Mr. Lucky: A Novel of High Stakes Mass market paperbound - 2007
by James Swain
After a death-defying jump from a burning casino hotel room, Ricky Smiths luck changes, and this loser is miraculously transformed into a major-player winner. Now professional grifter-buster Tony Valentine wants to know the truth behind Rickys lucky streak.
First line
The moon looked funny that night, so bright it seemed to sport a face with droopy eyes and a sly little grin, and for the rest of his life Ricky Smith would think of that face whenever he paused to reflect upon the series of events that had turned his life upside down.
From the jacket flap
Tony Valentine made his living and his name as a cop in Atlantic City-and is now known worldwide for his ability to spot the kinds of scams, grifts, and rip-offs that cost casinos billions every year. A man with a biting wit who drives a '92 Honda, Tony is low-profile, old-school, and has seen it all-until he meets the luckiest man on earth.
Ricky Smith was once a small-town loser. Then he went to Las Vegas, jumped out the window of a burning hotel, lived to tell the tale, and tore up the Strip on an incredible winning streak. Ricky didn't just win at one slot machine or table game. He won at blackjack, roulette, and craps, and then beat the pants off the world's greatest poker player. Tony knows that goofy, loudmouthed Ricky Smith-or anyone else, for that matter-couldn't possibly be" that fortunate. But when "Mr. Lucky" returns home to the little town of Slippery Rock, North Carolina, he keeps on winning everything from a horse race to a $50,000 lottery.
Hired by a desperate casino, Tony starts to pry into Ricky's past, his friends, and the strange little town that is benefiting from Ricky's fame and fortune. Unfortunately for Tony, his cover is blown when he is forced to reveal a trick he has up his own sleeve: a pocket Glock he can shoot with laser-like precision. Suddenly, two men are dead, the cops are on Tony's tail, and the investigation explodes in violence-putting the lives of Tony's son and his young family in danger.
For years, Tony's son Gerry has dueled with his own criminal impulses. Now, the Ricky Smith case has lured Gerry through the gates of temptation and into a murderous confrontation with the Dixie Mafia. With Tony stuck on the slippery slope of SlipperyRock and Gerry fighting for his life, the Valentines are finding out just how bad good luck can get.
Against a neon-tinted backdrop of adrenaline rushes, hard crashes, big money, and high-wire tension, the inimitable James Swain has set his best Tony Valentine novel yet: a funny, furious ride with an astounding array of crooks, marks, and one killer scam.
Details
- Title Mr. Lucky: A Novel of High Stakes
- Author James Swain
- Binding Mass Market Paperbound
- Edition Reprint
- Pages 432
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Ballantine Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
- Date August 28, 2007
- Features Price on Product - Canadian
- ISBN 9780345475459 / 0345475453
- Weight 0.45 lbs (0.20 kg)
- Dimensions 6.85 x 5.38 x 1.14 in (17.40 x 13.67 x 2.90 cm)
-
Themes
- Cultural Region: British
- Cultural Region: Mid-Atlantic
- Cultural Region: Northeast U.S.
- Cultural Region: South Atlantic
- Cultural Region: Southeast U.S.
- Geographic Orientation: North Carolina
- Geographic Orientation: New Jersey
- Locality: Atlantic-Cape May, N.J.
- Library of Congress subjects Mystery fiction, North Carolina
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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