FICTION · PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS
James Swain
James Swain (born June 7, 1956) is an American crime fiction author and magician. Swain has written at more than fifteen fiction and non-fiction books. Many have been translated into twelve languages. He has used two main characters in most of his crime related and mystery books. These are Tony Valentine, a private eye and Jack Carpenter, an ex-cop turned child rescuer.
NHUR-JABAL meant, in the language of Kandahar, Great Watchtower, and so it seemed the city was.
— from Dark Magic
Most acclaimed
Funny Money
1980
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. . . . From the Paperback edition.
Dark Magic
Ages ago, when the First Gods ruled heaven and earth, they created two lesser deities to reign along with them. But these gods, Tharn and Balatur, were flawed. Their madness threatened creation itself -- and thus they were condemned to an eternal sleep. Only an ancient book of spells holds the key to their release.Now an evil necromancer has obtained the book and hastens to Tharn's hidden resting place with a plan as deadly as the god himself. Ancient prophecy points to the exiled prince Calandryll as the only one who can defeat the wizard -- aided by a beautiful warrior woman, a hard-bitten mercenary, and Calandryll's own uncertain powers.But first Calandryll and his companions must travel a kingdom racked by civil war, cross the rolling prairie of the fierce horse clans, and finally venture into the forbidden wastes and uncharted territories beyond. Enemies and foul treachery await, while the mighty Tharn, as if somehow aware of his imminent release, begins to stir...begins to dream...and all creation begins to quake.Dark Magic is the masterful second chapter of The Godwars, a stirring chronicle of high adventure by one of the most exciting new writers of fantasy.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Sucker bet
A hardened ex-cop with great instincts, a sharp eye, and a short fuse, Tony Valentine still catches crooks, but a very special breed of them. He nabs hustlers who rob casinos, and finds the fatal flaw that allowed the place to get ripped off in the first place. Sometimes that means biting the hand that feeds him, but Valentine isn't paid to sugarcoat the cold, hard truth. Along flashy strips and in seedy dives, if there's a game to be fixed, Valentine knows how to spot the tricks, the scams, the sleight of hand. And with his new case, there's definitely more on the table than meets the eye.Harry Smooth Stone, head of security at the Micanopy Indian Reservation Casino in South Florida, desperately needs Valentine's expertise. A blackjack dealer has rigged a game, dealt a player eighty-four winning hands in a row, and disappeared. Valentine's gut tells him a different story: that the runaway dealer is alligator food and his employers are keeping secrets.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 tailored 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.In prose that sizzles with style and a wicked sense of humor, with plot twists that could cause whiplash, James Swain takes readers behind the neon-lit scenes of casinos and the gambling trade--and reveals a colorful cast of hustlers and con men, bookies and grifters. Make no mistake about it: on the crowded shelves of fiction, Sucker Bet is a sure thing.