Michigan Roll: A Novel [Hardcover]

Tom E. Kakonis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1988

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--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Well plotted, tautly paced and entertaining all the way, Kakonis's first novel focuses on an English professor gone wrong. A few years back, Waverly caught his wife in bed with another man, and the murderous aftermath led him into seven years of very hard time in state prison that toughened him up but simultaneously made him curiously vulnerable to certain things and people. Now, he is applying his exceptional powers of concentration to cards and making a nice living. The last thing he needs is poor little rich girl Holly Clemmons and her ne'er-do-well brother, a self-destructive lunatic who is trying to rip off a drug shipment from the mob. There are other satisfactorily gothic villains here, ranging from a Mafia smoothie named Dietz, to his hemorrhoidal henchman Gaylor Ledbetter, hitman "Shadow," a pathological knifeman, and "Gleep," a hulking muscle-man. In the climactic scene, the hero wages a nightmarish war with a contract killer who just keeps on coming no matter what is thrown at him. Kakonis's prose is clipped, idiomatic and funny in this literate thriller.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

"Live behind your own eyes. Scrimmage on your own turf"this is the lesson that college professor-turned-gambler Timothy Waverly has learned from seven years in prison for a crime of passion. After he returns home to Traverse City, Mich., a beautiful woman with an elusive past draws him into a cat-and-mouse game with the tough men pursuing her. Euphemism replaces harsh fact in this world, where gang bosses talk of "inventory control" and "profit margins." Kakonis displays his eye for quality sleaze and ear for crisp dialogue in this debut novel. The two sociopaths who pursue Waverly are genuine originals, both comic and menacing. Fans of Elmore Leonard and Loren D. Estleman will recognize this "slippery splintered world, everything infected, gone wrong. ' 'David Keymer, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Utica
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (September 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312022522
• ISBN-13: 978-0312022525
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,706,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Michigan Rolls still rolls, October 15, 2009

By 

Watson McFestus "Watson McFestus" (Irving Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Michigan Roll (Paperback)

I had read this in the mid 90's originally and loved it. Just read it again and still enjoyed it. I have recommended this one and Criss Cross (another non series title by Kakonis) to others and it was appreciated. The Tim Waverly character is appealing (ex con-ex literature professor now a card counting gambler) with some remnants and scruples still of his former life in academia. Any dialogue involving the two low lifes sent to retrieve the money stolen from Mr. Big (Gleep and Shadow) or their handler Mr. Gaylon was absolutely priceless. The author is compared in the review to Elmore Leonard - but to my mind he is a little edgier - perhaps more in the Eugene Izzi, Timothy Watts category.

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, June 13, 2011

By 

J H (LA, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Michigan Roll: A Novel (Hardcover)

Just superb. Hardboiled meanstreets plot, and interesting well-drawn characters, but it's the style, the pure mastery of word and image. Really really good. Alan Furst good. Pete Dexter good. That should say enough.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Time changes opinions, April 25, 2008

By 

Peter (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Michigan Roll (Paperback)

It is funny that I read this book for the first time in the mid to late 1990's (maybe 1996) and loved it back then.

Just re-read it today and found it to be very readable but not nearly in the 5 star class as I used to think it deserved.

The story is ok, Kakonis blends humour with drama pretty well. It is a good crime yarn but just seems to lack some certain depth to it. Can't put my finger on it but I just feel it lacked something......