Newark.... Las Vegas.... Hollywood.... 1954.

If you dig hard-boiled pulp and noir heroes like Chandler's Philip Marlowe, Spillane's Mike Hammer, and Hammett's Sam Spade, Nick Moretti is certainly your man....

Years of fight halls and newsrooms have East Coast sportswriter Nick Moretti looking for a change. When a sloppy hustle goes bad and Nick takes a bullet in the shoulder, it's time to go west. Hired by Pinnacle Pictures to write a boxing movie about troubled heavyweight champ Jericho "Rattlesnake" McNeal (who accidentally killed a man in a dark juke joint), Nick joins forces with sexy public relations gal Dillian Dawson for a cross-country tour to give an everyman boxer an unlikely shot at the world title. What could go wrong?

From the crackling neon of old Hollywood and Sin City, through the steamy delta, and on to Chi-Town, the glitzy dream becomes a noir nightmare, and newshound Nick Moretti is about to commit a reporter's greatest sin - becoming a Front Page Palooka....

For this entry in the hard-boiled Fight Card series, writer Anthony Venutolo steps in as Jack Tunney, the shared pseudonym for today's hottest crime writers who write for the monthly pulp books.

Upon its release in 2013, Front Page Palooka was nominated for three New Pulp Awards including Best Novella, Best New Writer, and Best New Character.

Author Venutolo has won five critical writing awards from the New Jersey Press Association and has appeared in such publications as Bikini, Details, POV, and Playboy Online. He's also written columns for the gambling magazines Chance, Casino Player, and Strictly Slots.

Bourbon & Blondes, his second book, is filled with short stories and flash fiction and is currently available. His website is www.anthonyvenutolo.com/ and he blogs from Bukowski's Basement.