Order QUEEN OF DIAMONDS here
(also reviewed)
Order BLOOD ON BLOOD here
If there's one thing that poker and baseball both have in common, it's that there is a time when you reach a point of no return. In baseball, it's when you commit to swing the bat, or to steal a base. In poker, it's when you go all in on a hand. Either way, whether it was a good decision or a bad one doesn't matter anymore. You're committed.
I've read DRIVE, by Rob Roberge in two long, feverish sittings. It wasn't exactly a novel about basketball, but there was a lot of basketball in it, so the setting sold me the characters more than it should've for the non-basketball fan. I've read BLOOD ON BLOOD by Jim Wilsky and Frank Zafiro last year and got a kick out of its visceral family story. Turned out it was just the peak of the iceberg of Zafiro and Wilsky's ambition, because they had an entire trilogy based around a background character of BLOOD ON BLOOD, femme fatale Ania Kozak.The second novel of the trilogy QUEEN OF DIAMONDS is, like Rob Roberge's DRIVE, a novel that's based on a competitive universe : high-stakes poker. I liked QUEEN OF DIAMONDS, but I'm sure I would've absolutely LOVED it if I was a card player. Then I'm sure I would've went bonkers over it.
Ania Kozak found her way to Las Vegas and intends to lay low and kick back for a while. Then she meets poker circuit champion Cord Needham and former baseball player Casey Brunnell and decides to have to play a high stakes game of her own, pitting both men against one another. Cord is a ladies men, using his Southern drawl and his Texas charm to get what he wants. He admits himself that Casey might be the best card player of them both, but the younger man has run into some serious bad luck. His debt was sold to a local shylock and multiplied by ten. There is a lot of money sitting between both men and Ania understands this very well.
Here's the thing: there are a LOT of card games in QUEEN OF DIAMONDS. I believe there are at least three and they go on for twenty-something pages each. Some last for entire chapters. If you're into poker, there is a good chance you'll go bananas when reading these. I've played before and I knew the depiction of games in QUEEN OF DIAMONDS was about the interesting stuff: strategy, psychology, reading your opponent, keeping track of the cards, things like that. The card scenes are cool, but they go way over my head in terms of kownledge and/or enthusiasm for the game. They are not bad, per se. In fact, I don't know how QUEEN OF DIAMONDS could've existed without including them, but I've lost interest after about one game and a half. Since the entire storyline is suspended during games, there may have been a little skimming involved. I'm a little ashamed to say it, but at least I didn't skip chapters!
I was torn on whether or not I enjoyed the card games in QUEEN OF DIAMONDS. There is something I quite didn't like about it, though. I thought Ania Kozak was an issue. Loved her in BLOOD ON BLOOD, but she was kind of an afterthought to the Sawyer brothers in that novel. She is given a considerably bigger part on QUEEN OF DIAMONDS and yet, she comes out as a little...I don't knw...unoriginal? Femmes Fatales are a dime a dozen in crime fiction and these characters need something else than their need to exploit men to stand out. Ania, like the others, defines herself by her manipulation skills. She's quite good at it and, more often than not, her dialogue sounds vivid and true, but there's nothing more to her than her relationship to Cord and Casey than her greed and QUEEN OF DIAMONDS is strictly about that relationship. If the femme fatale is the star of the show, I'd like to read one that I haven't read before.
I'm being very critical of QUEEN OF DIAMONDS, but I thought it was an enjoyable read overall. Flawed by enjoyable. The depiction of Las Vegas by Jim Wilsky and Frank Zafiro rings true. I was actually fortunate enough to visit Sin City and they're nailed the restless, consumable, 24/7 atmosphere of the place. If you're wondering how it feels to be in Las Vegas, QUEEN OF DIAMONDS is a pretty accurate sneak peak. Those of you who are into poker might very well have an intellectual freakout at this novel, like sometimes I have over here, about other subjects. QUEEN OF DIAMONDS was made to be utterly satisfying to a certain group of people, which I am not a part of, but I thought it was enjoyable and entertaining. A step down from the terrific BLOOD ON BLOOD, but enjoyable anyway. Isn't it what matters in the end?