"Dead Man's Hand" review, part 4

I am more than a little embarrassed. I started this book review well over a year ago, and I'm still not finished with it. Just as embarrassingly, I'm also still not finished with the book.

For those new to the blog, or who happen not to remember every single post I've ever written (and shame on you!), I started this collection of poker-related crime short stories, edited by Otto Penzler, back in January, 2008. You can see the first three parts of the review here. It's not that I'm not enjoying the book. I am--honest. It's just that with a series of unrelated stories, unlike with a novel, I don't build any momentum in the reading. It then becomes easy to put it aside, intending it to be just for a night or two while I read something else. But then the book gets buried under other books and magazines, it gets forgotten, etc.

Now I have incentive to finish it. Back when I first started it, I had intended to finish it quickly, then pass it on to Shamus for his review. He has some actual experience and credibility in evaluating crime fiction. When I didn't finish reading it as fast as I intially planned, I then decided that I would just finish it in time for the 2008 World Series of Poker, and could then hand it to Shamus in person when he was in town. Well, as you can see, that didn't happen, either. I hang my head in shame.

I am now given a chance to redeem myself. Shamus is coming to Vegas again this week, and we have plans to meet up. (Actually, it appears that Shamus, Cardgrrl, F-Train, B.W.O.P. and I are all going to be getting together. Pity the place that gets chosen to host that little shindig.) So I'm on a rush to finish the book. (It might all be for naught. It's entirely possible that Shamus got tired of waiting and long ago bought or borrowed a copy himself, and has been too polite to tell me so.)

So, onward we go.

Next story is "The Stake" by Sam Hill. This is about an over-the-hill pro poker player who has been down on his luck and needs a big score not only for his own personal and financial redemption, but to help his daughter, who is struggling through college. There's not a lot of plot here, and no crime to speak of (raising the question of whether it really belongs in this volume). But it's a good character study, full of nostalgia for the old-school players, and the poker game in which he will either win big or lose it all has some decent drama.

"Pitch Black," by Christopher Coake, is the longest piece in the book. It doesn't deserve that much space. I found it self-indulgent and dull. Poker is only a small piece of it, too. It's far more about adolescent angst and rock music than poker. The author's attempts at a distinctive writing style, I thought, were just intrusive and annoying.

Parnell Hall's tale, "Deal Me In," is perhaps the most pure crime-genre story in the book so far. It's a classic whodunit, with our narrator the private detective called in to assist the police in solving an apparent murder at a home poker game. I loved the first paragraph:

Seth Beckman sat facedown at the poker table. His eyes were wide and
unblinking. His mouth was open, his nostrils were flared, yet no breath was
coming through. Mr. Beckman was done playing poker for the evening. His cards
were on the table in front of him. As were the stacks of chips on which he lay.
Due to which, the man presented at least a linguistic paradox. Mr. Beckman had
not cashed in his chips because he had cashed in his chips.

There's a lot of smart writing like that here. The author also understands poker in a way that is more evident than with any other writer so far. For example, there's a detail about why the players in this game play short-handed--because they don't want to have to shuffle the discards in draw games. That's not a factoid likely to have been casually picked up by somebody watching the World Poker Tour. Poker terms and observations and quips are all used in very natural ways, bespeaking a deep familiarity with the game and culture.

Hall also understands poker players' mentality. As detectives are working the crime scene, what is the players' main concern? How to get the game going again. Precisely! All the players are suspects, of course. The one who had a lock on the hand in progress when Beckman keeled over sardonically tells the suspicious investigators, "Believe me, if I was gonna kill him, I'd have waited until after the hand."

To top it off, it is the psychology of poker players that leads to the solving of the case, and our PI narrator solves it by means of a poker hand and a bluff--but I can't tell you any more than that. Overall, it's a cracking fun read.

OK, that's it for this installment. Seven more stories to go. Will I finish it in time? That's the real mystery here. If I don't, it will be a, um, crime.