Review of "Mr. Lucky : A Novel of High Stakes" by James Swain

Tony Valentine is back and he is a fascinating read. Valentine is a former cop who has learned how to bust Casino cheaters. Valentine runs an agency that services some of the big Las Vegas casinos. Tony and his son have worked together but the son has been untrustworthy in the past. Dad will give him another chance this time.

This mystery is all about one man who just about wiped out a big casino by wining over a million dollars at a Blackjack table. There was a big fire at the hotel and the Casino is holding off on the payoff for the moment.

The Mr. Lucky in this case says that he wins all the time. He is just very lucky.

Tony Valentine is trying to prove that Mr. Lucky is a cheat and follows him to his small hometown so he can study him close up and prove that it was all a scam.

Valentine's son is sent off to find the cheaters in a small casino where he hopes to prove himself to his father. He has learned a lot about the various cheating scams from his father but he is not an expert as yet. Now he runs into a southern-Mafia group who are out to kill him before he finds out that they are controlling the gambling places in this area of the country.

In fact, there is a lot of killing in the story but debunking the games piece by piece is fascinating and both father and son are good at this.

The story gets truly exciting when some pretty smart bad guys are chasing all the good guys. Never forget that at heart in this tale is finding out if Mr. Lucky is a cheat or just really lucky.