Deadman's Poker

In Deadman's Poker, Swain gives us yet again another terrific thriller
about Tony Valentine, gambling, cheaters, and more. In fact, Swain
gives us his most ambitious effort yet with a plot line spanning two
novels (Deadman's Poker and Deadman's Bluff). However, While the
entire plot does not play out in this book, readers are not left on a
cliffhanger and reading this book alone can be satisfying.

This book takes place in Las Vegas as many of the books in this series,
for obvious reasons do. The focus is on a nationally televised poker
tournament and Valentine's role in snooping out cheaters. Valentine, if
you skipped ahead to this book without reading the first five in the
series, is a retired Atlantic City detective, who now runs a show more business
called Grift Sense, so called because Valentine has an uncanny knack
for spotting scams and cons so much so that just about every casino in
the world sends him surveillance tapes to get his take on things.
Interspersed with Valentine's investigation here are the antics of his
son Gerry who is sort of a junior partner but who can't stay out of
trouble as well as the comic wide-eyed betting of an old poker
champion determined to clean up on outrageous bets to fleece suckers
on such things as a foot race with a racehorse. Also, mixing it in with
these episodes is Valentine's romance with a crack news reporter given
a last chance to break a good story.

It's a fine thriller with plenty of fights, shootings, doublecrosses, and
action. Juxtaposing the cops and robbers effort to get the bad guys
with the other episodes gives the story a fine balance.
As with all the books in this series, this is a terrific fun book to read
and highly recommended. show less

The usual detective literary devices are here and more. Swain emphasizes the psychological aspects of a father son detective team while hunting cheaters and worse in Poker Tournament obsessed Las Vegas. The plot is not credible but the narrative uses the plot to teach us about different kinds of cheating techniques used in a many different gambling settings.

Another Tony Valentine novel, with son Gerry getting into his usual trouble with boyhood friends from Atlantic City. Most of the excitement revolves around a blind poker player cheating in a Texas hold'em tournament.