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"Mr. Lucky" was the name of a 1943 movie starring Cary Grant, and was also the title of a half-hour series that was broadcast for one year during the 1959-1960 television season. Both deal with gambling and professional gamblers. As one might expect from a James Swain novel, his latest, also titled MR. LUCKY, deals with an extremely, almost preternaturally, lucky gambler named Ricky Smith. It seems that Smith cannot lose --- whether it's playing blackjack or roulette in Las Vegas, entering a large raffle in his South Carolina hometown, engaging in off-track betting in Virginia, or even scratching off a lottery ticket. Tony Valentine needs to find out why.
Readers of James Swain's previous Valentine novels expect nothing less than a storyline that grabs the attention from first page to last. They won't be disappointed. Valentine is in some ways a doppelganger of Swain; Swain is considered one of the world's leading authorities on the subjects of crooked gambling and casino scams. The hows and whys of such matters can make for riveting material, even if one's interest in gambling approaches the nil spot. Swain always can be counted on to pepper his narratives with anecdotal tales of scams gone wrong --- and right --- and MR. LUCKY is no exception.
MR. LUCKY begins with Valentine being asked to investigate Smith, whose luck in Vegas, and beyond, has been more than phenomenal. Valentine travels to Smith's hometown of Slippery Rock, North Carolina to get a bead on him and to determine whether or not he is cheating the house everywhere he goes. Meanwhile, Valentine dispatches his son Gerry to Gulfport, Mississippi --- otherwise known as the Redneck Riviera --- to interview a professional card shark who Smith soundly thrashed in a poker game. Gerry has had his own ups and downs, mostly due to his inability to control his baser impulses. In this case, however, he winds up in trouble when he does the right thing, finding himself on the wrong side of the Dixie Mafia. A chain of events results in Gerry placing himself, as well as his wife and infant daughter, in danger. Valentine, meanwhile, finds that his efforts in Slippery Rock have made him some deadly enemies as well, while leading to an unexpected explanation for Smith's run as Mr. Lucky.
Swain's ability to explain the complex scams that grifters attempt in casinos remains first-rate. One is not tempted to go out and try these methods; the complexity of the swindles, as well as the methods of detection employed by the casinos (not to mention the penalties, both legal and otherwise, that are the result of getting caught), should be enough to deter most readers.
But MR. LUCKY is more than a plot held together by anecdotal incidents of casino cheating. Some of the most interesting passages in the Valentine novels have concerned Gerry's swift slide into the dark side and his long walk back, with the forgiving help of his father. Valentine exhibits a quiet but deep and abiding faith in God; his continuing forgiveness of Gerry's transgressions, and Gerry's contrition and efforts to do better, are perhaps a subtle metaphor for Divine forgiveness and salvation. Swain doesn't hit the reader over the head with this, but the concept permeates throughout the novel, creating an interesting contrast to the main action throughout.
Given that MR. LUCKY takes Valentine out of his familiar Las Vegas environs, perhaps future novels in this series will visit other gambling locales, each of which carries its own local idiosyncrasies. This, as well as the continuing character dynamics evolving between Tony and Gerry Valentine, should enable the series to keep going strong for some time to come. Highly recommended, for many different reasons.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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