Brian Rouff

January 18, 2004. I never would have bought this book on my own. The author sent me a copy after reading my review of Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House. I wish someone would send me a book related to MIT. I don't like gambling, and I haven't been to Vegas since I was 16 in Circus Circus with my parents. Having said all that, I liked this book and just might buy Brian Rouff's second novel. 3 stars for being a quick, interesting read. But it's not high literature.

The author got me show more interested in the characters quickly. Poor bad-luck Jimmy Delaney, nasty ex-wife Joy, Wally the cop-friend -- I wanted to find out what happened to them. Jenny Delaney is a sweet little girl, and late in the book we hear about Tiny Tim (er, I mean Rachel), a symbol of pathos even though she isn't characterized at all -- not so much as a "God bless us every one." Some characters are hard to like, though. I've always found people who use profanity to be like people who choose halitosis over brushing their teeth: distasteful and distracting to discourse. However, the profanity doesn't seem gratuitous. It fits with the tone of the story. You might call characters like this "real." I call them vulgar. Jimmy, Wally, and several other characters have this flaw.

Another thing that makes Jimmy vulgar is his attitude toward women. A couple of his best quotes: "A little on the mousy side, but take off those big glasses and she's definitely doable." (p. 47) (Jimmy sizes up every woman he meets -- and the author shows us his dirty little mind every time.) "When you drive a 'Vette, you get the kind of women who are attracted to guys who drive 'Vettes." (p. 89) (To Jimmy's credit, he gave up driving Corvettes.)

The plot is summarized by plenty of other reviewers, but no one has touched on themes. Wondering if Jimmy would change and grow as he worked out his problems is what kept me reading to the end. On page 2 Jimmy says, "Honest people are in short supply here in Vegas, or anywhere else for that matter." Strangely enough, I see thematic similiarites between this story and M. Night Shyamalan's film, Signs. Both, to some degree, are stories about faith. The faith of Rev. Graham Hess is restored by a Higher Power, and Jimmy's faith is restored by ... his muse the Dice Angel and himself. Still, the ending of Dice Angel is satisfying. Simplistic, but satisfying. And the final sentence in the book is excellent! (In sharp contrast to the first: "The ringing phone ripped through my sleep like a buzz saw.")

I also see that not one review so far has used the words "New Age." Christians beware -- this book assumes a thoroughly pagan worldview. Faith in luck (whereas Hess in Signs starts with a grudge against God that blocks his faith, Delaney here starts with a grudge against Lady Luck), faith in whatever gods might exist (whether Mormon, Catholic, Zodiac), and "trust" in "the universe." Don't look for redemption in this story. Not in the Christian sense. Jimmy might be described as being redeemed, but it's a self-made redemption. show less

This is the author's first book and the first of his I have read. I like reading books that are set in places I am familiar with. I am also not aware of any Las Vegas-based mystery authors, oddly. Any others, that is.

Our hero is Jimmy Delaney, owner of Jimmy D's, a popular saloon originally started by his father. He discovers that he has been embezzled, and, worse, his taxes had not been paid for a while. He suddenly owes the IRS a ton of money. How does he go about finding it? Through a show more mystic of sorts. A woman who chants, does charts, casts spells...whatever seems to work. She helps others gamble. But has to be in the room.

The plotting is generally good, although the "Dice Angel" made no sense to me. Out of the blue comes this character with a shady past and a propensity for lying. But charming! At least to Jimmy.

Speaking of charming, I did not find Jimmy charming. He is fond of his employees and customers, and shows his humanity to them. But he has only resentment and dislike for his ex-wife, who is drawn simplistically and two-dimensionally. In general, the author's treatment of women is sad: cheesy comments about appearance, actions that are about forty years out of date. Mr. Rouff acknowledges many readers who helped him with this book. Did none of them suggest that he cut out the sexist comments? Or did they feel they were necessary in a book based in Vegas? If there were some acknowledgement of Jimmy's propensities within the book, some recognition by other characters, I'd feel better about them. AS it is, it just seems oddly ignorant. I don't believe Rouff himself would ever behave as this character does.

I wondered about a couple of other things. First, the IRS agent. I have dealt with unfriendly IRS agents but none that would ever have behaved as this one did. I found it ridiculous. It may be that the readers Rouff is writing for find exaggerations like this funny and enjoyable.

I also wondered why Rouff named some actual places in Las Vegas but then made up names for others. Those of us who live here or visit often can pick out what places he meant, and I could not figure why he made up names for some but not others.

Perhaps Mr. Rouff is simply writing for a crowd of which I am not a member. But maybe he's just getting started. show less

This is the second book I have read by this author, and the latest he had written at the time I bought it. It is an improvement over the first but far from a masterpiece.

Anna Christiansen meets and falls for a bass player in a band that is passing through her small town. Impetuously, she pulls up roots and joins him on the road, to his home in Las Vegas.

The two ultimately get married and set up a home in a seriously dilapidated mansion that once belonged to a mobster. They work hard on show more restoring and improving the home. Anna especially loves her new home and is devastated to read that a casino owner wants to buy her out . He wants to tear down the whole street to build a parking lot, and offers premium prices to the landowners.

Most of them go for the deal and get out of Dodge. The young couple is joined by only one other neighbor, an old man, in resisting. The casino owner resorts to dirty tricks to make life miserable for them.

Meanwhile, Anna meets an other-worldly character, who offers insight and advice. The house, in this case, is not the casino.

Once again, Rouff has included the paranormal in his story. It seems like he rather rushed through the whole Anna-Aaron young-love story, skipping any real concerns on either's part, so he could get to his ghost. The casual treatment of Anna's parents is typical, can't be bothered.

There are a number of spelling and grammatical errors in the book. This publisher needs to do a better job of copy editing at least. show less

3.5 stars.

I won this book in 2018 and it's been sitting on my shelf and not sure why I didn't pick it up sooner.

It was a breath of fresh air from my usual reads. Anna, a 20 something newspaper reporter is called upon to interview a up and coming rock star in her small town of Michigan and ends up interviewing the bass player. They end up going cross country to Vegas, where they get married and surprise she's pregnant. They find a fixer upper house and restore it and then a casino wants to show more buy the house/land. She's going to fight to the bitter end to save it.

To top off it off, Myer Lansky (who I will call the Jewish mafia but not sure if that's accurate) owned the house and he shows up as a ghost and she gets his whole life story out of him.

The end is interesting at it's best and they have a baby boy. As a side note, for such a young woman, she sure didn't know about a lot of things I thought she would. I can't remember specifics but it might be items or music or something or other. Not sure if it was because she was from a small town or what. show less