From Publishers Weekly
For part-time magician Shifty Lou Anderson, the job he is offered by world-famous tenor Fulvio Gasparini seems simple enough. Shifty, a skilled gambler, will be required to do nothing more than control the hefty opera star's gambling losses and check on Gasparini's stable of racehorses. Naturally, things do not work out that way. Shifty uncovers problems with Gasparini's stable and soon finds himself the target of a big-time crime syndicate. The pace here is frenetic and the population out of control. There are nymphomaniacs, orgies, escaped lions, hammer-wielding assailants and a confusion of other uglies, among them Hugo Mandelbaum, a Las Vegas comic with a mouth like a sewer, who subjects the reader to jokes that even the jaded Shifty finds tasteless. Murray (Tip on a Dead Crab) knows his horse racing and his opera, but the union he attempts here is unsuccessful and even offensive. At what point did AIDS become a permissible subject for quips?
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Shifty Anderson, magician and horse race aficionado, is in Las Vegas performing when he meets Fulvio Gasparini, opera superstar with a big penchant for gambling. Gasparini hires Shifty to help him win big and they do. But then someone tries to stop Shifty or kill himwhichever comes first. Murray, in his usual smooth, laid-back style, adds tips on gambling and racing information plus a delightful insight into opera in this successful third appearance of Shifty Anderson. JV
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
