My first book, A Bar in Toledo, is the true story of a first-generation American who fronted a nightclub for the mob, transformed Toledo’s entertainment scene, and inspired a Grammy-winning song.

When Duane Abbajay took over his brother’s bankrupt nightclub in 1962, he promised his wife it would be a quick turnaround to protect his family’s name. Instead, he became the face of a bar that transformed Toledo’s entertainment scene and inspired a Grammy-winning country song—all under the thumb of a trigger-happy mafia boss.

Informed by interviews with crime historians, bartenders, and bargoers and corroborated by FBI reports, this Rust Belt psychodrama offers a new perspective into the worlds of organized crime and the music business, which were closely entwined.

Emotional, theatrical, and dripping with nostalgia, A Bar in Toledo is a love letter to the golden age of American music—and the dark underworld that made it all possible.

Grab it from Amazon or The University of Toledo Press