No House Limit (Hard Case Crime (Mass Market Paperback))
Joe Martin, owner of the Rainbow’s End casino in Las Vegas, is an independent operator who coexists uneasily with the syndicate, holding down his place on the Strip by keeping both his head and heart strictly on task. But when the syndicate sends the world’s best gambler to the Rainbow’s End craps tables to break the bank—at the exact moment when Martin thinks he might be falling in love—he finds himself under assault on two fronts, trying to keep his head in the game when his heart’s not in it. Fisher made his mark more as a screenwriter than a novelist, and this 1958 thriller has cinematic flair, combining a ticking clock, a claustrophobic environment, and a crowd of personalities to exciting effect. Also intriguing are the introduction to craps and the inside-out view of a family-unfriendly Sin City. Gender relationships are definitely of the pop-cultural moment (men and women fight until they kiss), but connoisseurs of crime fiction—especially the gambling subgenre—will want to put their money down and watch Fisher roll. --Keir Graff