Pressing the Bet

June 12, 2006
At the start of Ripley's often funny, occasionally suspenseful second Vegas caper to feature Cole Springer (after 2001's Springer's Gambit
), the former Secret Service agent agrees to track down a friend's son, who's missing and feared dead, though he hasn't been back to Vegas for years. In fact, Springer was banned from ever returning by the gangster whose Cadillac he stole simply in order to drive into the fountain at Caesar's Palace. Springer soon leaves lasting impressions on a parade of not particularly bright mugs and street hustlers, some hired muscle, a would-be PI and a beautiful detective on the local police force, Tara St. John. The author's working knowledge of the ins and outs of Vegas lends color and considerable interest to the story, while the assorted characters he depicts all come across as slightly over-the-top, yet, within the context, completely believable. The Elmore Leonardesque dialogue adds to the snappy pace.

August 1, 2006
When we left Cole Springer, he'd quickstepped his way through a screwball caper involving stolen Mob money and a cast of lovable con artists (" Springer's Gambit," 2001). Now the Aspen bar owner is off to Vegas at the behest of his best friend's father. The job is to bring home the body of said friend, Jesse Robinson, but when Springer arrives in town, he quickly discovers that Jesse is very much alive--but maybe not for much longer if Springer can't figure out who's trying to kill whom. Naturally, opportunity beckons the more Springer digs, eventually leading to another coalition of morally questionable but humanly delightful characters combining forces to con a different batch of equally questionable but far less delightful types out of a mess of money. Ripley is the blue-collar Elmore Leonard, toiling in the workaday world of the genre mainstream but turning out finely crafted caper novels featuring nimble, fast-talking protagonists who see larceny as an opportunity for good clean fun. Springer has a gallant side, too, but fortunately, it never gets in the way of the fun. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)