Customer Reviews

Death On the Flop (Poker Mysteries)

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

 

 

I was a little surprised to see the low-star ratings on Jackie Chance's books. Granted, they are not literary genius, but sometimes you just want a little fun in your life. I have taken couple sick days, and this book has gotten me through a nasty flu.
I don't really care so much about the mechanics of the game like the reviewer who is giving Ms. Chance (assuming the author is a woman) nasty reviews on all three of her books. These are not non-fiction.
I just thought it was a fun read, and appropriate for its genre.

Belinda Cooley is having a rough week. She broke up with her fiance after catching him with another woman, she quit her job working for said fiance, and she turned forty.

Her twin brother Ben has just the ticket, a trip to Vegas. He's just entered a pro-am poker tournament and wants Belinda there as a good luck charm. Belinda decides that she should tag along to make sure Ben doesn't lose his shirt.

They've just arrived in Vegas when Belinda learns that Ben has an obsession with one of the pros in the tournament, "Steely" Stan. Without revealing too much, Ben makes it obvious he won't be happy unless he beats Stan.

The first night there, Ben vanishes. When contacting the police does nothing, Belinda turns to Frank, a man she met at the bar earlier that night. Did Ben's obsession with Stan get him into trouble?

Belinda and Frank do what they can to find Ben, but Belinda decides that the best chance they have to learn the truth is for Belinda to enter the tournament and beat Stan. This won't be easy since Belinda has never played before. And the more she plays, the more she realizes that if she loses, she may just lose her life.

The book is fast moving with lots of action to keep everyone hooked to the page. There is really only one chapter that slows things down long enough to teach Belinda (and the readers) how to play Hold 'Em. Other then that, poker is a part of the story without slowing the action down. The characters are good but seem a little bit like stock characters. My biggest problem came with the ending, when several characters behave stupidly just to heighten the suspense. And the poker scenes seemed to have a few details that were wrong.

Frankly, I enjoyed the book in spite of itself. The flaws are enough to make me hesitant recommending it, but I will be getting the sequel when it is published hoping that things have improved.

Belinda has been short on luck. She lost her fiancé and her job. She was feeling very forty, very tired, and very unattractive. She needed a vacation. So when her twin brother, Ben, invites her to Las Vegas, she decides, hesitantly, that it may be what she needs. Ben is into Texas Hold'em, and has entered one of the biggest tournaments in the country. Belinda, on the other hand, knows nothing about poker, nor Vegas, nor anything else on the liberal side of life, and so the table is set for a "Bridget Jones meets Viva Las Vegas" story to develop.

Things change when Belinda crosses Steely Stan, an infamous, chauvinistic poker star with a hazy past, who may be involved in much more than just poker. Hours later, she finds her hotel room empty, carpet bloodied, and Ben missing.

She turns to Frank, a mysterious middle-aged security agent whom she met the night before. He knows his way around Vegas and quickly tells her what limited options she has. Too many cops are crooked, so going to the police is not an option, especially if Stan may be involved. So she is forced to trust him and his deep connections as they try to solve the crime together. Part of their plan includes Belinda entering the tournament in Ben's place, which is the best way for the new tandem to keep an eye on Stan. Things get very interesting after that.

For a mystery this is relatively light reading, and I found it quite enjoyable. Not only that, but it's also somewhat educational, especially for someone unfamiliar with the increasingly popular Texas Hold'em. The Vegas background adds color to the story and the main characters are certainly likable, especially Frank, whom one could easily picture as an aging James Bond-type retiring Elvis-like to the bright lights of Sin City. Just when the plot seems to draw to a typical conclusion a series of unexpected twists are thrown in, and the book ends with a bang. Overall, this is a good mystery superimposed on a quite entertaining read. Mystery fans will not be disappointed.

Jackie Chance's poker series is quite good, as are the author's other books, published under other names, like Laura Bradley. I especially enjoyed Death on the Flop and who knows--maybe I'll check out some of those poker tips!

This is neither a mystery nor a poker book, but a romance novel. I'm not qualified to speak on its merits in that genre, it's not one that appeals to me. I only read this book because I was asked to review the recent crop of poker mysteries. If that's what you're looking for, check out The Picasso Flop, a serviceable mystery with lots of fun inside jokes about celebrity poker, or Dead Money, an excellent mystery with a serviceable poker setting.

I'm writing this only because the author included a chapter on poker advice. There are 12 poker hands in DOTF; every one contains a major error (three get the rank of the hands wrong, six are impossible and three contain incorrect strategic advice, not fine points of strategy but non-debatable basic mistakes). If you want the complete list, I have it on my Amazon Blog.

There are certainly bad poker advice books, but even the worst were written and edited by people who had at least played the game. Giving poker advice when you don't know the ranking of the hands nor the mechanics and basic strategy of play shows deep contempt for your readers and their financial well-being. Both author and publisher (Penguin Group) owe the world an apology.

Belinda Cooley is having the worst day of her life - she thinks. She caught her fiancé/boss with the 20 something assistant that afternoon, right after her 40th birthday. In her mind, she's now single, unemployed, and over-the-hill. When her twin brother Ben stops by, he is oblivious to her distress in his desire to convince her to accompany him to Las Vegas. Bee and Ben are complete opposites - Bee is OCD, straight-laced, and conventional whereas Ben lives for the moment and enjoys the unpredictable. So when Bee hears of Ben's plans to attend a huge poker tournament, she decides that she will have to go if for no other reason than to monitor her brother's growing gambling addiction. She doesn't realize how dangerous the cards really are...

"Death on the Flop" combines a great mystery read with a poker manual. The poker instruction does not get in the way of the action; it is interwoven effectively as part of the story. A high stakes poker tournament is the setting for this well-written mystery. The penalty for losing is a descent into the grisly world of kidnapping and snuff films. The attractive heroine Bee Cooley, aided by hunk Frank Gilbert,learns, along with this reader, how to play Texas Hold Em while solving the disappearance of her brother. I look forward to more Bee Cooley adventures, not just in Las Vegas but in a wide variety of exciting gaming spots. Men and and women alike can enjoy these books!