Rating: 
Summary: Tony Valentine Gets Mean
Review: This is the 4th book in the Tony Valentine series, a series that gives us a private investigator story with a twist that makes it a little special. So what gives the series that little something special? Well actually, it's a couple of things. The first is that Tony Valentine is a 64 year old retired cop, an unusually advanced age for the protagonist of a hardboiled private investigator series bringing with it a completely different perspective than his younger, less experience counterparts. The second is that Valentine specialises in a very specific, but very fascinating field. He runs an agency as a consultant to the country's casinos. When it comes to spotting a cheat or a scam in action he has no peer, an ability known as Grift Sense, and is constantly fielding calls from desperate casinos asking him for help.Before his first day back in Las Vegas is out, Valentine has saved a woman from committing suicide, renewed his acquaintance with the owner of the Acropolis Resort and Casino (scene of GRIFT SENSE), become a suspect in a murder, fought off an intruder in his hotel room and identified numerous scams both over the phone and after watching security video. Not bad for an old guy. But this is just a precursor to the main event that is to come when he identifies an old adversary he assumed was still in prison. Meanwhile, his son Gerry is up to his old tricks again, mixing with the wrong crowd and looking to make a fast buck. What starts out as a card-counting hustle turns into a much larger, much more life threatening proposition for Gerry Valentine. It's just as well for him that Tony is close at hand and has the connections to mount some sort of rescue operation. What isn't so certain is whether Tony's efforts will be enough to save Gerry's life. I think I may have made a misjudgement of the Tony Valentine persona and hence, the overall tone of the series while reading the earlier books. I placed the series on the lighter side of hardboiled thanks to the lightness in tone in which it is told and the many pithy observations made by Valentine as he makes his way from casino to casino and one gambling city to another. During LOADED DICE it became blindingly obvious that what I took to be light-hearted witticisms can more accurately be diagnosed as observations made by a world-weary ex-cop. As the series has progressed Valentine has become a tougher character to go with his already established genius when it comes to spotting a scam. In LOADED DICE he displays a ruthlessness that caught me unprepared considering his usually more passive responses to confrontation. This book was certainly given a much harder edge than the earlier ones; an edge that increases the level of action and paints Valentine as a more gritty character than I first credited him with being. The appeal that the Tony Valentine books have for me comes from the many cheats, cons and scams that are uncovered and explained throughout each book. Many of them have nothing to do with the main story, but are added as part of Valentine's day to day duties as a consultant. These sidelights are highly entertaining and are combined with a compelling thriller that turns out to be very relevant to recent terrorist events.
Rating:
Summary: HOT AS A PAIR OF LOADED DICE
Review: Tony Valentine,scam buster, accepts an assingnment in las vegas and draws a hand he never expected:a boy friend bent on revenge,a missing son and a lifetime freind being squeezed by a master criminal named Frank Fontaine.Tony knows he should fold but decides to stay for one more card.
He saves a would be suicide named Lois Price and finds Lois is an unwilling centerpiece in a billion dollar hustle.Meanwhile his son Gerry hooks up with a duo of unlikely card cheats and the F.B.I.is hot on Gerrys tail.For card cheating?Tony suspects that the game he is in involves a lot more then money.The appearance of Fontaine,who should be in prison,ripping off his pal Nick Nicropolis's casino tells tony his suspicions are justified.Who has the juice to spring fontaine and why bother?
With Pete Longo, an ex cop on his tail,convinced that tony killed his girl and his son calling for help from an undisclosed location Tony starts to unravel the truth.Piece by piece he finds himself drawn into a deadly game of murder, treachery , and greed that threatens tony,his son and the city of Las Vegas.Racing against time Tony struggles to prevent an unspeakable tragedy but the odds are against him.Has his luck run out?
Written with the pulse of Las Vegas beating beneath the surface,LOADED DICE,is an adrenalin rush as powerful and surprising as hitting a million dollar jackpot.If you crave an exciting adventure told by a writer who knows all their is to know about Las Vegas this book is a real find.A must read mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Another Smashing Success for James Swain
Review: While he was still with the Atlantic City PD, resourceful Tony Valentine parlayed his innate talent for spotting and exposing casino cheats into a fine science...one which has stood him in good stead in his Florida retirement years. When the death of his wife left him at loose ends, he successfully reentered the gaming world as a private consultant and scam-buster. His latest commission involves a fast trip to Las Vegas where he's been hired to demystify a highly sophisticated cheating device called Deadlock for some high level gaming executives. The pay's good, and the visit will give him a chance to unobtrusively touch base with his irresponsible son, Gerry (currently in-town to learn card counting from one of Tony's shadier acquaintances before joining his Dad's business)...what could possibly go wrong? In a word, everything! Gerry's nowhere to be found; Tony's demonstration comes to a screeching halt when he spots a 'jumper' on a penthouse balcony at his old friend Nick Nicocropolis's casino, and after he talks distraught Lucy Price down and takes a shine to her, Nick tells him that she's suspect number one in cheating the casino out of a sizeable amount of money which is only the start of Nick's immediate problems. A stripper apparently involved in some heavy-duty money laundering at the Acropolis has been murdered, and now the FBI are threatening to close him down unless he cooperates with their investigation. Nick is in dire need of Tony's 'grift sense', and Tony...convinced that his kid is in some sort of major trouble...desperately needs some fast, insider help in finding him. As these two mavericks join forces, the violence escalates, and Tony suddenly realizes that he's inadvertently gotten caught up in a multi-national game where unless he can control the wild cards in the deck, the dealer's hole card could bust Las Vegas. Since Travis McGee entered my life many years ago, nobody else has captured my heart and loyalties like Tony Valentine. Yes, actually living in Tony's 'world' as I do certainly adds to this splendid series' enormous appeal for me, but James Swain's compelling and creative storytelling coupled with his extraordinary flair for creating characters whom I can genuinely care about is a rare and wonderful thing in my eyes. With so many over-the-top thrillers flooding the bookstores these days, how exciting it is to find an author who really knows his chosen milieu and is talented enough to allow his characters to interact naturally and believably within the confines and perils of the conflicts which confront them there. "Loaded Dice" may just be the caper that puts Tony and James Swain firmly in Edgar/Anthony/Shamus awards territory as one of this year's most innovative and suspenseful reads, and I simply cannot recommend it too highly.
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