Play Dead

by Michael A. Arnzen

Overview

Johnny had been to the top. Young and slick, he knew how to play the high roller, dress the part, and make his opponents sweat. He'd ridden into Vegas on a winning streak a mile wide. But Vegas took everything, even his lucky gold tooth. You'd think he couldn't fall any lower than a homeless shelter full of the downtrodden. And he couldn't possibly have anything left to lose. But you'd be wrong. Johnny soon discovers there's a game going on at the shelter. A game where before you play the cards you have to make them. A game where the payout is survival and folding means death. A game where the question becomes: are you playing the cards or are they playing you? Using 52 chapters Arnzen's novel-of-cards is stacked with mischief and thrills. Like the most accomplished blackjack dealer Arnzen will keep you guessing at his hand. Are you ready to play?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935738336
Publisher:	Raw Dog Screaming Press
Publication date:	07/02/2013
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)

What People are Saying About This

Horror-Web

"Play Dead is a fun story full of power, life and death, intricacies of relationships, mysticism and survival. Arnzen weaves a gripping tale with just the right blend of intrigue, horror, and morality. Very entertaining."

Lance Olsen

"Play Dead reads like white lightning. The wonderfully grungy characters and staccato-fast chapters grab you by the face, haul you in, and won't let go, while the richly metaphoric style begs for savoring on every page. Arnzen wears a wry gaming grin even as he reminds us the universe is little more than a horrorshow comprised of pure plain chance. This terrific (in all senses of the word) novel hits the ground running and just won't stop."
—author of 10:01 and Girl Imagined by Chance

Flesh and Blood Magazine

"Arnzen deftly deals."

Brian Hodge

"Las Vegas is as diseased a city as there is, and Mike Arnzen knows this as well as anyone. In Play Dead, he distills its essence down to a uniquely brutal game and brings together as fascinatingly repellent a bunch of losers ever to make a grab for the corroded brass ring. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Jesus, let's hope so."
—author of Deathgrip and Wild Horses

J. A. Konrath

"With Play Dead, Arnzen has created a masterpiece of eloquent depravity. It features all of the sins of Vegas, slathering on heaping portions of insane greed, savage sex, irredeemable blasphemy, and skull-crunching violence. You'll get sucked in on the first page, and won't put the book down until you reach the breathless finale. Arnzen writes like someone has a shotgun to his head, and Mike might be the one pulling the trigger..."
—author of Bloody Mary

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
Play Dead, the first novel from Michael A. Arnzen in more than a decade -- after 1994's Grave Markings, which won the Bram Stoker and International Horror Critics Guild Awards for Best First Novel -- is a depraved fusion of adrenaline-injected mystery and horror that is as brutal as it is unforgettable.

Johnny Frieze is a high-rolling gambler down on his luck; he has lost everything in Vegas -- even his lucky gold tooth. Living in a homeless shelter with a misfit group of failed gamblers, career criminals, and raving lunatics, Johnny stumbles across the ultimate no-limit wager: a card game where the winner gets $1 million in cash and the losers get killed. The game is called Butcher Boy, and before it can begin, the four chosen players must create their own suit of cards by artistically "extinguishing life" and photographing the results. Once the gruesome deck is completed, the game begins in earnest -- but what happens when the enigmatic entrepreneur bankrolling the contest is playing a much larger game, with even more nefarious stakes?

Set in a neon-lit metropolis where desperation and moral corruption are commonplace and the difference between life and death is mere luck, this viciously realistic look into the not-so-glamorous world of high-stakes gambling (and the sinister individuals who exist in its shadows) is both utterly repellent and addictively readable. Gambling aficionados as well as horror, mystery, and crime fiction fans are sure to enjoy this action-packed 52-chapter "novel-of-cards." If Play Dead were a poker hand, it would undoubtedly be a royal flush. Paul Goat Allen

bn.com