Tony Valentine Books

Amidst the neon and the big special ugly of Las Vegas, mild-mannered Frank Fontaine is beating the brains out of the Acropolis Casino. The house cops think the dealer, a blonde named Nola, is part of the con, but no one can prove a thing. For Tony Valentine, it’s the first new scam he’s seen in decades—and maybe the best. Three things Tony knows: The blonde is guilty, the grifter has lived a former life, and the biggest scam is the one that hasn’t happened yet. In a dream world of fake Greek statues, statuesque hostesses, and a casino owner whose sex life might just burn down his own house, Tony Valentine is plying his special trade. While some people have a sixth sense, Tony has a grift sense —and he needs it now to separate a grifter from a scam that’s worse than anyone’s wildest dreams. . . .

Tony Valentine has a gift for grift: He can walk into a casino and spot a cheater across a crowded floor. A man who still uses pay phones and won’t spend more than a buck for coffee, Tony has protected Atlantic City gambling palaces for twenty years and learned every trick of the trade—until a new one blows him away. With his old partner murdered in a bomb blast, Tony returns to A.C. to retrace Doyle Flanagan’s last case. Investigating a six-million-dollar casino takedown, a square cop soon meets a whole lot of bent people, from a beautiful lady wrestler to some Manhattan mobsters; from a trio of beautiful casino “consultants” to a team of Eurotrash blackjack card counters. But while everyone around Tony Valentine (including Tony’s own son) is playing some kind of angle, Tony is determined to find a killer who is playing for keeps. . . .

A hardened ex-cop, Tony Valentine now nabs hustlers who rob casinos, and the Micanopy Indian Reservation Casino in South Florida desperately needs his expertise. A blackjack dealer has rigged a game, dealt a player eighty-four winning hands in a row, and then disappeared. But the missing dealer is part of an even bigger, far deadlier scheme. Valentine’s trail leads him to Rico Blanco, a ruthless gangster who once worked for John Gotti; his shady, elusive partner-in-crime, Victor Marks; and a bombshell named Candy Hart, a hooker with dreams of love—a combination tailor-made to double-cross. It appears they have a con going down involving a cocky, filthy-rich Brit and his millions of dollars. Valentine’s challenge: to figure out how all the pieces of the seamy puzzle fit together . . . before his luck runs out and his life goes bust.

When Tony Valentine, a master at catching casino cheaters, jets to Las Vegas to look for his missing son, he lands in the middle of a dangerous turf war between rival casinos. Valentine’s longtime pal then taps him to figure out how an amateur won $25,000 at his blackjack tables. But the job is full of land mines. For starters, the suspect bears a strong resemblance to his late wife. Upping the ante, a dead stripper is found with Valentine’s calling card–and her grief-stricken policeman boyfriend is vowing revenge. Yet in a city where barracudas wear pinstripes, and reality and illusion shift depending on the neon light, a greater threat maneuvers through the streets: an all-new breed of criminal with an agenda propelled by fury that will shake not only Valentine, but the city of Las Vegas itself.

Tony Valentine made his living and his name as a cop in Atlantic City–and is now known worldwide for his ability to spot the kinds of scams, grifts, and rip-offs that cost casinos billions every year. A man with a biting wit who drives a ’92 Honda, Tony is low-profile, old-school, and has seen it all–until he meets the luckiest man on earth. Ricky Smith was once a small-town loser. Then he went to Las Vegas, jumped out the window of a burning hotel, lived to tell the tale, and tore up the Strip on an incredible winning streak. Ricky didn’t just win at one slot machine or table game. He won at blackjack, roulette, and craps, and then beat the pants off the world’s greatest poker player. Tony knows that goofy, loudmouthed Ricky Smith–or anyone else, for that matter–couldn’t possibly be that fortunate. But when “Mr. Lucky” returns home to the little town of Slippery Rock, North Carolina, he keeps on winning everything from a horse race to a $50,000 lottery. Hired by a desperate casino, Tony starts to pry into Ricky’s past, his friends, and the strange little town that is benefiting from Ricky’s fame and fortune. Unfortunately for Tony, his cover is blown when he is forced to reveal a trick he has up his own sleeve: a pocket Glock he can shoot with laser-like precision. Suddenly, two men are dead, the cops are on Tony’s tail, and the investigation explodes in violence–putting the lives of Tony’s son and his young family in danger. For years, Tony’s son Gerry has dueled with his own criminal impulses. Now, the Ricky Smith case has lured Gerry through the gates of temptation and into a murderous confrontation with the Dixie Mafia. With Tony stuck on the slippery slope of Slippery Rock and Gerry fighting for his life, the Valentines are finding out just how bad good luck can get. Against a neon-tinted backdrop of adrenaline rushes, hard crashes, big money, and high-wire tension, the inimitable James Swain has set his best Tony Valentine novel yet: a funny, furious ride with an astounding array of crooks, marks, and one killer scam.

Tony Valentine is an expert at spotting cheats. He’s tossed them out of gambling casinos from Atlantic City to Las Vegas and Monaco. But though Tony has never met a scam he couldn’t crack, his son and partner, Gerry, has just walked into one with a body count. What started with a conman’s deathbed confession turns into a deadly Las Vegas grudge match during the world’s biggest poker tournament. While Gerry and his shady friends tangle with the Vegas mob, Tony enlists the aid of an aging grifter who’s fleecing suckers with a dazzling array of improbable betting stunts. Tony’s been hired to save the tournament (and stop a blind player who’s out to heist it), while Gerry’s just trying to stay alive–now that murder is in the cards. Featuring insider tips for catching poker cheats, as well as a glossary of card hustler terms!

“In this series about gambling, the main character is a big winner.” –Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Bask in Swain’s Las Vegas without having to set foot in the place and risk being skinned alive.” –The Washington Post Book World A blind poker player named Skip DeMarco is scamming the world’s largest poker tournament in Las Vegas, and cheating-expert Tony Valentine and his son, Gerry, have been hired to find out how. DeMarco is tied to some dangerously desperate characters who will go to extremes–even cold-blooded murder–to ensure that the obnoxious DeMarco wins big. While Gerry flies to Atlantic City to suss out DeMarco’s secret, Valentine stays in Vegas and teams up with an aging grifter named Rufus Steele, who has his own score to settle with DeMarco. On opposite sides of a deadly game, father and son work their way through a colorful landscape of conmen and hitmen. Together, they will have to prove there’s more to any game of chance than meets the eye. Featuring insider tips for catching poker cheats, as well as a glossary of card hustler terms!

DEADLY PLEASURES MAGAZINE Review by George Easter I’ve been a big fan of this series since its inception with GRIFT SENSE. Swain has a natural gift for storytelling. The various scams are fascinating in their ingenuity and for the clever detection that thwarts them. And Tony Valentine and his crew are among my favorite characters in crime fiction. It’s a shame that this and JACKPOT are only available on the Kindle (or on an IPad with a free Kindle app – which is how I read them). He’s also published two other e-book originals – one a Jack Carpenter novel and the other a stand-alone (his first novel). I’d say that it’s almost worth buying a Kindle to read them, but I’ll let you make that decision. WILD CARD by James Swain Rating: A This novel takes us back to Tony Valentine’s early days as a policeman in Atlantic City, New Jersey and how he came to be an expert on gambling scams and crime. It also treats the reader to his wife, the love of his life. In all the books in the series to this date, Tony is a widower and we know little about his beloved wife and Swain gives us a sweet portrait of that loving relationship. We also see the forces that shape his son, who at this time is just about to enter his teens. Highly recommended. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION From the bestselling mystery series Lee Child calls “Top class suspense ... one of my favorite series.” comes a novel of murder, mobsters and a police detective who doesn’t know when to say quit. It’s 1979, and the Boardwalk Empire of Atlantic City is being torn down, replaced by a glitzy casino and all the terrible crime that goes with it. Cops on the take, mobsters stealing a million dollars a day, a serial killer preying on young women, and more con men and hustlers than you can shake a stick at, define the new Atlantic City. Only one man can clean up the little city by the shore, Detective Tony Valentine. With the mob breathing down his throat and a sadistic killer stalking him, Valentine will put his own life in peril, and risk his career, to insure that justice prevails. ABOUT THE AUTHOR James Swain is the author of fourteen nationally bestselling mystery novels. His novels have been chosen as mysteries of the year by Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and have received three Barry Award nominations, a Florida book award for Fiction, and the prestigious Prix Calibre .38 for Best American Crime Fiction. His Tony Valentine novels have been purchased by Langley Films (Cops, Brooklyn’s Finest) for theatrical release, with the author to write the screenplay. PRAISE FOR THE TONY VALENTINE SERIES “Top class suspense... must reads for me, and one of my favorite series.” – Lee Child “In this series, the main character is a big winner.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times “The momentum is great, the writing nimble, the action intricate.” – Los Angeles Times Book Review “Swain has hit on a winning combination.” –Washington Post Book World “Mixing humor, suspense, poignancy and insider-lore, Swain is one terrific writer. A thoroughly winning book.” –The Wall Street Journal “Ingenious entertainment.” –The New York Times Book Review “Swain’s mysteries are a sure bet.” –The Chicago Tribune "This series has got to be one of the finds of the decade." --Kirkus Reviews

DEADLY PLEASURES MAGAZINE Review by George Easter I’ve been a big fan of this series since its inception with GRIFT SENSE. Swain has a natural gift for storytelling. The various scams are fascinating in their ingenuity and for the clever detection that thwarts them. And Tony Valentine and his crew are among my favorite characters in crime fiction. It’s a shame that this and WILDCARD are only available on the Kindle (or on an IPad with a free Kindle app – which is how I read them). He’s also published two other e-book originals – one a Jack Carpenter novel and the other a stand-alone (his first novel). I’d say that it’s almost worth buying a Kindle to read them, but I’ll let you make that decision. JACKPOT by James Swain Rating: A This novel is set in modern-day with Tony Valentine’s son playing a prominent role as his sidekick. Tony has a score to settle. Decades before, his brother-in-law was gunned down by a gang of ruthless con men, each of whom Valentine has sworn to track down. Now, only one is left, the cold-blooded Bronco Marchese. Valentine goes to Nevada to bring Bronco to justice, while also helping the police figure out how someone is stealing hundreds of slot machine jackpots without ever touching the machines. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION From the national bestselling novelist the Houston Press calls “One of today’s best suspense writers” comes a electrifying story of murder, greed, and revenge. Ex-cop Tony Valentine has a score to settle. Decades before, his brother-in-law was gunned down by a gang of ruthless con men, each of whom Valentine has sworn to track down. Now, only one is left, the cold-blooded Bronco Marchese. Valentine goes to Nevada to bring Bronco to justice, while also helping the police figure out how someone is stealing hundreds of slot machine jackpots without ever touching the machines. It’s a case that only Valentine with his amazing “grift sense” can solve. Along the way, he will put his own life in peril, and risk everything that he holds dear, to bring his life-long enemy to justice. ABOUT THE AUTHOR James Swain is the author of fourteen nationally bestselling mystery novels. His novels have been translated into French, Russian, Japanese and German, and have been chosen as mysteries of the year by Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Swain has received three Barry Award nominations, a Florida book award for Fiction, and the prestigious Prix Calibre .38 for Best American Crime Fiction. His Tony Valentine novels have been purchased by Langley Films (Cops, Brooklyn’s Finest) for theatrical release, with the author to write the screenplay. PRAISE FOR THE TONY VALENTINE SERIES “Top class suspense... must reads for me, and one of my favorite series.” – Lee Child “In this series, the main character is a big winner.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times “The momentum is great, the writing nimble, the action intricate.” – Los Angeles Times Book Review “Swain has hit on a winning combination.” –Washington Post Book World “Mixing humor, suspense, poignancy and insider-lore, Swain is one terrific writer. A thoroughly winning book.” –The Wall Street Journal “Ingenious entertainment.” –The New York Times Book Review “Swain’s mysteries are a sure bet.” –The Chicago Tribune “Swain is nothing short of marvelous.” –Bookreporter.com “Wow, what a discovery. Swain is one of the best writers I’ve come across.” –Michael Connelly “This series has got to be one of the finds of the decade.” –Kirkus Reviews