Death Plays Poker

Someone’s making a killing at a major poker tournament—one dead player at a time—in this Canadian mystery featuring a young female undercover cop. Every year, the Canadian Classic Poker Tour attracts tv cameras, scores of fans, and some of the most exciting players from the world of professional gambling. This year it has also attracted a serial killer. Players have been turning up strangled in their hotel rooms, and the Poker Choker’s latest victim was an undercover cop sent in to catch the killer. But nothing stops the Poker Classic from playing on—no matter who folds. Now young Toronto cop Clare Vengel is the Royal Candaian Mounted Police’s last hope for bringing the killer to justice. Going undercover as a trust-fund princess who thinks gambling is a better idea than college, her flashy new wardrobe helps her infiltrate the elite circle of professional liars. But with her handlers doubting her every move and more victims losing their lives, Clare will have to go all in against a killer who doesn’t bluff.

"World class poker players are being strangled in their hotel rooms, and undercover cop Clare is given her second big assignment: to pose as a poker player in a major televised tournament, befriend the suspects, and find the killer in their midst."--P. 4] of jacket.

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys • “Whitehead proves a brilliant sociologist of the poker world.” —The Boston Globe In 2011, Grantland magazine gave bestselling novelist Colson Whitehead $10,000 to play at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It was the assignment of a lifetime, except for one hitch—he’d never played in a casino tournament before. With just six weeks to train, our humble narrator took the Greyhound to Atlantic City to learn the ways of high-stakes Texas Hold’em. Poker culture, he discovered, is marked by joy, heartbreak, and grizzled veterans playing against teenage hotshots weaned on Internet gambling. Not to mention the not-to-be overlooked issue of coordinating Port Authority bus schedules with your kid’s drop-off and pickup at school. Finally arriving in Vegas for the multimillion-dollar tournament, Whitehead brilliantly details his progress, both literal and existential, through the event’s antes and turns, through its gritty moments of calculation, hope, and spectacle. Entertaining, ironic, and strangely profound, this epic search for meaning at the World Series of Poker is a sure bet. Look for Colson Whitehead’s bestselling new novel, Harlem Shuffle!

In Dead Politician Society, the mayor falls down dead in the middle of a speech, and a university secret society promptly claims credit for the murder. Clare Vengel is given her first undercover assignment: to pose as a student and penetrate the society. She's a mechanic in her spare time, and thinks book smarts are for people who can't handle the real world. Instead of infiltrating the club, she alienates a popular professor, and quickly loses the respect of police superiors. When two more politicians die, Clare knows that the murderer she has to unmask is someone she has come to consider a friend. She only hopes that the friend doesn't unmask her first.In the second book, Death Plays Poker, world class poker players are being strangled in their hotel rooms, and Clare is given her second big assignment: to pose as a poker player in a major televised tournament, befriend the suspects, and find the killer in their midst. As more victims lose their lives to the cunning Poker Choker, and her cover role's legitimacy comes under attack from two directions, Clare wonders if her handlers are right: Should she pack it in and go home to a dull life as a beat cop?Or will she find the killer, prove her worth?

A seasoned con-artist named Jimmy lands himself in a new high-end senior living complex, and is looking forward to hanging out with a hot chick he meets the first weekend there, when he suddenly drops dead of a heart attack, and arrives in Heaven. While adjusting to the shock of his new situation, Jimmy meets his elder angel guide Norm, and is assigned to watch over a woman on earth he never knew before. He finds out the woman, Maura, is his brothers girlfriend and he learns from Norm that hell play a critical role in helping Maura through the relationship. As time goes by though, Jimmy realizes Mauras life is much less exciting than his was on Earth. He finally approaches Norm, and tells him how bored he is. Thats when he is told that sometimes while waiting for events to unfold on earth, even Angels get to play poker in Heaven. If youre wondering what Angels do all day, immerse yourself in a charming, inspirational story about the adventures in Heaven when an ordinary couple go about their lives on earth, while being watched over, prayed for, and loved every day.

When a snowboarder is found dead on the Blackcomb Glacier in Whistler, British Columbia, the police want to call it a suicide. The girl's mother, a U.S. senator, says her daughter would never kill herself. The FBI sends in undercover agent Clare Vengel to investigate and she discovers evidence of an LSD smuggling ring and a possible corrupt cop in cahoots with the smugglers.

Belinda Cooley just turned forty, got dumped by her fiancé, and quit her dream job—all in the same week. It’s enough to make a girl think her best years are behind her. So when her bad boy twin brother Ben tries to talk her into a spur-of-the-moment trip to Vegas, where he’s set his sights on winning the Big Kahuna of Texas Hold ’em tournaments, Belinda agrees to go. She figures she may get lucky at love, even if Ben loses his shirt playing the Cincinnati Kid. But instead of having the time of her life, Belinda ends up deep in the hole because of Ben’s obsession with beating Steely Stan, the most dangerous poker player this side of the Rio Grande—a man who’s got his fingers in everything from the casinos on the strip to the local police force. After Ben is abducted, she knows she has learn to play Hold’ em and take his place at the table. Because if Belinda can’t play her way to the final round, Ben will be retired from tournament poker permanently.

Wall Street is where poker and modern finance?and the theory behind these "games"?clash head on. In both worlds, real risk means real money is made or lost in a heart beat, and neither camp is always rational with the risk it takes. As a result, business and financial professionals who want to use poker insights to improve their job performance will find this entertaining book a "must read." So will poker players searching for an edge in applying the insights of risk-takers on Wall Street.