Tony Valentine Is My New Honey
Funny Money by James Swain
Well, here's a bright spot in an otherwise gray book season for me! A lot of my heretofore favorite, dependable authors have been running out of writing gas, turning out lackluster books that end up crushing me with disappointment. Grisham. Tyler. Patterson. Etc. I needed a lucky charm to come along and break my bad luck streak. My fingers are crossed that a set of quirky casino novels are just what the croupier ordered and I'm on a roll.
A month ago, I was delighted to stumble on James Swain's first novel Grift Sense, and eagerly ran over to Amazon to buy Funny Money the day that it was released in hardcover. Funny Money is the second book in the Tony Valentine series, and the second time Swain has rolled a winner for me.
Be My, Be My Valentine
The first thing I love about Swain's Valentine series is the characters that populate his books, and my main man is Tony Valentine.
Valentine is an ex-Atlantic City cop, semi-retired in sunny Florida, running his own casino security consulting business. He's amazingly well drawn by Swain, strengths and flaws, with the sort of depth that can carry a series of ten books or more. How Swain manages to make a 62-year-old retiree who has to watch his cholesterol sexy is beyond me, but trust me, Valentine emanates sex appeal. It doesn't hurt that I picture a 62 year old Paul Newman when I read the books, of course. It never hurts to picture Paul Newman.
Valentine is joined by a zany next door neighbor, Mabel, a flaky son, Gerry, Gerry's quirky fiancée, Yolanda, and in this book, a love interest. Kat's a professional wrestler (of all things) with a headlock on Tony's heart.
Bonus time! Like Grift Sense, Funny Money brings us a dozen or more memorable characters involved in the plot de jour. My favorite this round was Joey Mollo, the hitman for hire, traumatized as a child by walking in on his mother and a boyfriend. Mollo is a one man-hurting machine, but he can be completely neutralized by just turning porn on a TV screen...turns into a blubbering baby. Every Swain character has a fatal flaw and you gotta love characters with fatal flaws.
The Plot: This Time, It's Personal
Doyle Flannigan, Tony's best friend and ex-partner has cashed in his chips. Doyle is killed in Atlantic City while investigating a casino con -- actually blown up while in the middle of a cell phone conversation with Tony. Tony vows vengeance, and through 290 pages he proves willing to do whatever it takes, whatever it takes, to bring down the people responsible for Doyle's death and anyone else who stands in the way.
As the meat of the book begins, the surest bet for the guilty party is the "European", an elusive grifter who has taken The Bombay casino for $6 million. Unraveling the mystery of who killed Doyle means Tony has to unravel the mystery of how The Bombay is being scammed, and who is behind the missing money.
I love a man who can map a good plot, and Swain sure can. The pages turn faster and faster as we're taken down back alleys, through shortcuts, down a few dead ends and back out again, bypassing completely the on-ramps to predictable highways. We meet enough people in our travels that we can never quite be sure whodunit until Swain lets us in on the scam and we get to go "Ohhhhhh, that's how they did it!"
Think Hiaasen, Think
The comparisons of Swain to Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard are inevitable, poor guy. Because Swain's work falls in the offbeat mystery subgenre, he'll be held up to Hiaasen and Leonard with each book he writes, and he'll always fall a bit short compared to the greats. I'll stake a casino cup full of quarters that he's already tired of hearing sentences that begin, "While Swain is no Hiassen or Leonard...." Yes, Swain lacks the writing genius of that duo, but can't be found wanting in pure readability or breadth and depth of characterization. I'm going to do my darndest to leave Hiaasen and Leonard out of my review of his third book, I promise.
Quibbles
I have a few personal quibbles with Funny Money. The edge was significantly harder and rougher than Grift Sense, with a much higher body count. This can't be considered a flaw, but it hampered my personal enjoyment as it is hard to read while closing one's eyes during the gritty parts. (I'm a bit of a weenie.)
Tony's love interest - sigh. Yes, a recovering widower has to get to have sex sometime, especially if he's going to be a hard boiled detective series hero and everything, but, does the chick have to be that young and beautiful? I'd have been happier to see Tony hook up with a sexy 50 or 60 year old. If Tony can be a sexy older guy, lets see a hot-to-trot contemporary, rather than a daughter candidate.
