| Lucky at Cards |  | Author: Lawrence Block
Publisher: Lawrence Block
Category: eBooks
In Stock
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 69,166
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
ASIN: B002LIT43I
Publication Date: August 13, 2009
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Product Description
Newly available for Kindle---
Here's a review from Publisher's Weekly:
The Hard Case Crime imprint has found a perfect partner in Block, as this gritty grifter's tale, in print for the first time in 40 years, goes to show. In a small town somewhere between Chicago and New York, down on his luck card shark Bill Maynard stops off to take care of his teeth, recently broken in a beating he took for fixing a game. Planning to stay only long enough to heal, Bill's plans change when his dentist invites him to join a friendly game of poker. Having fooled the locals and earned a bundle at the game, Bill's ready to leave town when he falls hard for his host's sexy young wife, Joyce, who isn't fooled by his card tricks. Indeed, she's got higher stakes in mind: after seducing him, she ropes Bill into that old scheme, helping her get rid of her hubby. The plot twists here, then there, then back again, rooted in Block's strong characters and no-nonsense prose style
And here's another from Booklist:
Before Matt Scudder, before Bernie Rhodenbarr, before being named a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, Lawrence Block turned out paperback originals. This one--unavailable for more than 40 years--now receives a timely reissue from Hard Case Crime. It's a doozy. Bill Maynard is a card mechanic (cheater) who took a beating in Chicago and now is in serious need of some dental work. He finds it in an unnamed burg on the road to New York, and he also finds a nice little poker game. But who wanders into the game but one of the player's wives--who just happens to know a mechanic when she sees one. Soon enough Maynard and the wife are plotting to skip town with the husband's money, but, of course, the plan goes awry--in part because the square's life starts to feel good to our card shark. Block unwinds his plot superbly, pointing toward a classic noir finale but then seeming to pull away--or maybe not. And, along the way, there is all the teasing sexuality and tongue-in-cheek noir style that a pulp devotee craves. Bill Ott
And the author says:
I read this while reformatting it for Kindle, and have to say it's as good as any of my work of the period. I published it with Beacon because I'd split with my then-agent and needed a quick sale, and used a pen name because it was with Beacon. It really should have come out under my own name from Gold Medal. Oh well. Not the only bad decision I made back in the day.
The book probably owes a little to The Tooth & The Nail, by Bill S. Ballinger, a fine writer who's pretty much forgotten these days.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 Another Block reprint February 16, 2007
Craig Clarke (New England)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
"They say every man has a weakness. They say that for every man there's a woman somewhere in the world who can make him jump through fiery hoops just by snapping her fingers. They say a man's lucky if he never meets that woman." -- from Lucky at Cards
If your publishing imprint's best-selling novels were by a particular author, you'd keep putting out novels by that author, wouldn't you? Well, that must be what's going on over at Hard Case Crime, because Lucky at Cards is the third "lost" Lawrence Block classic they've come out with. Lucky for us, it's another doozy, but what else could you possibly expect from the master of the crime novel?
Bill Maynard is an ex-magician who found his way into the card-sharp business. He upset the wrong people in his last town, so he's moved temporarily to New York, following an opportunity. But he's about to get very distracted by another, much more unexpected, opportunity -- one "with hooker's hips and queen-sized [...]," and one that's easily as dangerous as getting aces and eights.
Lucky at Cards was originally released under the title The Sex Shuffle and the byline "Sheldon Lord," and it was published in 1964, the year before The Girl with the Long Green Heart, Block's previous Hard Case Crime outing. It shares a more optimistic tone with that novel that is a far cry from the much darker Grifter's Game (a.k.a. Mona) from just a couple of years before. This is apparently a huge coup for the Hard Case gang as Block has been notoriously shy when it comes to his early pseudonymous novels.
Its brisk pacing is a big attraction, but Lawrence Block's forte has always been his wonderfully complex plots, especially in these early novels. The likable, relatable characters like Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr came later -- guys like Bill Maynard in Lucky at Cards are just slightly nonaverage Joes with very healthy imaginations. Hell, they think like novelists, with their convoluted scenarios involving multiple character roles and layers of deception requiring huge amounts of footwork and no discernible sleep. No real person could pull all this off. And while this may be a drawback for some readers, I get a lot of fun out of watching these unrealistic, but still somehow highly plausible, situations play out. As long as Hard Case Crime keeps discovering these gems, I'll keep reading them.
Don't Miss This One April 15, 2007
Richard B. Schwartz (Columbia, Missouri USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is the best of Block's Hard Case Crime novels, though all three are superb. It's all that the reviewers say--vintage, pulpy noir with all the expected features and attachments. The interesting thing is that it's very different from the current Block style. Block's Scudder, Burglar, and Hit Man books are silky smooth, with economical plotting, perfect pacing, and effortless, but plausible endings. LUCKY AT CARDS is very different, and not just because of the differences in genre. For one thing, the book spends a lot of time on the mechanics of the card sharp's craft, the differences between cheating at gin and cheating at poker, the simplicity of cheating at bridge, etc. Second, the plotting is far more complex than Block's usual, with cuticle-chewing suspense and nasty double binds. The characters are straight out of the pulp noir genre, but they're still engaging and memorable. One of the first we meet is a dentist with a heavy nicotine addiction who sticks his fingers in the protagonist's mouth and annoys him with their taste. Yum. Welcome to pulpdom.
Great story still works April 24, 2007
Ed Lynskey, (Washington, D.C.)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a fabulous reprint of a Lawrence Block title originally published in 1964 from the good folks at Hard Case Crime. I don't believe anything was altered to fit 2007. Esso gas is mentioned. The prices all sound like 1964's. I like that.
This paperback is a pure gem. The card sharp is Bill Maynard who has breezed into town. After caught cheating and getting his thumbs busted, Bill beat it out of Chicago. He meets a vivacious Joyce Rogers who's married to a Murray Rogers, a wealthy tax lawyer. Sparks fly. Bill and Joyce soon scheme to rip off Murray and go off to live the good life.
The poker and card-playing references give the tale its gritty realism. Bill with a conscience becomes a likeable protagonist. Marvelous twists and great minor characters, too.
All aces December 27, 2007
D. Sturm (Baltimore, MD)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
You know you're in the classic noir time zone when our protagonist is disgusted by the taste of nicotine on the fingers of the dentist working on his teeth. Bill, a professional card sharp, has lammed out of Chicago with a mouth full of broken teeth (guess why). A pause for dental repairs at some huckburg. An invitation to a poker game. At the game, one of the player's wives, Joyce, wanders in and, on the QT, let's Bill know she recognizes what he's doing. Bill and Joyce, being two of a kind, plot to take hubby's money.( Interestingly, it's not by killing him.) While Bill starts putting the set-up in place, he takes a job as cover. What do you know? He's good at this job! Then he meets a soulful school teacher, who digs him. Two paths. Which one? You may think you have it figured out, but Block pulls off a twist ending that will have you grinning and shaking your head. If you like your pulp high on wit and low on gunplay, this is your book.
My Grandfather called these, "Dime Detective Novels." September 2, 2009
David W. Johnson (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL United States)
My grandfather retired to Florida in the 50's and read "Dime Detective Novels" by the dozens. I believe this Block would qualify as a dime detective novel, except that it now costs $7. I read everything that Lawrence Block writes. "Lucky ..." is so good that I have sent it to several friends. All have been thrilled. I only wish Lawrence Block could go back in time and write many more "Hard Case Crime" novels. If you like "Lucky," then I suspect you will like all that Block has written.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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