The Rogues' Game

Exciting post World War II noir

In 1947 a forty-three years old man drives into a Texas city in a brand new Lincoln convertible with a beautiful blonde Della. He books a room for them for two weeks at the Weilbach Hotel informing the clerk he may stay longer. The next morning as the man expected Deputy Sheriff Ollie Marne visits him to learn what he is doing here. The man bribes Ollie to get him access to the weekend poker game at the hotel¿s Plainsman Suite where to sit costs five thousand............................... Not long after meeting with Marne, the man and Della have breakfast with ex convict Herbert ¿Chicken¿ Little and Ice Pick Willie. Ice Pick is irate when the man insists the scam to con banker Clifton Robillard could take six months though Chicken Little seems calm; the man knows he has an enemy in Ice Pick. The game has begun............................... This post World War II noir is character driven by the no nonsense amused narrator who provides no name for himself or the city he works his game in. The story line is action-packed but clearly belongs to the poker playing anti-hero who bluffs his way through scenarios without fear of someone calling his hand. A final twist adds to a strong late 1940s Texas suspense thriller that never slows down once the man with no name begins raising the ante............... Harriet Klausner