The title character is one Ricky Smith, a loner from Slippery Rock, North Carolina with no priors for cheating. This guy has the distinction of baffling the best casino consultant we know, the very able Tony Valentine who makes a good living unveiling just about every gambling scam he's come up against. But as knowledgeable as author James Swain's expert is, he just hasn't seen anything like Ricky's perfect record of wins in every form of gambling he tries.

Ricky comes to everyone's attention when he jumps from his burning, upper-story room at the Riverboat Casino Hotel into the pool and comes out not only alive, but unbeatable by anything Las Vegas has to offer. It isn't long before Grift Sense, Tony Valentine's anti-fraud service, gets a call from old friend Bill Higgins, director of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, asking him to come out and help them figure out how Ricky's pulling off his streak. But Tony quit working in Vegas when they threw his son Gerry out as an undesirable. When Higgins' offer is raised to include Gerry's outstanding debts, Tony's on a plane.

Tony, whose previous career as a cop in Atlantic City is what prepared him for his job apprehending conmen and other criminals, is stumped by Ricky's total lack of failure. But he knows one thing: there is no such thing as a winning streak like Ricky's that's honest. Nothing like it exists without some trick. Yes, a person can get hot; yes, there's such a thing as luck, but this consistency in so many different games of chance? Loser to millionaire in a couple of days?

Tony studies the tapes, but figuring out why he's not spotting the deception is turning out to be his greatest challenge ever in detecting crooked gambling. Forget "counting," because there are more than card games involved. How do you win at roulette on every spin? How do you pick 5 numbers out of a bag? How do you pick 3 winners in a horse race or win a $50,000 lottery? This guy even beat Tex "All In" Snyder at poker.

Which gives Tony a second geographical area of investigation. For this, he hires Gerry to help him work the case from Mississippi, where his son, himself a new father and loving husband, will look up the foxy poker champ and encounter some strange underworld dudes from the Dixie Mafia. Gerry, for once, is going to prove himself worthy of his dad's confidence. And, before this game is over, Tony is going to prove what an expert marksman he is with a Glock.

Swain has cut a literary niche for himself by specializing in the shady world of cheats and scam artists, from Reno to Monaco and back to Vegas. He has run the spectrum of chicanery and fraud so wide and deep you'd think he'd exhausted the possibilities a few books ago ("Loaded Dice," "Sucker Bet," "Funny Money"). But he keeps us guessing with fresh, new schemes to beat the house.

But, what we admire mostly is the Valentine character itself. This is a man who knows what's right and, for that, we're forever on his side. He defines trust and dependability while mixing in a tough guy's virility and a little boy's humor and adventurousness. His qualities remain steeadfast while you're getting hooked into a most colorful palette of gangsterism and compassion, nobility and the dregs of mankind. Once you sit down to this author's game, he'll make you a player. All chips on the table, please.