The shocking suicide of Beth Daniels’s father — a prominent surgeon — has thrown the FBI agent into a tailspin. But when Beth heads to Saint Augustine, Florida, for the funeral, she’ll need more than the emotional support of her boyfriend, retired detective Jon Lancaster. She’ll need his gut instinct for solving a mystery. No sooner do they arrive than suspicions are aroused. There’s the pair of Russians who seem to be watching every move the family makes. A final, cryptic phone call Martin Daniels made to his granddaughter. Strange blood evidence on his estate. More than $1 million missing from Martin’s account. And his cell phone, wiped clean, along with clues to a double life. To Beth, it’s disturbingly clear: the man she loved was a stranger. As she and Jon delve into Martin’s past, they have no idea where the secrets will take them. Or how dangerous it will be to expose the conspiracies, the cover-ups, and the terrible truths of Martin’s life — and death

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

When last we saw Tony Valentine — former cop, lifelong misanthrope, and legendary catcher of casino cheats — he was just coming up for air after a close brush with the afterlife in his first outing, the acclaimed Grift Sense. This time around, it’s personal. Tony Valentine’s ex-partner Doyle Flanagan has been blown to pieces by a car bomb. Shortly before his death, Doyle had been filling Valentine in on the details of his latest, most baffling case — an impressive $6 million blackjack scam at Atlantic City’s legendary Bombay casino. Valentine determines that the only way to bring his friend’s killers to justice is to crack the Bombay heist himself. But standing between Valentine and his goal is a head-spinning assortment of ruthless gangsters, crooked croupiers, eccentric millionaires, and Croatians with bad haircuts. His only ally: an irresistibly enigmatic female wrestler. With diamond-hard prose, triple-crossing plot twists, and a deliciously noir-inflected atmosphere, Funny Money finds James Swain more than living up to his promise as a razor-sharp storyteller with unlimited surprises up his sleeve

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

An anthology of stories edited by Michael Connelly Las Vegas. Lost Wages. Sin City. An artificial oasis of pleasure, spectacle, and entertainment, the gambling capital of America has reinvented itself so many times that its doubtful that anyone knows for sure what's real and what isn't in the miles of neon and scorching heat. Las Vegas is considered the ultimate players destination-no matter what your game. Almost anything is available-for a price, mind you, and sometimes losers walk away from the tables with even less than just an empty wallet or purse-sometimes they don't walk away at all. Now the International Association of Crime Writers and New York Times-bestselling author Michael Connelly have gathered twenty-two crime and mystery stories about the ultimate playground, Las Vegas, and what can happen behind the glitz and glamour. From a gambler who must-must-win at the roulette table to stay alive to a courier who's only mistake was accepting a package with Las Vegas as the final destination, come to the true city that never sleeps, where fortunes are made and lost every day, and where snake-eyes aren't found just on a pair of dice. Featuring stories by:James Swain, S.J. Rozan, Wendy Hornsby, Michael Collins, T.P Keating, J. Madison Davis, Sue Pike, Joan Richter, Libby Hellmann, Tom Savage, Edward Wellen, K.j.a. Wishnia, Linda Kerslake, John Wessel, Lise McClendon, Ronnie Klaskin, Ruth Cavin, A.B. Robbins, Gay Toltl Kinman, Micki Marz, Rick Mofina, Jeremiah Healy

A disturbing missing-person case reunites ex-Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster and FBI Agent Beth Daniels. Skye is just one of a dozen young women who have disappeared from Florida without a trace. Beth can do more than just imagine their fear. She was a victim herself — a trauma that’s strengthened her fight for justice. Then Lancaster uncovers a scrap of evidence, and the mystery begins to unravel. But the lead comes with a personal sting: the involvement of his estranged brother, Logan, an ex-con recruited into the shepherding of human trade. The only way for Logan to shed his demons is to come clean. For Lancaster and Daniels, that means being drawn, secret by secret, into a dangerous underground world. With time running out, three damaged pasts will collide; more secrets will spill; and Lancaster, Daniels, and Logan will have to fight to save themselves first if they ever hope to find the girls alive

In Shadow People, national bestselling author James Swain's brilliant follow-up to Dark Magic, magician Peter Warlock has a dark secret. A psychic who peers into the future, he is able to use the information to alert the authorities to pending trouble. During a seance Peter is confronted by a group of evil spirits called shadow people, beings who have the power to kidnap a person's soul. Peter is taken to another plane, where he confronts a serial killer about to claim his next victim. It's a harrowing encounter that Peter only barely manages to survive. Peter soon realizes that the shadow people are connected to the serial killer, and that he is a member of the Order of Astrum, a group of evil psychics who murdered his parents years ago. He must find the serial killer in real time before he claims his next victim. To save many lives, Peter may have to tap into a legacy that he has always dreaded… and a power that may consume him. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied

WHOEVER SAYS CRIME DOESN’T PAY ISN’T DOING IT RIGHT. Billy Cunningham is the most wanted cheat in Las Vegas. His scams have cost the casinos so much money that the governor has ordered the gaming board to bring him in at any cost. Normally, Billy would lay low until the dust settles. But during a trip to Reno, he has a chance encounter with Special Agent Ray Lopez of the FBI. Billy helps Lopez catch a pair of serial killers called The Glitter Twins and a bond is formed. Lopez is a hero with a fatal flaw. He’s a gambling addict with huge debts. Seeing an opportunity, Billy recruits Lopez to help him scam a casino in Las Vegas for millions. The scam is called the bomb, and is the most audacious blackjack scam ever invented. It’s Billy’s way to give the gaming board a black eye before he heads south to Mexico. But like the best laid plans of mice and men, the scam goes horribly wrong, and Billy and Lopez are forced to make life or death choices that will forever change both their lives

An adrenaline rush of cons, grift, and murder in a town where deadly double-dealing is the name of the game. Master grifter Billy Cunningham has built a lucrative career conning a long list of Las Vegas casinos. In fact, he’s never walked into one he couldn’t rip off. Now he’s scheming a “super con” with a gang of high-profile cheats — a one-time-only scam that could rake in a cool multi-million-dollar payday. All goes as planned until Chinese crime lord Broken Tooth strong-arms Billy into rigging the Super Bowl, too. Billy has no choice but to play ball. Broken Tooth has a special edge on him: blackmail. When someone on his own team betrays Billy, all bets are off. Both the super con and Super Bowl gambits are in jeopardy. And just who’s scamming who? With kickoff time looming, it’ll take a Hail Mary pass for Billy to grift the game and survive long enough to pull off the wildest double-cross-with-a-twist in Vegas history

"No one in the world does this stuff better than Jim Swain." – Lee Child Whoever says crime doesn't pay isn't doing it right. There are hundreds of casinos in Las Vegas, and Billy Cunningham knows how to rip off every one. His scams are a thing of beauty-so perfectly orchestrated that onlookers believe he and his crew are winning fair and square. In a town where bosses will kill to protect their profits, Billy can't afford to make mistakes, but even the best-laid plans can go wrong…Desperate to keep his team out of jail, Billy agrees to help stop a legendary family of thieves from taking down a casino. But he has no intention of breaking the cheater's code: never rat out your own kind. He's running his own con on the casino's psycho owner and his vicious, violent wife. Throw in a murderous drug dealer, a vengeful gaming agent, and the girl Billy's never forgotten, and this scam artist is playing for sky-high stakes: a cool eight million, and the chance to live long enough to spend it

Nicki Pearl is the perfect daughter — every parent’s dream. And that of strangers, too. Wherever she goes, she’s being watched. Each stalker is different from the last, except for one thing — their alarming obsession with Nicki. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Nicki’s father is turning to someone who can protect her: retired private detective and ex — Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster. Teaming up with FBI agent and former abduction victim Beth Daniels, Lancaster can help — his way. He’s spent most of his career dispatching creeps who get off on terrorizing the vulnerable. Unlicensed, and unrestricted, he plays dirty... But this case is unusual. Why so many men? Why this one girl? Does Nicki have something to hide? Or do her parents? Trawling the darkest depths of southern Florida, Lancaster faces a growing tide of secrets and deception. And the deeper he digs, the more he realizes that finding the truth won’t be easy. Because there’s more to this case than meets the eye

Can someone really predict the future? Magician Vincent Hardare does just that during a TV appearance. It’s all a trick, only the killer whose next murder he’s predicted doesn’t know that. Hardare soon becomes the killer’s target, and must pull every trick out of his bag to save himself, and his family from becoming the killer’s next victims. Filled with amazing magic and hair-raising scenes, author James Swain draws on his expertise as one of the world’s greatest magicians to deliver up a novel filled with hair-raising surprises

From the national bestselling mystery novelist the Wall Street Journal calls "One terrific writer" comes a heart-pounding thriller pitting a deadly serial killer against two determined FBI agents. Is it possible to create a serial killer? FBI Special Agent Ken Linderman (last seen alongside Jack Carpenter in bestseller The Night Monster) is about to find out. A serial killer has kidnaped seventeen-year-old Wayne Ladd, and is putting the boy through the Program, a fiendish project designed to turn young boys into raging killers. Along with hot-headed FBI Agent Rachel Vick, Linderman must race against the clock to save Wayne before he's turned into a monster. With the odds against them and time running out, Linderman and Vick will stop at nothing to save Wayne, and bring a sadistic criminal to justice

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

Главный герой романа – бывший полицейский, а ныне частный детектив и владелец сыскного агентства Тони Валентайн. Агентство называется «Седьмое чувство». Валентайн действительно «седьмым чувством» распознает любые мошенничества – как жуликов и шулеров, так и самих казино. Но вот разгадать, каким образом мошенник Фрэнк Фонтэйн сумел обобрать казино «Акрополь», играя в блэкджек, ему никак не удается. Валентайн отправляется в Лас-Вегас, чтобы решить проблему на месте. Эта поездка едва не будет стоить жизни ему и его сыну, но секрет мошенничества Валентайн все же раскроет. Как всегда – с блеском!

Рики Смит выпрыгивает с пятого этажа горящей гостиницы и остается в живых. Он играет в блэкджек и выигрывает двести тысяч. Играет в рулетку — кладет в карман четверть миллиона. Играет в кости — еще триста тысяч прибытку. Что стоит за этими выигрышами? А точнее, кто стоит за самым везучим игроком в мире? Разбираться с этим приходится, конечно же, Тони Валентайну — частному детективу, которому нет равных в разоблачении игорных мошенничеств. Но прежде чем он раскроет секрет потрясающе хитроумной и гениально исполненной аферы, ему опять придется столкнуться с самыми темными и кровавыми игроками — теми, кто играет не на деньги, а на жизни людей

Частный детектив и знаток игорных мошенничеств Тони Валентайн — снова на тропе войны: ему надо выручить из беды собственного сына Джерри, пустившегося в очередную авантюру, и спасти от разорения старого друга Ника Никокрополиса, владельца казино, которое пытаются сокрушить могущественные враги. Приступая к новому расследованию, Тони Валентайн и предположить не мог, что на этот раз ему придется сразиться не только с мафией, но и… с международным терроризмом. А кому еще предотвратить страшный массовый теракт, как не хитроумному и бесстрашному Валентайну?

Главный герой романа — бывший полицейский, а ныне частный детектив и владелец сыскного агентства Тони Валентайн. Агентство называется «Седьмое чувство». Валентайн действительно «седьмым чувством» распознает любые мошенничества — как жуликов и шулеров, так и самих казино… Теперь Валентайну предстоит разоблачить мошенничества в индейских казино во Флориде. А на пути у него встанут не только гангстеры, но и… аллигаторы. Секрет мошенничества, который Валентайн, конечно же, с блеском раскроет, и на этот раз будет совершенно ошеломительный!!

Главный герой романа – бывший полицейский, а ныне частный детектив и владелец сыскного агентства Тони Валентайн. Агентство называется «Седьмое чувство». Валентайн действительно «седьмым чувством» распознает любые мошенничества – как жуликов и шулеров, так и самих казино… Валентайн получает страшное известие: его бывший напарник взорван в собственной машине. И еще одна новость: неизвестные мошенники обобрали казино «Бомбей» в Атлантик-Сити на шесть миллионов долларов. Связаны ли между собой эти события? Выясняя подоплеку преступлений, Валентайн опять рискует жизнью – своей и своих близких, – но все же докапывается до истины. Секрет мошенничества оказывается совершенно ошеломительным!