Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome Bob Robustelli, whose debut thriller is Teamwork (CreateSpace, November 2011 trade paperback and ebook editions).
Today Bob tells prospective writers … just do it!
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Teamwork was formulating in my head for many years. I really wasn't sure where it was going to go until I sat down, and started to write. It has taken me places I never knew existed. The concept began to develop as I traveled around the world in the late 1970's through the 1990's … yes it was in the brain for some time! I worked for a family business which got involved in American football in Mexico, Europe and the USSR. Along with those responsibilities I ran incentives and meetings throughout the world. As I travelled I read … as I read I dreamed.
Three years ago I sat down and started to write.
This book is my first novel, but I do have the first draft of the second book finished, and book number three is halfway done. Writing is a process, but a process I love. Like some first novels a few of the people and problems are real … the rest is a story which I hope you'll like.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Bob Robustelli
After his college days at the University of Connecticut, Bob Robustelli worked in the family corporate travel and sports marketing business. His responsibilities included promoting American football in Mexico, Europe, and Russia. Robustelli's father played for the New York Giants and is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, credentials that helped with his associations with football. Throughout his travels, which took him to all parts of the world, he read thrillers and always thought his job was a good cover for a CIA agent. The idea for Teamwork had been formulating with Robustelli for some time, when three years ago he committed to writing it, taking courses at the Westport Writers Workshops and attending numerous seminars. He's enjoyed the process of learning the trade, but realizes there is much more to learn. He's looking forward to the journey.
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About Teamwork:
Football promoter Mickey Rossetti never knew who he was or what he really wanted. Until it was almost game over. Combining international espionage with international business and the action-packed arena of American football, Bob Robustelli's debut Cold War-era spy thriller Teamwork delivers a tough-skinned, highly suspenseful addition to the genre that is certain to enthrall anyone who is a fan of hard-boiled fiction, or a fan of the great American pastime of football.
For hard-partying, directionless Mickey, growing up the third son of the famous Hall of Famer Benny Rossetti from the New York Giants often seemed as tough as the sport that defined his family's lives. An all-American kid on the outside, Mickey had long been on a straight shot to epic addiction that took a sharp, cocaine-fueled turn for the worse after his failed marriage. However, as he hobbles along at his family's business of promoting American football in Mexico, Europe, and the USSR, Mickey instead finds himself thrown into a game with perilously high international stakes.
In Teamwork, fates are conjoined through a decades-long relationship between two spooks of matched skills, and dramatically opposing loyalties. Through a slew of mishaps, Mickey finds himself on the brink of real trouble with the FBI. Enter Pete Martin, a crusty old codger of a CIA operative. When Mickey eventually lands in Moscow on business, Pete is there to keep him under tight reins. Suddenly, the top is blown off of a KGB plot to take over the USSR and likely decimate the world.
With a coup to take over the Russian government, an NFL game in Moscow, missing nukes, and a renegade Russian agent, Teamwork reveals that, when it comes to one man, the game may just be far from over. Bringing together business, football, and spooks as the Cold War heats up, this fast-paced, edgy debut spy thriller offers play-by-play thrills, laughs, and game-changing redemption.
Crime novels by Wessel Ebersohn reviewed by 
