2 BY TOM KAKONIS

Tom Kakonis is one of my favourite authors and Michigan Roll is one of my favourite books of all time. In truth I've probably read only 4 of the 7 books he has published, which kind of makes sense to me, because once they're gone they're gone and there's nothing left to look forward to. Only a re-read of course!

Kakonis has written about 7 books to date, including a couple which came out in the 90s under the pseudonym of Adam Barrow. Disillusionment with the publishing game caused him to put down the pen for a number of years, before publisher Brash Books brought him back into the game.

After a gap of about 15 years – Treasure Coast came out in 2014. Since then Brash have republished all his titles including the two pseudonymously published – Flawless and Blind Spot.  

Treasure Coast was read and reviewed a year ago - here. 

Gamblers, low lives, mobsters, psychopaths and damsels sometimes in distress - sometimes playing a game....my kind of books!

His 7 books are.....

Timothy Waverly series

1. Michigan Roll (1988)

2. Criss-Cross (1990)

3. Double Down (1991)

4. Shadow Counter (1993)

Novels

Treasure Coast (2014)

Flawless (2015) 

Blind Spot (2015)

Michigan Roll (1988)

Ex-con, professional poker player Timothy Waverly travels to Traverse City, Michigan for a break... and falls into bed with a seductress named Midnight. She's an out-of-towner, too, there to rescue her self-destructive brother, who has stupidly ripped off a fortune in cocaine from a vicious Chicago mobster. Now she is being chased pursued by Shadow, a hemorrhoidal hitman who gleefully specializes in torture and rape, and Gleep, his muscle-bound henchman. The odds are stacked against her, but Waverly is a gambler who knows how to play them...

"A sure narrative voice, a richly shaded hero and heroine, nightmare-vivid villains, and a plot paved with switchbacks and big curves add up to classy, if brutal, crime entertainment: this one cooks," Kirkus Reviews

"Aptly compared to Elmore Leonard, Kakonis builds exquisite tension." Publishers Weekly

"Original, brutal, nightmarish. Kakonis is a sharp new gambler in the literary crap game. He just takes the pot,"

I've read Michigan Roll two possibly three times and when I couldn't find my dog-eared paperback copy, after reading Treasure Coast - I went out and bought another one!

Shadow Counter (1993)

Timothy Waverly, an ex-con and ambitious card shark, is up to his ears in trouble in Las Vegas as he becomes involved in an ingenious basketball point-shaving scam and matches wits with a calculating psychopath, with his sister's life at stake.