James Swain, Author . Pocket $23.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7434-0622-2
Billed as one of the best card-handlers in the world, Swain packs this first novel with enough tidbits on the art to back up the claim. Combine that insider's knowledge with clean writing and a reasonable con, and the result is a fun read à
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James Swain, Author . Pocket $24 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7434-3686-1
The same warmth, honesty and inside expertise that made Grift Sense
(2001) a memorable crime debut is back—in spades—in Swain's second book about ex-cop Tony Valentine, who advises gambling casinos on how to spot and stop cheaters....
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James Swain, Author . Ballantine $22.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-345-46326-5
Swain's fourth Tony Valentine novel (after 2003's Sucker Bet
) starts out on a wacky, breezy note, but the horror of a threatened terrorist attack that develops in a subplot jars in a tale centered on the seedy world of gambling and more...
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James Swain, Author . Ballantine $19.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-345-47544-2
In the stunning opener, gambler Ricky Smith takes a swan dive from a burning balcony into a pool as the Riverboat Casino in Vegas goes up in flames. Smith gets up, walks across the street to the Mint and proceeds to win a cool million, never losing...
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James Swain, Author . Ballantine $6.99 (358p) ISBN 978-0-345-47549-7
Gambling expert, casino consultant and retired cop Tony Valentine is back, along with his grifter-made-good son, Gerry, in the satisfying sixth installment of Swain's cards-and-cons thriller series (after Mr. Lucky
). Gerry's lifelong friend
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James Swain, Author . Ballantine $24.95 (350p) ISBN 978-0-345-47546-6
Swain, author of the gambling crime series starring Tony Valentine (Grift Sense
, etc.), avoids many of the clichés of the antisocial ex-cop novel in this chilling stand-alone. A specialist in finding missing children, former cop Jack...
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James Swain, Author . Ballantine $25 (348p) ISBN 978-0-345-47552-7
What crime fiction fan can resist a guy who isn't afraid to knock a few slime-bag heads when no one is watching? In Swain's fine second suspense novel to feature South Florida PI Jack Carpenter (after Midnight Rambler
), imprisoned serial...
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James Swain, Author . Ballantine $26 (320p) ISBN 978-0-345-51546-9
Spock-like logic and a bullet-train–paced plot drive Swain's third thriller to feature Florida PI Jack Carpenter (after Midnight Rambler
and Night Stalker
). When Carpenter fails to stop the brutal abduction of his daughter's...
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James Swain, Author St. Martin's Press $17.95 (260p) ISBN 978-0-312-03394-1
Inventing a nephew of the great Houdini, escape artist Vincent Hardare, Swain crams his first novel with hyped-up exploits and characters. Grieving over his wife's recent death, Hardare is performing in London when he learns that his teenaged...
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James Swain. Tor, $24.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2994-3
Banal prose and a routine plot undermine this occult thriller from Swain (Midnight Rambler and three other Jack Carpenter crime novels). Behind Peter Warlock’s public face as a talented stage magician lurks the reality of a powerful psychic...
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James Swain. Tor, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2995-0
Now you see it, now you don’t: Swain, a magician himself, takes the concept of a psychic conjurer pursued by dark spirits and spins it into pedestrian straw in this supernatural thriller, a sequel to 2012’s Dark Magic. Magician Peter Warlock, who...
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