James Swain

Reality and illusion blur in this Washington Post bestseller that Michael Connelly calls "a hundred percent adrenaline rush disguised as a detective novel." Nicki Pearl is the perfect daughter--every parent's dream. And that of strangers, too. Wherever she goes, she's being watched. Each stalker is different from the last, except for one thing--their alarming obsession with Nicki. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Nicki's father is turning to someone who can protect her: retired private detective and ex-Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster. Teaming up with FBI agent and former abduction victim Beth Daniels, Lancaster can help--his way. He's spent most of his career dispatching creeps who get off on terrorizing the vulnerable. Unlicensed, and unrestricted, he plays dirty...But this case is unusual. Why so many men? Why this one girl? Does Nicki have something to hide? Or do her parents? Trawling the darkest depths of southern Florida, Lancaster faces a growing tide of secrets and deception. And the deeper he digs, the more he realizes that finding the truth won't be easy. Because there's more to this case than meets the eye.

The King Tides

A human-trafficking case hits dangerously close to home in a heart-racing thriller by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The King Tides. A disturbing missing-person case reunites ex-Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster and FBI Agent Beth Daniels. Skye is just one of a dozen young women who have disappeared from Florida without a trace. Beth can do more than just imagine their fear. She was a victim herself--a trauma that's strengthened her fight for justice. Then Lancaster uncovers a scrap of evidence, and the mystery begins to unravel. But the lead comes with a personal sting: the involvement of his estranged brother, Logan, an ex-con recruited into the shepherding of human trade. The only way for Logan to shed his demons is to come clean. For Lancaster and Daniels, that means being drawn, secret by secret, into a dangerous underground world. With time running out, three damaged pasts will collide; more secrets will spill; and Lancaster, Daniels, and Logan will have to fight to save themselves first if they ever hope to find the girls alive.

No Good Deed

Dark magic

A follow-up to Dark Magic finds psychic magician Peter Warlock assisting the police with warnings about imminent threats and confronted by a group of evil spirits that kidnap human souls, target Peter's loved ones and force him to confront a brutal serial killer.

Shadow People

Family secrets become a blackmailer's deadly weapon in this pulse-pounding thriller by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of No Good Deed. The shocking suicide of Beth Daniels's father--a prominent surgeon--has thrown the FBI agent into a tailspin. But when Beth heads to Saint Augustine, Florida, for the funeral, she'll need more than the emotional support of her boyfriend, retired detective Jon Lancaster. She'll need his gut instinct for solving a mystery. No sooner do they arrive than suspicions are aroused. There's the pair of Russians who seem to be watching every move the family makes. A final, cryptic phone call Martin Daniels made to his granddaughter. Strange blood evidence on his estate. More than $1 million missing from Martin's account. And his cell phone, wiped clean, along with clues to a double life. To Beth, it's disturbingly clear: the man she loved was a stranger. As she and Jon delve into Martin's past, they have no idea where the secrets will take them. Or how dangerous it will be to expose the conspiracies, the cover-ups, and the terrible truths of Martin's life--and death.

A Thriller

Bad News Travels

While hiding his membership in an underground group of psychics who predict and prevent crimes, magician Peter Warlock foresees an act of violence targeting the city and finds his efforts thwarted by a psychic cult.

Dark Magic

Misanthropic ex-cop and freelance "grifter hunter" Tony Valentine is called in to find swindler Frank Fontaine, who vanished leaving Nola Briggs, a blackjack dealer caught on camera helping him cheat, to take all the heat, but an ingenious scheme to have Nola help him find Fontaine plunges Valentine into a deadly world of hustlers, corrupt cops, and bloodthirsty hit men. Reissue.

Grift Sense

A hardened ex-cop, Tony Valentine now nabs hustlers who rob casinos, and the Micanopy Indian Reservation Casino in South Florida desperately needs his expertise. A blackjack dealer has rigged a game, dealt a player eighty-four winning hands in a row, and then disappeared. But the missing dealer is part of an even bigger, far deadlier scheme. Valentine’s trail leads him to Rico Blanco, a ruthless gangster who once worked for John Gotti; his shady, elusive partner-in-crime, Victor Marks; and a bombshell named Candy Hart, a hooker with dreams of love—a combination tailor-made to double-cross. It appears they have a con going down involving a cocky, filthy-rich Brit and his millions of dollars. Valentine’s challenge: to figure out how all the pieces of the seamy puzzle fit together . . . before his luck runs out and his life goes bust.

Sucker Bet

A specialist in finding missing persons, ex-cop Jack Carpenter is stunned when he is hired by convicted serial killer Abb Smith to find Smith's grandson, only to discover that the case involves Heather Rinker, a childhood friend of Jack's own daughter.

A Novel of Suspense

The Night Stalker

When last we saw Tony Valentine -- former cop, lifelong misanthrope, and legendary catcher of casino cheats -- he was just coming up for air after a close brush with the afterlife in his first outing, the acclaimed Grift Sense. This time around, it's personal. Tony Valentine's ex-partner Doyle Flanagan has been blown to pieces by a car bomb. Shortly before his death, Doyle had been filling Valentine in on the details of his latest, most baffling case -- an impressive $6 million blackjack scam at Atlantic City's legendary Bombay casino. Valentine determines that the only way to bring his friend's killers to justice is to crack the Bombay heist himself. But standing between Valentine and his goal is a head-spinning assortment of ruthless gangsters, crooked croupiers, eccentric millionaires, and Croatians with bad haircuts. His only ally: an irresistibly enigmatic female wrestler. With diamond-hard prose, triple-crossing plot twists, and a deliciously noir-inflected atmosphere, Funny Money finds James Swain more than living up to his promise as a razor-sharp storyteller with unlimited surprises up his sleeve.

Funny Money

“In this series about gambling, the main character is a big winner.” –Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Bask in Swain’s Las Vegas without having to set foot in the place and risk being skinned alive.” –The Washington Post Book World A blind poker player named Skip DeMarco is scamming the world’s largest poker tournament in Las Vegas, and cheating-expert Tony Valentine and his son, Gerry, have been hired to find out how. DeMarco is tied to some dangerously desperate characters who will go to extremes–even cold-blooded murder–to ensure that the obnoxious DeMarco wins big. While Gerry flies to Atlantic City to suss out DeMarco’s secret, Valentine stays in Vegas and teams up with an aging grifter named Rufus Steele, who has his own score to settle with DeMarco. On opposite sides of a deadly game, father and son work their way through a colorful landscape of conmen and hitmen. Together, they will have to prove there’s more to any game of chance than meets the eye. Featuring insider tips for catching poker cheats, as well as a glossary of card hustler terms!

A Novel

Deadman's Bluff

Former cop Tony Valentine, now a freelance grifter-hunter, must figure out who his real enemies are when his job following allegedly crooked blackjack dealer Nola Briggs leads him into the dangerous underworld of Las Vegas.

When his ex-partner, Doyle Flanagan, is blown up by a car bomb, Tony Valentine joins the investigation to find his friend's killers and becomes embroiled in the multimillion-dollar blackjack scam that Flanagan had been trying to solve.

A Mystery Featuring Tony Valentine

Tony Valentine has a gift for grift: He can walk into a casino and spot a cheater across a crowded floor. A man who still uses pay phones and won’t spend more than a buck for coffee, Tony has protected Atlantic City gambling palaces for twenty years and learned every trick of the trade—until a new one blows him away. With his old partner murdered in a bomb blast, Tony returns to A.C. to retrace Doyle Flanagan’s last case. Investigating a six-million-dollar casino takedown, a square cop soon meets a whole lot of bent people, from a beautiful lady wrestler to some Manhattan mobsters; from a trio of beautiful casino “consultants” to a team of Eurotrash blackjack card counters. But while everyone around Tony Valentine (including Tony’s own son) is playing some kind of angle, Tony is determined to find a killer who is playing for keeps. . . . From the Paperback edition.

Ex-cop Tony Valentine heads for south Florida at the request of the security chief at Micanopy Indian Reservation Casino to uncover the crooks and hustlers who are preying on the local gamblers. By the author of Funny Money. Reprint.

When he witnesses the violent kidnapping of his daughter's basketball teammate, abduction specialist Jack Carpenter recognizes the snatcher from an unsolved case and sets out to rescue the girl.

James Swain

About

Books

Join the club