Gambling Fiction - James Swain Series

I read a recommendation in a thread a while ago for a series of books written by James Swain.

The book jacket says that Mr. Swain is "...considered an authority on crooked gambling and casino scams."

The main character is a retired AC detective that specialized in casino crimes and freelances in his retirement. He is an expert on all casino games and the various scams that people have pulled over the years. I was really looking forward to some great scenes that revealed the scams. In the first book I had barely gotten started when the story describes a craps player trying to roll a Hard 7....(seriously)... I chalked it up to an oversight. Then the author doesn't understand that the East Coast is 3 hours ahead of time of Las Vegas in another part. These blatant errors were distracting from the book because I kept expecting to find more.

I plodded along - the story lines are ok... not great...just ok. No big surprises. I had to put the one I'm on now down and walk away. The author (an authority on casinos and their inner workings) describes the game of craps. "[The shooter] rolls a 4,5,6,8,9 or 10 and that becomes the point. He has to roll that again before either a 7 or an 11 rolls and he craps out."

I'm just going to return it to the library bin in the parking lot tomorrow...

The shame of it is that my daughter and I spent considerable time conceiving, writing and editing a teen adventure saga that we've had many people read and enjoy and we can't get a literary agent to talk to us...but this stuff slips out in a book written by a recognized authority. I guess there's no justice. LOL!

In his defense...crapping out via a 7 or 11 would be crooked gambling hehe

I've read all the James Swain books. I actually find them all very entertaining. Nothing deep, just fun reads.

Many libraries have automatic ordering from publishers and do not review works for quality.

Get your teen adventure saga self published....you've got nothing to lose if you do it right.