Deadman's Bluff: A Novel (Tony Valentine) [Kindle Edition]

James Swain (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

“In this series about gambling, the main character is a big winner.”
–Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Bask in Swain’s Las Vegas without having to set foot in the place and risk being skinned alive.”
–The Washington Post Book World

A blind poker player named Skip DeMarco is scamming the world’s largest poker tournament in Las Vegas, and cheating-expert Tony Valentine and his son, Gerry, have been hired to find out how. DeMarco is tied to some dangerously desperate characters who will go to extremes–even cold-blooded murder–to ensure that the obnoxious DeMarco wins big.

While Gerry flies to Atlantic City to suss out DeMarco’s secret, Valentine stays in Vegas and teams up with an aging grifter named Rufus Steele, who has his own score to settle with DeMarco. On opposite sides of a deadly game, father and son work their way through a colorful landscape of conmen and hitmen. Together, they will have to prove there’s more to any game of chance than meets the eye.

Featuring insider tips for catching poker cheats, as well as a glossary of card hustler terms!


From the Paperback edition.

About the Author

James Swain, the bestselling author of Grift Sense, Funny Money, Sucker Bet, Loaded Dice, Mr. Lucky, and Deadman’s Poker, is also an authority on crooked gambling and casino scams. He is the winner of the prestigious Prix Calibre 38. He lives in Odessa, Florida, with his wife, Laura, and is currently at work on his next Tony Valentine novel. Visit the author’s website at www.jimswain.com.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 260 KB
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0345475518
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (May 30, 2006)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000GCFWD2
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,769 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

James Swain is the author of fourteen nationally bestselling novels. His novels have been translated into French, Japanese, Russian, German, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Croatian, and chosen as Mysteries of the Year by Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Swain has received three Barry Award nominations, a Florida Book award for fiction, and the prestigious Prix Calibre .38 for Best American Crime Writing. An avid magician, he has written and lectured extensively on the subject. Visit his web site at www.jimswain.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The rise of Gerry, August 5, 2007

By 

G. Ware Cornell Jr. "anotherlawyer" (Weston FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadman's Bluff: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Tony Valentine is getting a bit long in the tooth. He is over sixty now and can't bounce back from a beating with quite the speed of a younger guy.

So if you are James Swain and you understand that your cerebral hero must also be a man of action, you have to bring on someone to help Tony. And so we have Tony's son Gerry. His rough edges are sandpapered to a new smoothness. His flaws are prologue, but his present is blemish-free. tony doesn't worry anymore if Gerry's former profession-bookmaking-will get him killed. He worries if the people who want to kill Tony will kill Gerry for being just like Tony.

And this is the major flaw in this edition. The grifters are there, where they belong on the casino floors, and the scammers and the politician dance their symbiotic mating call. But it is Gerry not Tony who emerges at the end.

Just maybe, Swain is right. Tony needs someone to take the beatings. Or just maybe some editor has becided this for Swain. Time will tell if this is a good move. I am keeping my money on Tony though.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Second part of two-parter, February 1, 2008

By 

lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Deadman's Bluff: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Another in the author's series of novels featuring Tony Valentine, who consults with casinos and law-enforcement about gambling scams and scammers.

In this tale, the second of two parts ("Deadman's Poker" being the first), Valentine remains in Las Vegas to discover how a blind poker player is scamming a poker tournament, which is being televised nationally by an ESPN-like cable sports network. Meanwhile his son Gerry goes to Atlantic City, where the scam originated, to find out what he can learn there.

Two of the characters from "Poker" reappear--Gloria, a female reporter for the network, who Valentine develops a relationship with, and a 72-year-old grifter named Rufus, who among other "wagers" bets that he can win a pingpong match against a champion.

There's a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor, and the side-stories about other scams are as always a treat. I didn't mind at all that it took the author 700 pages, total, to finish the story.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More flaws, August 20, 2007

By 

Judith M. Colbert "JoodyC" (Crofton, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadman's Bluff: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

As a non-player, I didn't catch the playing mistakes, but there are other flaws -- Swain was trying to write too much to quickly, I think.

Note, on page 81, he has the doctor attending to Detective Davis saying, "The human body has a hundred quarts of blood. Eddie lost a tiny fraction of that. He'll be fine. Trust me."

I think it's more like 5.5 quarts.

Also, I think he changed the color of Gloria's eyes between "Deadman's Poker" and "Deadman's Bluff."

Then, there are typos not caught, etc. These are things I didn't notice in his earlier books. That doesn't mean they aren't there; just that I didn't catch them.

Having said that, I'm still looking forward to his next book, "Jackpot."