Mike Shea on the month’s new releases
Olen Steinhauer
St. Martin's Minotaur
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Former Austinite OLEN STEINHAUER (currently of Budapest) invents a fictional Soviet bloc nation circa 1967 as the setting for 36 YALTA BOULEVARD (St. Martin’s Minotaur), the third in a series of brainy espionage novels featuring commie spy Brano Sev. Sev has fallen out of favor with the comrade lieutenant general, and his new, nasty assignment leaves him bruised, confused, and suspected of treason. A retro atmosphere accounts for much of 36 Yalta Boulevard’s entertainment value; lacking cell phones and computers, these spooks operate with surreptitious calls from phone booths and coded notes dropped behind park benches. Despite the sometimes stolid tone, Steinhauer’s world of shadow and fog succeeds by harking back to politico thrillers that were about real politics (think Graham Greene and Len Deighton), not flash-bang gizmos.
John McManus
Picador
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BITTER MILK (Picador) doesn’t lack for offbeat and entertaining citizens to populate Chilhowee Mountain, the backwoods East Tennessee setting of Austinite JOHN MCMANUS’s first novel. There’s Avery Garland, who suffers from gender dysphoria. And her overweight nine-year-old son, Loren, and his prattling alter ego, Luther. And patriarch Papaw, who’s given to crooning off-color ditties at inappropriate moments. But having birthed his characters, McManus seems unsure what to do with them. Avery disappears to a clinic, leaving Loren to wander from relative to relative. He fishes a little and climbs a roof with Papaw, but there’s not much else going on other than the Garland clan talk, talk, talking in their hillbilly patois. Ultimately, Bitter Milk seems less a novel than a short story in search of an ending.
Michael Craig
Warner Books, Incorporated
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In the wake of America’s obsession with Texas Hold ’Em comes the tale of Andy Beal, the Dallas banker and amateur numbers-theory whiz whose poker-playing exploits are chronicled by MICHAEL CRAIG in THE PROFESSOR, THE BANKER, AND THE SUICIDE KING: INSIDE THE RICHEST POKER GAME OF ALL TIME (Warner). In March 2001 the self-made billionaire headed to Vegas with a goal that seemed like lunacy—to play winner-take-all Hold ’Em against a tag team of the world’s top pros, with each player bringing a cool million to the table. Three years later, Beal had pushed the stone-cold gamblers’ skills to the limit and the pot to an eye-popping $20 million. Craig’s access to the players provides insight into the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a big-money card room. And stay tuned. Negotiations are under way to continue play with the stakes doubled.
