The Gaming Table

The pack looks perfectly ordinary—until Chauvignac shows Olivier how a card-sharper can make the right cards find their way into his hand. Is this a lesson in self-defence, or the first step into a trap?

In the glittering gaming rooms of nineteenth-century France, Andrew Steinmetz follows the “polite sharpers” who turn refinement and respectability into tools of deceit. Olivier, a young gentleman buried in debt, is tempted by his companion Chauvignac’s promise of easy money—and by the secret craft of cheating at cards. Soon the pair are bound for Boulogne, where a wealthy count and a game of cards await. Olivier hopes to escape his creditors; his new associates have a far more dangerous plan. How long before he discovers what his lesson has really cost him?

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