From

In the mystery genre, there's always room for a new premise, and Swain has come up with a doozy: his hero, Tony Valentine, is an ex-cop who specializes in catching casino cheats. The downside of the job is that Tony must work for casino owners, which is why, as this third entry in the high-spirited series begins, he is on the lam, enjoying a romance with a lady wrestler and even participating in the odd tag-team match. But when the romance founders and Tony gets a summons from the head of security at Florida's Micanopy Indian Reservation Casino, he heads for the Everglades. The scam is several layers deep--crooked blackjack dealers and fixed basketball games play roles, along with a couple of nasty alligators eager to test Tony's wrestling skills. The gambling details are a treat, the banter is worthy of a place at Elmore Leonard's table, and the Floridian sense of absurdity draws on Hiaasen without seeming derivative. With a new publisher willing to back Tony's play, Swain's ship just may have come in. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Ingenious entertainment.”
—_The New York Times Book Review

_“IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN . . . ENDLESS FUN . . .
SUCKER BET IS ITS OWN BEST PAYOUT.”
—_St. Petersburg Times
_
“[Swain is] an entertaining writer whose breezy style and flair for wise-guy dialogue make the story zoom by.”
—_The Boston Globe

_“HITS THE JACKPOT . . . SUCKER BET IS A SURE THING.”
—_Chicago Tribune

_“WOW, WHAT A DISCOVERY!
James Swain is the best new writer I have come across in a long, long time. Sucker Bet is wonderful. It snaps with the gritty feel of the truth. Swain has carefully added all of the ingredients: tragedy, humor, action, and most of all, a cast of characters that would make Elmore Leonard’s mouth water.”
—MICHAEL CONNELLY

“Realistic, crisp dialogue spoken by three-dimensional characters . . . Swain moves Sucker Bet from the condos and hotels of Miami Beach to the suburbs of West Broward and the Everglades with a keen eye to the area.”
—_Ft. Lauderdale_ _Sun-Sentinel

“Sucker Bet_ is sheer magic. Fast and full or surprises, and rich with fascinating insider knowledge of casinos and gambling and world-class con men and bad guys of every denomination. James Swain is the real thing, a writer of pure, athletic prose, capable of bringing alive characters as original and three-dimensional as our best novelists. . . . Sign me up as a charter member of the Swain fan club.”—JAMES W. HALL
Author of _Blackwater Sound

_“Swain has come up with a doozy. . . . The gambling details are a treat [and] the banter is worthy of a place at Elmore Leonard’s table. . . . Swain’s ship just JUNE have come in.”
—_Booklist
_

From the Paperback edition.