Billy Rossi, a bookie Tomb once busted, has been robbed. Three masked men, Asian from what Rossi could surmise, broke into his home, stole $311,000, threatened him, and raped his girlfriend, Sherri Dawson. He suspects that Kan Chin, an evil old man who’s head of the Chinese Triads, wants him out of business. Rossi wants to hire Tomei to find the guys and recover the cash. Tomb doesn’t want to get involved, but he needs the money.

Tomei spots two FBI agents in a car outside the bar where he’s meeting Billy Rossi. Why are they watching Rossi? It turns out they’re not; instead they’re running surveillance on a New York Mafia thug who’s in the bar. The thug, Lanzoni, has been kicked out of New York and wants to establish himself in San Francisco.

Mayor Richard Barr is planning to run for re-election, but the polls say that his opponent, Philip Dong, is a close contender. Dong claims that Barr has no ethnic pride - his name was originally Barrera. Michaelangelo, after all, never called himself “Mike.” Barr sends his assistant to Kan Chin to get some “dirt” on Dong. Kan Chin isn’t happy with Mayor Barr, and not because he changed his name. Chin contributed a lot to Barr’s last campaign but his people weren’t placed in positions of influence as Barr promised.

“Red” Vanes was also a cop - but Kan Chin managed, through his influence, to get him kicked off the force. Now Vanes is willing to help Tomei recover Rossi’s money.

Tomei suspects and then proves that Sherri Dawson betrayed Rossi to Kan Chin. Sherri is kidnapped. But despite her betrayal, Rossi wants her found because “she’s been hurt enough.”

Cash Out is a cop out. The majority of the characters are stereotypes and caricatures from every suspense story ever written. John Tomei is supposed to be the “hero,” the tough guy with a heart, but except for a trip to Las Vegas he doesn’t do much detecting. Billy Rossi is the bookie with a heart, and if he hadn’t disappeared until the end, could have added a bit of color to a very dull story.

Then there is Mayor Barr, the crooked politician with an aide who sells him out. Lanzoni is a typical dumb Mafia thug being watched by two FBI agents who are minor characters added as comic relief. Kan Chin is the really evil Chinese guy who has an ego bigger than California and absolutely no respect for anything but “keeping face.” So we have ethnic as well as character stereotypes. People get hurt when they help Tomei. People die on cue. Tomei’s ex-wife is a bitch trying to take away his daughter. And finally, there’s the love interest, a female cop who’s either angry with Tomb or wants to hop into bed with him.

The only character with any guts is Rossi’s girlfriend. Sherri Dawson is the real hero of the story. She’s the only one whose life is ever in danger and she’s the only one who takes any relevant action. Too bad Mr. Boray didn’t see fit to pay more attention to her.

Cash Out is not a book I can recommend.

--Carla Pulasky