"Card Cheaters and Alligators"

Set in Florida, James Swain's newest Tony Valentine book, SUCKER BET, focuses on an Indian tribe that is losing money from its casino. Tribe officials decide to contact Tony Valentine, an ex-cop and expert on catching cheating gamblers.

Valentine, a widower who has found himself involved in the crooked world of professional wrestling while he tries to figure out his life, accepts the case and takes a hiatus from both wrestling and his young girlfriend, Kat. However, getting involved in the case puts more on Tony's plate than he was expecting. As he begins to investigate the tribe scandal, he finds himself stumbling on to even more cons and getting involved with some of the best (and most dangerous) con artists in the world.

James Swain is a gambling expert and reported to be one of the best card handlers in the world. His expertise certainly shines through in SUCKER BET. In nearly every chapter, we get the lowdown on how casinos can get cheated-- and how the cheaters eventually get caught. This is a good read for anyone interested in card playing or gambling.

Unfortunately, Swain doesn't as good of job at fleshing out his characters and making them seem alive. Too many characters are introduced, making it a bit confusing to keep track of them and not giving Swain the opportunity to concentrate on each of them enough.

However, despite the lack of characterization, SUCKER BET still succeeds as a mystery. The backdrop of gambling is unique and makes the book stand out from the host of other series mysteries that abound. It doesn't appear necessary to read the previous Tony Valentine books to understand and appreciate SUCKER BET, but if you're interested in the topic, you might want to start at the beginning.

Reviewed by Angela McQuay
Posted March 15, 2003

Summary

A hardened ex-cop with great instincts, a sharp eye, and a short fuse, Tony Valentine still catches crooks, but a very special breed of them. He nabs hustlers who rob casinos, and finds the fatal flaw that allowed the place to get ripped off in the first place. Sometimes that means biting the hand that feeds him, but Valentine isn't paid to sugarcoat the cold, hard truth. Along flashy strips and in seedy dives, if there's a game to be fixed, Valentine knows how to spot the tricks, the scams, the sleight of hand. And with his new case, there's definitely more on the table than meets the eye. Harry Smooth Stone, head of security at the Micanopy Indian Reservation Casino in South Florida, desperately needs Valentine's expertise. A blackjack dealer has rigged a game, dealt a player eighty-four winning hands in a row, and disappeared. Valentine's gut tells him a different story: that the runaway dealer is alligator food and his employers are keeping secrets. But the missing dealer is part of an even bigger, far deadlier scheme. Valentine's trail leads him to Rico Blanco, a ruthless gangster who once worked for John Gotti, his shady, elusive partner-in-crime, Victor Marks, and a bombshell named Candy Hart, a hooker with dreams of love, a combination tailored made to double-cross. It appears they have a con going down involving a cocky, filthy rich Brit and his millions of dollars. Valentine's challenge: to figure out how all the pieces of the seamy puzzle fit together . . . before his luck runs out and his life goes bust. In prose that sizzles with style and a wicked sense of humor, with plot twists that could cause whiplash, James Swain takes readers behind the neon-lit scenes of casinos and the gambling trade—and reveals a colorful cast of hustlers and con men, bookies and grifters. Make no mistake about it: on the crowded shelves of fiction, Sucker Bet is a sure thing.