A Gambling Man (David Baldacci): Aloysius Archer (Book 2)

My first book of David Baldacci. I had been wanting to read one for a long while as he falls into the same broad genre as Girsham or Archer style fiction. As a first, I ain’t disappointed. A good suspense thriller with twists and turns to keep your interest invested.

Aloysius Archer, freshly put of prison is seeking apprenticeship with former FBI agent Willie Dash and is on his way to California to meet him. Along the way, he stops at Reno “The biggest little city in the world” – as it is called. It makes for an interesting read the people he meets there & how he finds a companion in Liberty Callahan, an aspiring actress. The instances in this city of Reno very subtly make known the goodness in Archer. Based in the 1940s & just after the war, the book has a cow boyish feel about it – the westerner movies that you may have watched. A somehow dark tone to the book all throughout. From the city of Reno, the story progresses to the actual plot. Archer upon being hired by Dash, they get involved in a blackmailing case against a wealthy politician – Douglas Kemper, running for mayor. Its a whirlwind of happenings after that with small revelations, new suspects and murders along the way. The various characters along the way – Wilma Darling, Wislon Sheen, Ruby Fraser, Mabel Dawson – used either as pawns, or having their bit in the activities add interest to the narration. The character of Callahan in particular stands out with her fearless, confident self – be it at confronting the criminals or be it at her job – it is quite well done. The final revelation of Sawyer Armstrong (Beth’s father) being behind all of this, and the instances leading to it are gripping for sure.

There however are a couple of problems I have with this book. To start with, I have always felt the optimum length of a crisp, fast paced novel is around 300 or so pages. Anything beyond that becomes a drag. And being a good 425+ pages, this book certainly drags off and on. There is an abundance of detail that the book is overloaded with, which lends little to the story and only adds to it’s length. Descriptions of a room for instance would go on and on for pages together, I understand the author is creating a picture in your mind which may appeal to some and look unnecessary to some. I quite skipped many of those bits without any loss of the plot.

The other thing I felt was, there are a hoard of murders one after another – infact, one too many! It takes some concentration to keep the ends together and not loose the plot midway. I needed to take breaks in between to relate the happenings & characters. I also feel these days books are unnecessarily burdened with descriptive sex scenes that serve no purpose other than being erotica for the audience that enjoys it – just imitating films.

One thing I was surprised with was that after the initial bit of a gambling stint, there was very less in the book to justify the title, except that you find the cause of the whole treachery was to build a casino on an island. I had expected that the premise of the book would be gambling – which had infact initially made me skeptical about reading this book.

This apart, the book was good for it’s suspense. Quite worth it. A few of the small revelations towards the end are quite unexpected & lend the book it’s zing. A good one time read.

Get it on Amazon A Gambling Man

Aloysius Archer Book 3 -> Dream Town: Aloysius Archer (Book 3)

More in suspense here – Camino Winds (John Grisham) , The Maidens (Alex Michaelides) , Falling (T.J. Newman), A Flicker In The Dark (Stacy Willingham) | Book Review