Stacked Deck

In Stacked Deck, Johnny Liddell finds himself in a game where the stakes are murder and the cards are all marked against him. When a routine investigation into a crooked gambling ring turns deadly, Liddell is drawn into a world where the winners cheat, the losers wind up dead, and everyone's playing an angle. As the bodies pile up, he has to figure out who's stacking the deck-and why-before he becomes the next victim in a dangerous game he never agreed to play. Frank Kane delivers another razor-sharp noir thriller, rich with smoky backroom poker games, glitzy nightclubs masking criminal enterprises, and a steady stream of suspects who all seem to have something to hide. Liddell, with his trademark wisecracks and stubborn streak, moves through a labyrinth of conmen, cardsharps, and molls whose loyalties change with the turn of a card. Each lead opens new risks, and each clue takes him closer to a truth more dangerous than the lies. With snappy dialogue, breakneck pacing, and a hardboiled atmosphere steeped in postwar urban grit, Stacked Deck is a prime example of mid-century pulp fiction at its most compelling. For fans of the genre, it's a high-tension ride where the odds are against the hero but in Johnny Liddell's world, that's just the way he likes it.