The Risk of Fortune

Rating:
Summary: Ah, Dr. Risk!
Review: I liked the first two Dr. Risk books very much and kept waiting ... and waiting ... for another. Then I decided to do a search and, shazam, found The Risk of Fortune. Lucky me. Good for Bob Berger for having sufficient faith in both his character and his writing talent to go the print-on-demand route.

Publishing has become a crazy business and too often authors rise or fall on computer numbers. In recent years any number of good writers have gone the way of the dodo bird because of those computer numbers. And that's a pity, because someone as good as Bob Berger deserves to be read.

Risk of Fortune deals with the pithy issue of Indian-owned gambling establishments. In this outing, the Bearforest Casino stands in for the thinly disguised Foxwoods in Connecticut. And James Denny's dad has a bit of a gambling addiction, which brings James --aka Dr. Risk -- to the rescue. In an effort to regain a big chunk of his parents' pension funds, which Dad has blackjacked away, Dr. Risk signs on with the casino to determine the who and why of the recent murders of two Pelard natives. In a tribe with only 350 members, two violent deaths represent a significant reduction in their number.

Dealing with the much-discussed issue of the morality of native-owned gambling establishments, of gambling addiction (and its effects on the family), Berger writes with gentle good humor; spare prose and a scary cast of villains (bikers, white supremacists) along with a fine feel for pacing add up to a very entertaining narrative.
Highly recommended.