Tony Valentine made his living and his name as a cop in Atlantic Cityand is now known worldwide for his ability to spot the kinds of scams, grifts, and rip-offs that cost casinos billions every year. A man with a biting wit who drives a 92 Honda, Tony is low-profile, old-school, and has seen it alluntil he meets the luckiest man on earth.
Ricky Smith was once a small-town loser. Then he went to Las Vegas, jumped out the window of a burning hotel, lived to tell the tale, and tore up the Strip on an incredible winning streak. Ricky didnt just win at one slot machine or table game. He won at blackjack, roulette, and craps, and then beat the pants off the worlds greatest poker player. Tony knows that goofy, loudmouthed Ricky Smithor anyone else, for that mattercouldnt possibly bethat fortunate. But when Mr. Lucky returns home to the little town of Slippery Rock, North Carolina, he keeps on winning everything from a horse race to a $50,000 lottery.
Hired by a desperate casino, Tony starts to pry into Rickys past, his friends, and the strange little town that is benefiting from Rickys fame and fortune. Unfortunately for Tony, his cover is blown when he is forced to reveal a trick he has up his own sleeve: a pocket Glock he can shoot with laser-like precision. Suddenly, two men are dead, the cops are on Tonys tail, and the investigation explodes in violenceputting the lives of Tonys son and his young family in danger.
For years, Tonys son Gerry has dueled with his own criminal impulses. Now, the Ricky Smith case has lured Gerry through the gates of temptation and into a murderous confrontation with the Dixie Mafia. With Tony stuck on the slippery slope of Slippery Rock and Gerry fighting for his life, the Valentines are finding out just how bad good luck can get.
Against a neon-tinted backdrop of adrenaline rushes, hard crashes, big money, and high-wire tension, the inimitable James Swain has set his best Tony Valentine novel yet: a funny, furious ride with an astounding array of crooks, marks, and one killer scam.
From the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
In the stunning opener, gambler Ricky Smith takes a swan dive from a burning balcony into a pool as the Riverboat Casino in Vegas goes up in flames. Smith gets up, walks across the street to the Mint and proceeds to win a cool million, never losing a hand. The odds say no one's that lucky. Tony Valentine, head of Grift Sense, a gambling consulting company, gets called in to find out exactly how Ricky cheated, so the casino doesn't have to pay. For his fifth outing (Sucker Bet, etc.), Swain presents his 63-year-old retired cop with his most involved mystery yet. Readers gain expected info on chip scams, while the plot goes delightfully over the top like Agatha Christie at her wildest, with gypsies, drug cartels and one piece of misdirection after another (not least that dive from the balcony). Occasional preachiness interrupts the action, as Tony explains how awful killing bad guys makes you feel--but he still keeps shooting them in the head. The narrative nails gambling cold, noting that televised poker has convinced millions they know how to play: "Professionals had a name for these new players. They called them suckers."
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
What is casino consultant Tony Valentine doing in Slippery Rock, North Carolina? Catching cheaters, of course, but this time he's stumped. Sure, Ricky Smith of Slippery Rock--who escaped a Vegas fire by jumping five stories into the pool and then, still dripping, beat the house at every game in the casino--is cheating, but how can you cheat at everything? With Tony trying to figure out the scam behind the small-town charm, his wayward son, Gerry, a former scammer himself, is running an errand for Dad and finds himself in the middle of a Mob fight in Mississippi. If all Swain had going for him was a dynamite premise--inside dope on how casino games work--this series would still be good fun, but he adds all the sinew we look for in the best caper novels: quirky characters on both sides of the law who constantly surprise us with just the right mix of comedy, violence, and humanity. Yes, that's Elmore Leonard territory, but Swain has annexed a nice little subdivision all for himself. Bill Ott
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved
Library : General
Formats : EPUB
ISBN : 0345475453