Death Plays Poker

Posted on Jan 22, 2012 in Blog

Just finished reading this book, which I first picked up at the Word on the Street Festival in Vancouver, but had to wait till my wife was finished with it before I could read it.

Aside from recommending it as a good, fun, sexy mystery, what do I have to say about it?  Well, it turns out I understood nearly everything poker related about it even though I don’t play poker at all.

Why?  You can thank video VLTs for that.  Every time I go to a bar I see Texas Hold Em being played on the screen, the kind where you buy a ticket that has two cards in it and play against four other video players every few minutes.  Never played it, but I watched the screen a lot waiting for meals.

So when I saw terms like The Flop, The Turn, The River, and so on, I actually knew what was going on.  Go figure!  If you don’t know what I just said, don’t worry, it won’t hurt your enjoyment of the book any.  But a crash course would be this: The Flop is the initial cards the dealer lays down (every player has 2 cards, plus 3 cards on the table used by everyone).  The Turn is the fourth card used by everyone, and the River is the fifth and last card laid out by the dealer.

Also: Red Dead Redemption gave me a few lessons as well when it comes to calling and raising and whatnot.

But back to the book for a moment – unlike most mysteries where everyone knows who the detective is (or at least which little old lady snooping around) this is about an undercover cop from Toronto on loan to the RCMP.  A serial killer has been following a cross Canada poker tournament and Clair Vengel has to take a crash course in poker, and uncover a killer where all the suspects have perfect poker faces.

I think the cover is great because it gets across exactly what you’re in for.  You might not believe a book should be judged by it’s cover, but they are, and so it behooves an author to find one that shows the reader what they’re going to get.

If you’re a fan of mysteries and are looking for something a little different, you should check Robin Spano’s book out.  Gill will definitely be getting her previous book, Dead Politician Society, and even though I think these books appeal a bit more to women than men I’m sure I’ll read it after she’s done with it.