Robin Yocum is no stranger to the Ohio Valley or Rodman Public Library.
A native of Brilliant, Ohio, The Ohio Valley is a place that he knows and loves and it has long provided the backdrop for all of Yocum’s fiction.
Meanwhile, Rodman Public Library must feel like another home. His novel, The Essay, was Alliance’s One Book One Community selection in 2014, the year the Fogle Author Series was established. His appearance on Monday, October 12 at 6 p.m. will mark his third time as a featured writer in that series, having visited as a Fogle Author in 2017 and again in 2022.
Registration is required to attend Yocum's visit.
Yocum will touch on his breadth of work, which includes two books of nonfiction as well as seven novels, including The Last Hitman, which will likely be the focus of his prepared remarks.
(Read about Yocum's other works).
The Last Hitman takes readers deep into a world of organized crime, old loyalties and unfinished business. Set in the Upper Ohio Valley, the novel introduces Angelo Cipriani, a 69-year-old former hitman who spent nearly four decades as a loyal member of a powerful crime family. Now largely pushed aside by a new generation, Angelo spends his days drinking coffee at a local diner, reminiscing with an old friend and quietly nursing a crush on a waitress. Then the FBI arrives, forcing him to confront a past he thought was safely behind him.
With its blend of suspense, dark humor, betrayal and regional color, The Last Hitman is very much a Robin Yocum novel.
Yocum’s former hired killer Cipriani, despite his past and all his flaws, has a certain likeable charm. And as in all of Yocum’s stories, the Ohio Valley is more than a backdrop – it is part of the story itself.
The Last Hitman, published in December 2025 by Crooked Lane Books, has been praised for its brisk pacing, memorable characters and twists, with Publishers Weekly calling it an “electrifying” mafia tale.
Yocum’s knowledge of crime and investigative reporting comes from a career that preceded his work as a novelist. He earned a journalism degree from Bowling Green State University and spent 11 years with The Columbus Dispatch, including four years covering the crime beat and six years as a senior investigative reporter. During his newspaper career, he received more than 30 local, state and national awards. He has gone on to write both fiction and nonfiction, earning an Edgar nomination and seeing his novel The Sacrifice of Lester Yates named a finalist for the Dashiell Hammett Award for outstanding crime writing.
Ahead of his visit to Rodman Public Library, Yocum answered some questions via email.
Here's what he had to say:
Q: This is your third appearance at Rodman Public Library as part of the Fogle Author series and your book The Essay was a One Book One Community selection. What is it about returning to libraries like this — and talking directly with readers — that you enjoy?
A: Everything. I am always very appreciative when I'm asked to speak, particularly at a library like Rodman, which has asked me back several times. I enjoy meeting with readers and having a back-and-forth conversation. I never take readers for granted. Thus, when people come to hear me speak, I want them to walk away knowing that I appreciate them coming to the event. And I hope I’m entertaining enough that they want to buy the next book.
Q: Your stories are rooted in the communities around Steubenville and the Ohio Valley, places that give your novels a certain "grit and grind." Those places can feel very familiar to readers in a community like Alliance, another place with a rich industrial history and tight-knit neighborhoods where generations of people who have watched their communities change significantly. What do you think those kinds of places contribute to a story that you couldn't get by setting it somewhere else?
A: The Ohio Valley has become like another character in my books. The first rule of writing is “write what you know.” Well, I know the Ohio Valley, where I grew up. I think it’s important to capture that time and place, when the steel mills and coal mines were booming, and we created the steel that powered the Industrial Revolution and helped win two world wars. When I first started writing The Sacrifice of Lester Yates, I was about 20,000 words into the manuscript when I put it away. For reasons that I didn’t grasp, I couldn’t get any traction. Years later, I pulled it out of a filing cabinet and decided to give it another run. I moved the action from Columbus back to the Ohio Valley and suddenly found my mojo. It was a great lesson for me. I can’t imagine writing a novel that isn’t set in the Ohio Valley. It’s home.
Q: In The Last Hitman, one of the things that struck me about Angelo is that, despite his life as a hitman, readers can feel some sympathy for him. His loyalty is not being rewarded, he has a strong personal code, he's romantic, and he's watching the world around him change. What was it about that character that made you want to tell his story?
I did a short story for Strand Magazine titled The Last Hit. Angelo was my protagonist in the story, and I really liked him. I wanted to learn more about Angelo. I knew he had a story to tell, so I needed to give him the vehicle to tell it. How did he get into the mob? Did he have a love interest? How did he become a hitman? (It’s generally not a trade that someone would aspire to.) That short story became the jumping-off point for the book. The challenge was creating a character that readers would like, despite his profession. I had to give Angelo some humanity, a sense of humor, and a degree of vulnerability. If not, readers would never get to the end of the book.
Q: What authors or books have been reading lately? Who are your all-time favorites?
A: I'm rereading the Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry. I’m reading Dead Man’s Walk at the moment. I’ve also started the new James Lee Burke book, The Hadacol Boogie. McMurtry and Burke are two of my favorite authors. Lonesome Dove is probably my all-time favorite book, followed closely by Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. If I had to name an all-time favorite author, it would be Steinbeck.
(Read a blog Yocum wrote about his favorite books, and a few that he didn't enjoy so much).
Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?
A: The best advice I can give is to not give up. I recently sat with an author at a book festival who wrote 12 novels, all rejected, before selling her 13th manuscript. It’s tough, but it can be done. You can hear no a hundred times, but you only have to hear yes once. Keep grinding. I also suggest reading Stephen King’s book, On Writing. It’s excellent. Also, turn off the television and read. It’s inspiring.
Q: Do you have anything in the works right now?
A: I always have something in the works. My agent is currently shopping around a novel about a detective trying to crack a child trafficking case. Meanwhile, I’m working on a novel about a couple of cold case detectives trying to solve a 30-year-old disappearance.
Q: What can people who come out to hear you speak at Rodman Public Library expect?
A: I’ll take them behind the scenes of The Last Hitman. This will include my influences – growing up in the valley when the Youngstown mob controlled the gambling, prostitution, and loansharking, along with my time as a crime reporter with The Columbus Dispatch. Plus, I’ll do my best to be charming and funny.