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| Shadow Counter
| | Tom Kakonis
| Poker pro Timothy Waverly's first outing, Michigan Roll, won a place on The New York Times list of the top 10 crime novels of 1988. In 1991, he did it again with Double Down, earning plenty of other praise as well. A starred review in Booklist declared, "Elmore Leonard has a serious rival camped out on his doorstep." Timothy Waverly's latest escapade finds the disgraced would-he professor, ex-con, and professional gambler just where you'd expect him to be: in Vegas. Using his counting skills, he's trying to build a pile at all the best blackjack tables, keeping one quick move ahead of the casino watchdogs. Fate, however, is about to deal Timothy Waverly a tricky hand. First he stumbles across a basketball point-shaving scam, but the trouble really begins when his sister turns up. The naive Valerie has befriended Ignatius "Eggs" La Revere, a brilliantly calculating psychopath who steals for profit but maims and kills for the sheer fun of it. When Eggs learns of the fixed games, he sees his shot at a really big score. If it takes a killing to make a killing, that's just fine with him. At this point Waverly realizes he's up to his jugular in complications. With Valerie's life thrown into the pot like a jinxed poker chip, he's forced to play a bloody game of fast-shuffling with the ice-cold Eggs, who has the deck stacked with deceit and death. It's a win-or-die showdown. Shadow Counter glitters with all the neon allure and nonstop action of the Las Vegas strip. It pays out pure, riveting reading joy right down to the last tense turn of the card and startling twist of the elegant plot. It's what makes Tom Kakonis one of crime fiction's best bets.
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