Stacked Deck

In Stacked Deck, Johnny Liddell finds himself in a game where the stakes are murder and the cards are all marked against him. When a routine investigation into a crooked gambling ring turns deadly, Liddell is drawn into a world where the winners cheat, the losers wind up dead, and everyone's playing an angle. As the bodies pile up, he has to figure out who's stacking the deck—and why—before he becomes the next victim in a dangerous game he never agreed to play.

Frank Kane delivers another razor-sharp noir thriller, rich with smoky backroom poker games, glitzy nightclubs masking criminal enterprises, and a steady stream of suspects who all seem to have something to hide. Liddell, with his trademark wisecracks and stubborn streak, moves through a labyrinth of conmen, cardsharps, and molls whose loyalties change with the turn of a card. Each lead opens new risks, and each clue takes him closer to a truth more dangerous than the lies.

With snappy dialogue, breakneck pacing, and a hardboiled atmosphere steeped in postwar urban grit, Stacked Deck is a prime example of mid-century pulp fiction at its most compelling. For fans of the genre, it's a high-tension ride where the odds are against the hero—but in Johnny Liddell's world, that's just the way he likes it.