num_pages: 271
description: The Barnes &amp; Noble ReviewPlay Dead, the first novel from Michael A. Arnzen in more than a decade -- after 1994's Grave Markings, which won the Bram Stoker and International Horror Critics Guild Awards for Best First Novel -- is a depraved fusion of adrenaline-injected mystery and horror that is as brutal as it is unforgettable. Johnny Frieze is a high-rolling gambler down on his luck; he has lost everything in Vegas -- even his lucky gold tooth. Living in a homeless shelter with a misfit group of failed gamblers, career criminals, and raving lunatics, Johnny stumbles across the ultimate no-limit wager: a card game where the winner gets $1 million in cash and the losers get killed. The game is called Butcher Boy, and before it can begin, the four chosen players must create their own suit of cards by artistically "extinguishing life" and photographing the results. Once the gruesome deck is completed, the game begins in earnest -- but what happens when the enigmatic entrepreneur bankrolling the contest is playing a much larger game, with even more nefarious stakes? Set in a neon-lit metropolis where desperation and moral corruption are commonplace and the difference between life and death is mere luck, this viciously realistic look into the not-so-glamorous world of high-stakes gambling (and the sinister individuals who exist in its shadows) is both utterly repellent and addictively readable. Gambling aficionados as well as horror, mystery, and crime fiction fans are sure to enjoy this action-packed 52-chapter "novel-of-cards." If Play Dead were a poker hand, it would undoubtedly be a royal flush. Paul Goat Allen
language: English
title: Play Dead
titlecomplete: Play Dead
genres: Horror, Fantasy
ratings_count: 37
places: The United States of America
publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press