs and ninja warriors, and even hunted Bigfoot.
Through February of this year, 475 Gunsmith books have appeared.
A member of the Western Writers of America and a co-founder of the Western Fictioneers and the Peacemaker Award, Robert Randisi has also written the Angel Eyes series (as W. B. Longely), Decker, the Bounty Hunter (as Joshua Randall), the Gamblers series, the Lancaster series (which featured two of the author’s favorite westerns, The Ghost With Blue Eyes and Crow Bait), the Lady Gunsmith series (as J. R. Roberts), the Mountain Jack Pike series (as Joseph Meek), the Ryder series (as Cole Weston), The Sons of Daniel Shaye books, the Talbot Roper series, the Tracker series (as Tom Cutter), and the Widowmaker series. He’s also contributed to the Blaze, Cimarron, Shelter, and Wolf Creek Chronicles series, as well as novels using the byline of the late western writer, Ralph Compton.
Although most of his published work has been in the western field, Randisi’s first love is the private eye genre. The founder of the Private Eye Writers of America, the creator of the Shamus Award, and the co-founder of Mystery Scene Magazine and the American Crime Writers League, Robert Randisi has created quite a few well-received series characters in the mystery genre.
Randisi’s private eye fiction, according to Kevin Burton Smith on The New Thrilling Detective Website:
. . . is generally excellent, full of sharp dialogue, deft characterization, clever plotting, and a fine, fine sense of setting, particularly those that take place in New York City. There’s also a good deal of wit, and more than a few sly winks (and sometimes pokes) at other writers’ work.
Around the time of his first Henry Po story, Randisi debuted private eye Miles “Kid” Jacoby, a former boxer, based in Manhattan. Introduced to readers in “The Steinway Collection” — a short story published in the January 1977 number of Mystery Monthly — Jacoby would be featured in six novels, beginning with Eye in the Ring, first published by Avon in 1982. Torn between the boxing ring and his new career as a private investigator, Jacoby tangles with mobsters, hungry women, porn filmmakers, murder, contraband, and even stolen pulp magazine collections.
The Nick Delvecchio stories — set in Randisi’s hometown of Brooklyn — concern an ex-cop pressured to resign from the force after suffering a terrible beating. He becomes a private eye with a hard, cynical, and aggressive attitude, determined to prove his worth. Dean Koontz has called the series, “. . . the hard-boiled detective story as it ought to be.” The protagonist of three novels and nine short stories, Delvecchio debuted in 1985 in the small press magazine, Hardboiled.
In more recent years, the former New Yorker has turned his attention to Las Vegas, Nevada — about 100 miles north of the author’s new home. The Rat Pack Mysteries series is set in 1960s Vegas and features Eddie Gianelli, the Brooklyn-born pit boss at the Sands Casino.
The troubleshooter for the world-famous casino and resort, Eddie G. would rather chill with his pals, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, the infamous “Rat Pack.” Instead, “he seems to always be helping someone out of a jam or another, be it protecting Dino from death threats . . . figuring out why there’s a stiff in the tub in Frankie’s room or easing Sammy out from under a nasty bit of blackmail. Along the way, he gets to rub shoulders with such swingin’ dames as Marilyn and Angie. And if you don’t know who I’m talking about, bub, you might as well cash in your chips.”
First introduced in Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime — published in hardcover by Minotaur Books in 2006 — Randisi’s Rat Pack Mystery series reached twelve books as of 2020. More are on the way.
Other mystery and detective series written by Robert Randisi include the Detective McQueen stories, about a New York City homicide detective; the Gil and Claire Hunt mysteries, co-written with his longtime “partner-in-life-and-crime,” Marthayn Pelegrimas (as Christine Matthews); the Headstone P. I. stories, about a private eye trying to start over again following a spell in jail; the “House-Sitting Detective,” featuring a retired NYPD detective now employed as a housesitter who stumbles onto crimes; the Joe Keough mysteries, concerning a transplanted New York detective on the hunt for serial killers; the Nashville P. I. novels, about a sessions musician named Auggie Velez-Colon who doubles as a private investigator; the Sangster or “Hit Man with a Soul” books featuring a retired hitman living in New Orleans who is seeking forgiveness; and the Texas Hold’em mysteries, co-written by Vince Van Patten and inspired by high stakes poker.
In addition to his western, mystery, and private eye fiction, Robert Randisi has also written books in The Destroyer, Nick Carter, and the Soldiers of Barrabas men’s adventure series, as well as stories in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.
The author currently resides on the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nevada with his partner, Marthayn Pelegrimas. An award-winning poet and playwright, Ms. Pelegrimas has also published seven novels, two short story collections, and over sixty stories in the mystery, horror, science fiction, fantasy, and western genres.
The October 1974 issue of Renown Publications’ Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine featured Robert Randisi’s first professional sale, “Murder Among Witches.”
Robert Randisi’s first book in The Gunsmith series, Macklin’s Women, was published by Charter Books in 1982.
Vengeance Creek, the second novel in Robert Randisi’s The Sons of Daniel Shaye series, was published in 2005 by HarperTorch.
Robert Randisi’s first published novel, The Disappearance of Penny, was released by Charter Books in 1980. It featured Henry Po, an investigator for the New York Racing Commission.
Everybody Kills Somebody Kills Sometime, the first volume in Robert Randisi’s Rat Pack Mysteries series, was originally published in 2006 by Minotaur Books. Pictured here is the Speaking Volumes edition from 2020.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker Casebook, published by Moonstone Books in 2006, is an anthology of 17 original short stories featuring the popular television character from the 1970s. Robert J. Randisi contributed the story “Call Me Sam” to the collection.
The winner of the 2010 Munsey Award, Mike is the marketing and programming director for PulpFest. A registered nurse, he sells books on a part-time basis, operating as Mike Chomko, Books. His specialty is pulp-related material.
