Dead Man’s Hand: Crime Fiction at the Poker Table
Poker’s popularity is something I can’t quite fathom. Its rules perplex me – someone who yearns for simplicity in games like the Atari 2600’s left, right, up, down and shoot. My disinterest in the cards, however, did not sour me on the new anthology DEAD MAN’S HAND: CRIME FICTION AT THE POKER TABLE, because most of the contributors use it as an element of the plot rather than the plot itself.
Edited by the esteemed Otto Penzler, the collection gets right underway with Walter Mosley’s “Mr. In-Between,” in which the title character is hired to play a poker game that will be fixed in his favor. The reasons why, of course, can’t be for his own good. It’s Mosley at his sneakiest … and giving us a new pickup line: “I got a itch that I want to scratch … wit’ yo’ tongue.”
Jeffery Deaver is next with “Bump,” clearly the highlight of the entire project. Here, a down-on-his-luck TV actor named Mike O’Connor is having trouble getting his dream project off the ground. He just needs a “bump” in the press to have his star shined again. Perhaps this new reality show will help, in which celebrities play poker in a two-night tournament. The catch: They have to pony up their own quarter-million to sit down at the table, making it a do-or-die scenario for Mike.
Michael Connelly’s “One-Dollar Jackpot” certainly will satisfy fans of his Harry Bosch novels, as here, Bosch investigates the murder of poker star Tracey Blitz. The pool of suspects is deep, but Bosch cannily narrows it down fast. Next, Joyce Carol Oates presents a round of “Strip Poker,” and it’s utterly disturbing, given that her protagonist is an underage girl. As great of a writer as she is, her story doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of an escapist lot.
A wannabe teen guitarist is the subject of Christopher Coake’s nostalgic “Pitch Black,” in which the man stands to lose his precious, high-dollar ax. In near-novella length, Coake deftly moves from heartbreaking to humorous to high anxiety.
Stories from the likes of Eric Van Lustbader, John Lescroart, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Laura Lippman, Peter Robinson and Rupert Holmes – all together now: “If you like piña coladas…” – follow, but they fail to match the intensity of those above, as if the book is front-loaded with the best bits. Still, a deal’s a deal, and DEAD MAN’S HAND is a good bet for crime-fiction fans, offering a mix of old pros and new guns. –Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF MICHAEL CONNELLY:
• CRIME BEAT: A DECADE OF COVERING COPS & KILLERS by Michael Connelly
• ECHO PARK by Michael Connelly
• MURDER IN VEGAS: NEW CRIME TALES OF GAMBLING AND DESPERATION edited by Michael Connelly
• THE OVERLOOK by Michael Connelly
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF JEFFERY DEAVER:
• MANHATTAN IS MY BEAT by Jeffery Deaver
• MORE TWISTED: COLLECTED STORIES, VOL. II by Jeffery Deaver
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF WALTER MOSLEY:
• THE WAVE by Walter Mosley
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF JOYCE CAROL OATES:
• AMERICAN GOTHIC TALES edited by Joyce Carol Oates
• THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES: TALES OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE by Joyce Carol Oates
• THE MUSEUM OF DR. MOSES: TALES OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE by Joyce Carol Oates
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF OTTO PENZLER:
• THE BLACK LIZARD BIG BOOK OF PULPS edited by Otto Penzler
• MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE edited by Otto Penzler
• MURDER IN THE ROUGH edited by Otto Penzler
• PULP FICTION: THE CRIMEFIGHTERS edited by Otto Penzler
[...] Offhand, I can think of John Goodger’s THE DRUPERMAN TAPES, of the short-story collections DEAD MAN’S HAND and MURDER IN VEGAS. And now, for the most part, Jon Land’s THE SEVEN SINS: THE TYRANT [...]