Strip Rules

In this raucous, high-stakes heist novel, a down-and-out card counter gets the chance to turn his life around by taking down a ruthless Vegas casino boss.

Blackjack pro Ronnie “the Technician” Redfield, the “most feared card counter between Vegas and Reno,” has his life blown up when a casino owner decides to take him down. Card counting isn’t illegal—since thinking isn’t illegal, yet—but the court battle costs Ronnie, a Vietnam vet, his livelihood, his sobriety, and his family. His wife is dead and his teenage daughter, Margot, has disappeared without a trace.

Now, three years later, he’s just about dug himself out of his hole. He’s living in a trailer outside Vegas when his old army buddy “Wild” Bill Grimsley, now a casino handler for high rollers, shows up in a limo to drag Ronnie back into the action. Bill has a revenge plot to take down Rodrigo Gwynne, the nastiest, most exploitative casino owner on the Strip. Bill’s grudge is personal, but Ronnie’s involvement will be strictly professional. All he has to do is what he does best: make money off the house. If he succeeds, Ronnie’s share of the take will be enough to get his life back on track—and hire a detective to track down Margot.

To infiltrate Gwynne’s casino, Ronnie assembles a team of misfit geniuses, blackjack pros who excel at role-playing or flying under the radar. The plan is off to a raring start, the card counters evolving their strategy through every new setback, when intimidation erupts into deadly violence. Ronnie could lose everything—was his comeback worth the risk?

Cult favorite crime novelist Martin Limón, author of the Sueño & Bascom series, shines in his first-ever stand-alone, drawn from his own experiences at the blackjack table.

“God bless Martin Limón for reinstating gambling as one of America’s great vices. Strip Rules’ menagerie of card cheats, ex-military wing nuts, and connivers manages to mark a win for humanity. Limón’s latest is more fun than cheating at solitaire, and with a bigger payoff. Strip Rules has it all in spades.”—Ed Lin, author of The Dead Can’t Make a Living