Customer Reviews

Deadman's Bluff (Tony Valentine Novels)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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."

Though there is a solid string of mostly 5-star reviews that contradict my opinion, I found James Swain a bit off his game in "Deadman's Bluff". This is by no means a bad novel; rather, Swain's "grift sense" is beginning to feel just a bit formulaic and a little tired.

As in all of Swain's novels, retired Atlantic City casino cop Tony Valentine is an unusual and refreshing hero. Swain's real-life experience and wry humor keep all of his stories moving through a banter of cheats and scams and the colorful characters who perpetrate them, building a convincing case for staying away from the casinos where Swain - and his surrogate Valentine - have spent most of their lives. Swain is no fan of legalized gambling and it's impact on Atlantic City - a passion he unloads without apology in this tale of mobsters and con men told in parallel lines between Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The venue is the world's largest poker tournament with a $10M prize that Valentine believes is being stolen "blind" by a player with strong connections to the mob. Teamed up with Rufus Steele, an old grifter whose clever cons are the heart of the story, Valentine cracks an elusive cheating scheme in Vegas while his once wayward son Gerry chases a connected caper in Atlantic City. But strip away the side stories and filler and you're left with bad guys are simply not that threatening and a thin plot leading to an implausible conclusion. In short, while not is best, a fun read nonetheless, definitely up to passing some time on long plane ride or a lazy afternoon.

"Deadman's Bluff" picks up right where "Deadman's Poker" leaves off. Though "Poker" stands on its own, there are still a few loose ends at the close which extend beyond the story in that first of the duo of novels. In this book, "Deadman's Bluff", those ends unravel into another deeper level of higher reaching mystery and intrigue; leaping from the stage of Las Vegas to cross the country in devilish twists and turns. All the murder, mystery, intrigue, romance, full of life characters that you came to love in "Poker" are right here in "Bluff" as well.

Do yourself a favor, when you pick up the first, get the second. You are going to want to open "Deadman's Bluff" as soon as you finish "Deadman's Poker". These two novels are contemporary pop-mystery writing at its finest.

Jim Swain has the knack of bringing his characters to life. Tony Valentine is a believable hero of the series and a man you'd like to meet. The added bonus of getting an inside look at gambling and casinos is icing on the cake.

Deadman's Bluff closes the story begun in Deadman's Poker about the World Poker Showdown at least insofar as how the tournament turns out and how the fates of many...but not all...of the characters created therein are decided. You really do need to read the first book before wading into this one.

Gloria Curtis seems destined to appear for at least a while in any future book as she and Tony Valentine have personal issues to work out which will probably be very entertaining. One hopes that Rufus Steele will show up again if for no other reason than to show those of us who have had a sheltered upbringing how an aging gambler that smokes like a stove can beat a Kentucky Derby type race horse in a one hundred yard dash; how one can hyponotize a fly to land on one of many sugar cubes, etc., etc., with the result always being that Rufus announces..."I win."

Gerry Valentine's reformation from being a bookie who constantly disappointed his father to a valued partner in the enterprise, Grift Sense will continue. Mabel will continue to answer the phones and keep Tony's life in some kind of order and the scammers and grifters out there will continue to supply business for Tony to solve and James Swain to tell us about.

All of Swain's books are funny, well written, educational and above all, highly entertaining. You will enjoy the experience.

As a novice and amateur when it comes to writing book reviews, I expect I am going to make some mistakes. Case in point: While reading Deadman's Bluff, James Swain's continuation of the story begun in Deadman's Poker, I got so caught up in the story that I did not stop periodically and take notes about what I liked or didn't like about the story.

Quick read? Oh yeah.

So, going back to re-visit the story is not THAT big of a deal.

The basic plot remains the same: the fictional World Poker Showdown is in the process of being won by cheaters, and Tony Valentine is on the case. The Vegas story arc picks up in the latter stages of the tournament with the blind nephew of an Atlantic City mob boss cheating to build a massive lead going into the final days. The method used to cheat begins to become more apparent, and Gerry goes to Atlantic City to trace the leads back to a friend, murdered in the earlier book. While there, Gerry gets involved in busting a blackjack-cheating ring run by the same mob boss. Tony continues to apply pressure to the tournament cheater, and between the two of them the action brings the story to a very satisfying conclusion.

Along the way, Swain continues to entertain and inform us through comic-relief Rufus Steele, an old-time hustler modeled after Amarillo Slim. Rufus continues to build a massive bankroll through a series of scams and hustles and gets paid off every time despite angle-shooting that pushes the ethical edge. These sequences are great training for inventive bar bets.

You will have to read Deadman's Poker before you read Deadman's Bluff; the two books cannot be read separately or out of order. But the two books represent a great continuation in the Tony Valentine series.

The reason I say he is the new Ian Fleming is because his books are so entertaining, well written and addictive. What is very interesting to me is that Swain uses his firsthand knowledge of all kinds of gambling and his experience in consulting to the casinos on scams to support his fiction with the reality of gambling both crooked and straight. One of the things that show in his writing is that he doesn't have to go to experts for a leg up: Swain is the expert.

He writes in a real world with fictional characters running and living their truth. Swain amazes me as to how he has you laughing, scratching your head and experiencing those Ah-haaa moments.

When I discovered Jim Swain I went digging around the internet. Swain runs a very successful marketing company, writes constantly, is a respected consultant on gambling and is also a published Magician with books and DVDs. Yep his specialty in magic is card cheating. He teaches you what cheats won't disclose. Miracles with Cards by James Swain

Deadman's Bluff is entry #7 in James Swain's Tony Valentine series. It was written as a companion piece and continuation to entry #6, Deadman's Poker. As has already been pointed out, the two books taken together constitute one extra long novel. For best effect, Deadman's Bluff should be read after Deadman's Poker.

As Tony Valentine diligently works to expose a cheating scam at the World Poker Showdown in Las Vegas, son Gerry busies himself shutting down a brazen gang of blackjack cheaters in Atlantic City. The reader is kept on his toes as the action switches back and forth between the two venues.

All the books in the Tony Valentine series (and Deadman's Bluff is no exception) are remarkably readable and contain many examples of ways to cheat at cards and other forms of gambling. Recommended as entertaining, light escapist fare.