Dead Man's Hand: Crime Fiction at the Poker Table

by Otto Penzler Narrated by Keith Sellon-Wright, Leon Nixon, Gail Shalan

Overview

Hit the jackpot with stories from Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Walter Mosley, Alexander McCall Smith, and more superstars of mystery.



In "One Dollar Jackpot," Michael Connelly's curmudgeonly Harry Bosch finds himself going toe-to-toe with a professional poker player. Jeffery Deaver offers up "Bump," a tale of a has-been actor trying to make it big by hustling cards. "Hardly Knew Her" by Laura Lippmann showcases a young woman learning about bluffing the hard way, while "In the Eyes of Children" by Alexander McCall Smith features a scam at a poker table on the high seas.



With these, and more offerings from mystery greats such as Joyce Carol Oates, John Lescroart, Walter Mosley, Peter Robinson, and Eric Van Lustbader, Dead Man's Hand is a suspenseful anthology that's a big winner for any fan of crime fiction.

Editorial Reviews

FEBRUARY 2022 - AudioFile

This trio of narrators hits the mark. Poker and crime play a role in these short stories, which come to life with their deft narrations. Many of the authors are well known; for example, Joyce Carol Oates, Laura Lippman, and Michael Connelly. For the characters at a party in “Pitch Black,” narrator Keith Sellon-Wright creates an exceptional range of voices, alternating mostly between an unlikable, gruff-voiced guitar player and a teen coming of age. Gail Shalan puts appropriate emotion into the frantic girl and teen boys in “Strip Poker.” And Leon Nixon’s deep, serious voice perfectly fits the main character in “Mr. In-Between.” Thankfully, this collection doesn’t get into the weeds of poker, so even listeners who don’t play will enjoy it. M.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

Despite some excellent individual efforts from a Who's Who of crime writers, this uneven anthology of poker-related stories never truly capitalizes on the game's innate drama. Any mystery lover will enjoy Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks story, "The Eastvale Ladies' Poker Circle," though poker is merely a backdrop in this and too many of the stories. Michael Connelly fans will appreciate Harry Bosch bluffing out a murder suspect in "One-Dollar Jackpot," while a rigged poker game on a cruise ship has dire consequences in Alexander McCall Smith's haunting "In the Eyes of Children." Poker does occupy center stage in Jeffery Deaver's "Bump," where a former TV star tries to increase his popularity by appearing in a made-for-TV poker tournament, but the poker details are suspect. Professional poker player Howard Lederer's introduction reminds the reader of the enormous effect poker has had on American culture, but this anthology never really mines the game's explosive popularity. (Nov.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Library Journal

In its 11th edition, The Best American Mystery Stories(edited by Penzler with a prominent author as guest editor, this year Hiaasen) continues to gather some of the best previously published mystery stories from magazines and collections. The authors in this edition include some not associated with the genre, notably Louise Erdrich with a tale of the effect of a fake kidnapping on its victim. Other contributors are Peter Blauner, Lawrence Block, Laura Lippman, Joyce Carol Oates, and James Lee Burke. Most chilling are the killers in stories by Chris Adrian and John Dufresne: an eight-year-old girl and a religious family man. Solid and dependable.

Forget the tournaments and TV coverage-poker is celebrated more for its male bonding, risk-taking, and frisson-adding illegality. The 15 stories in Dead Man's Handcenter on the game as played by good buddies, respectable family men, cops, PIs, shady men, even high-class women. Or poker may be used as a ruse and not played at all, as in Rupert Holmes's "The Monks of the Abbey Victoria." Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch solves a murder with a game of liar's poker in "One-Dollar Jackpot," and a cop's dreams of a decades-old game leads to his finding his father's killer in John Lescroart's "A Friendly Little Game." Another quality collection from Penzler.

The point of Expletive Deletedis that expletives aren't deleted, as Mark Billingham notes in his in-your-face introduction celebrating the f-word and berating readers who complain about sex and language. It starts off, appropriately enough, with Laura Lippman's "A Good **** Spoiled," in which golf is a cover for an affair. The levels of sex, profanity, and violenceincrease throughout, until the book ends with two of the most horrific stories, about war and its aftermath. Yet one of these-John Rickards's "Twenty Dollar Future," involving a 12-year-old boy whose father and friends are killed in clan warfare-doesn't seem to fit. Nor does Sarah Weinman's "Lookout," a clever tale about danger lurking in a community, with not an expletive in it. So what's the point? A marginal purchase at best.

—Michele Leber

School Library Journal

Adult/High School -The mainstream popularity of poker and the intrigue of mystery and crime will ensure demand for this anthology. However, poker enthusiasts may be less satisfied than mystery fans, who will be attracted by such authors as Laura Lippman, Michael Connelly, and Alexander McCall Smith. Stories vary with respect to the depth to which the game is the central theme, but what they all have in common is their accessibility to readers who are not seasoned players. Mystery aficionados will enjoy John Lescroarta€™s a€œA Friendly Little Game,a€ in which the repressed memories of a fathera€™s death lead to new clues in an old crime. Other stories, including Rupert Holmesa€™s a€œThe Monks of the Abbey Victoriaa€ and Jeffrey Deavera€™s a€œBump,a€ use poker as the façade to cover up larger crimes. Teens will be particularly attracted to the tales that portray young adult protagonists. In Joyce Carol Oatesa€™s a€œStrip Poker,a€ a teen finds herself in a potentially dangerous poker game, only to turn the tables on her would-be attackers. Christopher Coakea€™s a€œPitch Blacka€ depicts the lengths to which fear and anger can take a teenage musician, and Sue DeNymmea€™s a€œPoker and Shootera€ is a common yet chilling story of the popular crowd preying on less-fortunate students. Despite the variation in both quality and suspense, teens will find this volume more accessible, plausible, and entertaining than other recently published poker collections, such as Pete Hautmana€™s Full House (Putnam, 2007).-Lynn Rashid, Marriots Ridge High School, Marriotsville, MD

Kirkus Reviews

Fifteen new stories show how poker can be-or lead to, or cover up-murder. Most of the A-list authors turn in professional but uninspired work, like Michael Connelly's efficient Harry Bosch procedural, Peter Robinson's false poker-table alibi, Penzler favorite Joyce Carol Oates's idyll aboard a speedboat to nowhere or John Lescroart's dream of a poker game that leads a cop to his father's killer. Those who aim higher come up with mixed results. A frazzled daughter finally confronts her gambling father in Laura Lippman's sharp but slight anecdote. The schoolteacher inveigled into a poker game shows a shocking but unsatisfying side of Alexander McCall Smith. Christopher Coake's showdown between a heavy-metal guitarist and a crazed World War II vet would have been punchier at half its length. Lorenzo Carcaterra slathers on the exposition before a clever ending that tells a new widower which of his poker buddies was seeing his wife. Walter Mosley develops a fascinating new character, a freelance bagman, but doesn't give him much of a story. Meanwhile, Sam Hill (much poker, little crime), Eric Van Lustbader (a daughter's revenge hijacked by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle) and the prudently named Sue DeNymme (nasty doings in a collegiate secret society) are mostly bluffing. The best hands are dealt by Parnell Hall (Stanley Hastings acting smarter than usual), Rupert Holmes (an ingenious twist on the poker-game alibi) and Jeffery Deaver (a poker reality show that's most likely to pop up in future anthologies).

From the Publisher

PRAISE FOR UNCERTAIN ENDINGS

"Penzler . . . knows that anthologies are like a party: You meet people you already know, people whose reputation you know and people who are completely new to you. The experienced host chooses invitees who will get along well, and he provides enough preamble to launch a conversation."—Los Angeles Times

PRAISE FOR DANGEROUS WOMEN

"Superlative . . . Penzler knows which writers are hot, and he proves it here."—Boston Herald

FEBRUARY 2022 - AudioFile

This trio of narrators hits the mark. Poker and crime play a role in these short stories, which come to life with their deft narrations. Many of the authors are well known; for example, Joyce Carol Oates, Laura Lippman, and Michael Connelly. For the characters at a party in “Pitch Black,” narrator Keith Sellon-Wright creates an exceptional range of voices, alternating mostly between an unlikable, gruff-voiced guitar player and a teen coming of age. Gail Shalan puts appropriate emotion into the frantic girl and teen boys in “Strip Poker.” And Leon Nixon’s deep, serious voice perfectly fits the main character in “Mr. In-Between.” Thankfully, this collection doesn’t get into the weeds of poker, so even listeners who don’t play will enjoy it. M.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172919817
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	07/20/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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