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by Brian Rouff copyright 2001 $14.95 222 pages Fiction Paperback ISBN: 0-9717148-1-9 Hardway Press Even though he runs a bar in the heart of Las Vegas, Jimmy Delaney is no gambler. He's learned the hard way that when his luck goes sour, it goes the whole way, so he's stayed away from the tables. Then a break-in empties his video poker machines of $12,000, which his insurance doesn't cover, and his accountant disappears along with every cent Jimmy owns. It turns out the fleeing accountant hasn't paid any taxes and the IRS is threatening to put Jimmy's bar for sale. A rock and roll playing IRS agent agrees to take the heat off Jimmy if he hires the agent's band. But with a tune list that includes only Jimmy Buffet tunes that even Jimmy Buffet couldn't remember, the band is driving customers away so fast the doors of Jimmy D's will end up shuttered long before the looming foreclosure date. One by one Jimmy's options close down, until his last remaining card appears to be a dirty square of cardboard handed him by a homeless man, a business card reading "DICE ANGEL. I will bring you luck at craps." With nothing left to lose, Jimmy arranges a meeting. Amaris, the Dice Angel, tells him she can make him a winner, but only if he follows her instructions exactly. Jimmy can't help entertaining doubts, especially when, according to Amaris, the path to the fifty thou he desperately needs apparently means casting off the habits of a lifetime. It not only means trusting her implicitly but submitting to some arcane New Age massaging of his karma. Before Jimmy can embark on the project, a cop friend turns up a rap sheet on the angel that's even longer than the reach of the IRS, and it begins to look like Jimmy's last hope just went up in smoke. Brian Rouff's "Dice Angel" is a fast-paced, dialogue-heavy book told in first person by the main character. It helps that Jimmy Delaney is a likable character and possesses the seductive appeal of a gifted raconteur. His humorous, faintly ironic voice seems more bemused by his misfortunes than shattered by them. Expect enough gambling jargon to send non-gambling readers scrambling for their copies of "Hoyle's Rules of Games." But even without knowing the rules of play, non-gamblers can appreciate the fact that a lot is riding on Delaney's dice throws and shouldn't have any problem following the action. Brian Rouff writes well and "Dice Angel" is a story in which the pace never flags. If Rouff has a failing it's that he tends to let his characters tell one another one old joke too many. And, if you want to really get picky some of the incidents in the wrap-up might strike you as just a tad contrived. But any reader prepared to overlook such minor flaws can look forward to an entertainment as good as anything Las Vegas has to offer. Put your money on this one. |
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