The Rat In The Kitchen

By Rick Gene

A na ve dishwasher gets mistaken for the nephew of a mafia boss.

After a mechanic scams him over a dead pilot light and he gets banned from every Chinese restaurant in town, Jimmy Viceno is down to his last eighty-seven dollars.

Desperate for rent, he lands a dishwashing gig at Machiavelli's Ristorante, where the owner, Tony Gallo, mistakes him for the ruthless nephew of a Chicago mob boss.

Jimmy doesn't notice. He's too busy scrubbing dishes and daydreaming about his comic book creation, Rat Boy, a streetwise detective who came to life after being bitten by a radioactive rat.

With dangerous mobsters and the FBI following his every move, Jimmy's "comic-book brain" kicks in and he starts reorganizing the kitchen and delivery routes like panels on a page. This makes him look exactly like the efficiency-minded enforcer everyone already thinks he is. Now the FBI is closing in while the real Chicago mob wants to know who is impersonating their family.

Jimmy Viceno didn't ask for any of this. He just needed rent money.

Perfect for fans of Elmore Leonard's sharp-witted criminals, Carl Hiaasen's sun-soaked eccentricities, and the high-pressure kitchen grit of Anthony Bourdain. The Rat in the Kitchen is a hilarious, fast-paced caper where the 'comic-book brain' of an accidental hero meets the paranoid reality of organized crime.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GTFYJFR4
• ISBN13: 9798252953458
• Release Date: May 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 443 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"