Customer Reviews

Grift Sense: A Tony Valentine Novel

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A strong debut novel by James Swain- observe his portrait. He just looks like a guy that would be wise to the ways of Las Vegas. Widower Tony Valentine, retired Atlantic City cop, lives the relaxed life in Florida while keeping his hand in with an occasional consulting job. He has a son who is so annoying, they only communicate via voice mail, and a lovely neighbor lady whose hobby is placing anonymous ads in the local paper, such as:

"Depressed, overweight, domineering older woman, slight drinking problem, hyper, on food stamps and oxygen. Would like to meet a cute young professional man with big abs and a foreign sports car, low mileage. Please send current, blood test results, and nude photo for a platonic relationship."

As you can see, there is lots of humor. The characters are Runyonesque with a dash of Ellroy. The best part of the novel is the scams; what they are and how Tony detects them. The ambience is more `50's Las Vegas than the present day. You expect any moment to see Bugsy Siegal sashay in with the gorgeous Virginia Hill on his arm. The fictional casino has more than a passing resemblance to the old mob-controlled Flamingo. The reader has more to figure out than the standard whodunit; with the help of expert Swain, we have to figure out "HOW" he dunnit as well.

A fun and fascinating read. Recommended.

In his debut novel, James Swain introduces us to Tony Valentine, a retired cop in his sixties living in Florida. Valentine is an expert in spotting a hustler and his talents are in great demand by casinos all over the country.

A particularly perplexing case sees Valentine leave the comforts of home to head for Las Vegas, not Tony's favourite city. The casino security staff knows that a man is cheating at blackjack, but they don't know how and it's for this reason that he's been called in to take a look. Things start going wrong the moment he hits town. He receives a death threat, a dealer from the casino (and suspect in his case) goes missing, and low-lifes from his past begin showing up.

Swain has managed to hit upon the winning combination of an interesting subject and a likable protagonist making it a very enjoyable book to read. I found that reading about the intricacies of gambling cheats and how to spot them was fascinating and was very nicely woven into the plot making me want to read more.

We are gradually familiarised with the past of Tony Valentine and, in so doing, learn what makes him tick and what ideals are important to him. It becomes very easy to like him and empathise with his character.

This is a very worthwhile mystery with a few twists to keep you on your toes. The pace is fast, the characters are likeable and the ending is satisfying. I'm looking forward to reading the next Tony Valentine mystery.

This is the author's first novel and he's off to an auspicious beginning. It's rare that a fresh idea appears in the mystery genre, but Tony Valentine is a unique character. He's an ex-cop with an ability (Grift Sense) to spot grifters and con men who try to fleece casionos, and acts as a consultant to a Las Vegas casino in this series opener.

Swain knows Vegas, and the little touches like having to use a handkerchief on a car door handle to keep from getting scalded, brings back memories of those blistering hot days I spent on the strip.

A great story, too, pitting Valentine against master grifter Sonny Fontana, with a suprise ending and a nice sub-plot about Tony's relationship with his bookie son, Gerry.

Alas, the author could have done some research into polygraph, and how tests are administered. In this area he was completely wrong and it slowed the story down a bit, as he made an attempt to sound like he knew what he was talking about. Next time he should call a real PI and get the straight skinny on how to conduct a polygraph test, which are utilized often by the Vegas police in cheating cases.

A minor quibble, however. This is a fast-paced story with great characters and a terrific sense of place. I had to turn up the airconditioner halfway through the book.

Tony Valentine has spent most of his life dealing with creeps, crumbs, crooks, con men, and other assorted low-lifes. First as a cop and now as a freelance investigator, he has used his skill at spotting scams to bust enough grifters to fill a $3.99 buffet. When casino pit bosses find the house getting taken to the cleaners by the best, they know Tony's the man to stop them.

"Grift Sense" is James Swain's first novel and it's a winner. The story is very interesting and unfolds at a well-measured, suspenseful pace. Like Elmore Leonard, Swain has the knack for creating the kind of thugs and larcenous malcontents whom you can't help but be like.

This book is supposed to be the first in a series featuring Tony Valentine. I hope the author is already hard at work on the next volume because I'm looking forward to reading more.

...describes the writing in this first of a series. Very well done with insider knowledge.

This is an incredible mystery page turner. Tony Valentine, acting out his retirement by hiring out as safety consultant to gambling casinos, is asked to figure out an abnormal winning streak in a dilapidated old Las Vegas casino. What he sees does not make sense - he is stumped. But he finds a piece of information here, and another one there. Slowly he puts the puzzle together and, using his intelligence and experience, gets close to the conclusion. But then he has to catch the perpetrators, and that is not so easy, either.

The author gives us interesting characters, described in full detail. The action - and the red herrings along the way - never flag. Mr. Swain, a magician working with cards, knows the background and describes it with full gusto.

Retired detective Tony Valentine takes us behind the glitz and glitter of Nevada casinos to find the grifter who took the Acropolis blackjack tables for a bundle...Only problem is:he's been dead for years! Valentine's investigation involves the usual, and not-so- usual, suspects; crooked cops and hired killers. We meet whales and minnows, plungers and pensioners, super- stars and wannabes. Mr. Swain took me for an enjoyable ride, and then he floored it for a keep-your-eyes-on the-road-and-your-hands-on-the-wheel finish. I enjoyed this book.

In 1998, Acropolis Resort and Casino pit boss Wily hires former cop Tony Valentine to review the tape of a man winning $50,000 at black jack. Wily is positive the man cheated perhaps with the help of his dealer Nola Briggs. While watching the tape, Tony calculates that Frank wins 65-70% of the time regardless of what is dealt. Using the Blackjack Master Program to find trends, Tony learns that a high amount of the winnings defy the odds which are typically less than twenty-five percent with the hands Fran consistently wins with. Though Tony sees Nola enjoys Frank's flirting, he cannot figure out how he or they are cheating.

Frank seemingly vanishes, but hotel security boss Sammy had Nola arrested for cheating with a player. Since the Gaming Control Board believes the casino has no case, Wily pleads with Tony to come to Vegas to help them convict Nola. Selecting the lesser of two evils, Tony agrees to come to Vegas in August when he learns his estrange son is flying from New York to reconcile with him in his home in Palm Harbor, Florida. However, once on site investigating the case, Tony will learn that even his slimy son would have been a better choice.

GRIFT SENSE is an exciting, very entertaining, and quite unique mystery. The story line is fun as a different side of Las Vegas surfaces. Tony is a great sleuth and the support cast namely his neighbor and those at the casino augment the tale with depth. The odds are very heavy that those readers who enjoy a different type of mystery will want to read James Swain's interesting novel.

Harriet Klausner

GRIFT SENSE is the first book in a series of mysteries featuring retired cop Tony Valentine. As an Atlantic City police officer, he specialized in busting "crossroaders", hustlers who would try to scam the casinos. In his retirement he has started a consulting business, and is known around the world as one of the best for spotting scams. This debut has Tony trying to uncover dirty doings in an old-time Las Vegas casino, the kind of place where the greek statues out front look suspiciously like the owner's ex-wives, complete with their impressive bosoms. The casino is struggling to stay afloat in the new mega-resort laden Las Vegas, and is threatening to sink from within as a blackjack scam is losing money quickly.

Enter Tony, who slowly unravels the twists and turns of the intricate plot against the casino. Some of the twists were predictable, some I didn't see coming at all. The plot kept me turning the pages.

But even more, the character of Tony pulled me in. He's an old-fashioned guy, still mourning for his deceased wife, often cranky at the ways of the modern world. YOu don't see too many retirement age PIs in mystery novels, particularly of the non-cozy variety. A supporting cast of characters, including his faithful Florida friend Mabel and Tony's no-good son Gerry (who you sense would really like to be better, but tends too often to take the low road) round things out and promise developments further along in the series.

I had piled up the first four books in this series before reading GRIFT SENSE, and as soon as I finished it I plunged into the next one, and the one after that. It's a series I plan to stick with.

"Grift Sense" is James Swain's debut novel, and features retired Atlantic City cop Tony Valentine. Sixty-two year-old Valentine, a recent widower, lives in Palm Harbor, Florida, and runs a one-man consulting business called "Grift Sense," a term which is one of the highest compliments one hustler can pay to another. It's an old gambling expression which means "that you not only know how to do the moves, you also know when to do them." He is one of the most refreshingly original characters to enter the world of sleuth fiction in a long time, and can feel "when a hustle is going down, even if he doesn't know exactly what it is." I feel compelled to mention here that this is one very sexy senior!

When Frank Fontaine, a computer salesman from Poughkeepsie, on vacation, with no police record, blatantly cleans up the black jack table three nights straight at the Acropolis Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, there's cause for considerable concern. His winning percentage, maintained over the course of several hours for three nights in a row, is impossibly high. The guy is slick, a real pro and definitely cheating, but no on can figure out how! Dealer Nola Briggs swears she has never met Fontaine before and was not signaling him. She has worked at the Acropolis for ten years, possesses a spotless record, was even employee of the week a few times, and the surveillance films seem to back her up. Club owner, Nick Nicocropolis knows something smells rotten, and it's a lot closer than in Denmark. So, he calls in the services of old pal, Tony Valentine, whose ability to sniff-out grifters saved Atlantic City casinos millions of dollars over the years. There's no gambling con he doesn't know about and he maintains a personal database of all con artists worthy of note, living and dead. Yet, this particular scam, from what he can see on tape, is a new one. And when Tony gets close to the truth, his life and the lives of his loved ones are threatened.

Swain's narrative is well written, fast paced and filled with suspense and humor. His inside take of the gambling industry, gaming, the view from the catwalk and other surveillance measures is fascinating. The characters are wonderfully quirky, like friend and neighbor Mabel Struck, who runs daily anonymous classifieds in the St. Petersburg Times, to the delight of area subscribers, and son Gerry with whom he has had a running battle for years. The kid's a bookie, and manipulated Dad into setting him up in the business.

James Swain, is supposedly one of the best card-handlers around, a gambling expert and a professional magician. So he knows his subject matter well. He has written a most entertaining mystery full of schemes, scams and surprises. You won't be able to put this one down.
JANA