{"id":2480,"date":"2019-04-12T10:03:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T17:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2480"},"modified":"2019-04-12T10:03:03","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T17:03:03","slug":"betting-on-a-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2480","title":{"rendered":"Betting on a killer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer is flushed with pleasure after reading this novel, and he hopes you\u2019ll go straight out to get a copy. More poker puns welcomed.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer<\/p>\n

BLUFF. By Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Poisoned Pen Press. 264 pages. $26.99.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When \u201cMad\u201d Maud steps into a Manhattan restaurant and shoots billionaire financier Sun Sunderland, she starts a journey that rushes the reader from the high society of the Upper East Side to the flops, folds and flips of the world of poker.\u00a0From salons where tea is sipped in bone china cups, to poker parlors where pizza crusts are plucked from the garbage, author Jane Stanton Hitchcock takes us on a highly entertaining ride.\u00a0Familiar with both New York Society and poker \u2014 she\u2019s played in the World Championship \u2014 she creates a vivid context for the Bluff<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Because this is not just a story that makes fun of society, and elevates poker to philosophy for life.\u00a0It\u2019s about Maud, a master poker player who is playing for the biggest stakes of her life.\u00a0When Maud shoots Sun, he\u2019s sitting next to Burt Sklar, the man who made Maud mad.\u00a0Many years ago, Sklar, taking a page from Bernie Madoff\u2019s playbook, swindled Maud\u2019s mother out of the family fortune.\u00a0Maud hasn\u2019t been able to get anyone\u2019s attention \u2014 until now.\u00a0A master poker player herself, Hitchcock keeps her narrative cards close to her chest as the game unfolds.\u00a0When she plays a card, the plot twists so hard it gives the reader whiplash.\u00a0Maud\u2019s plan comes out of Hitchcock\u2019s pen slowly, but steadily.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, of course, all the sympathy in the book goes to Maud.\u00a0Very rarely has an author succeeded in actually getting readers to cheer a killer so heartily.\u00a0Like the best of heist movies, Bluff<\/em>puts us on the edge of our chairs.\u00a0After the \u201criver,\u201d when all the cards are out, Maud pulls the Bluff<\/em>\u2014 and it\u2019s a beauty.\u00a0Both she and the reader are all in by now, and the denouement is most satisfying.\u00a0As one of the book\u2019s blurbs says, Bluff<\/em>is a royal flush of a novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer is flushed with pleasure after reading this novel, and he hopes you\u2019ll go straight out to get a copy. More poker puns welcomed. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer BLUFF. By Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Poisoned Pen Press. 264 pages. $26.99. When \u201cMad\u201d Maud steps into a Manhattan restaurant and shoots billionaire financier Sun Sunderland, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,426,14],"tags":[1111,1110],"class_list":["post-2480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries","category-popular-fiction","category-thriller-suspense","tag-bluff","tag-jane-stanton-hitchcock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2482,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions\/2482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}