Many of our Poker in Print reviews are on the subject of strategy, but this week’s offering is a political thriller where the buck stops at the poker table – often with deadly consequences.

Dead Money is a poker thriller written by the hugely prolific Dean Wesley Smith, who to date, has written well over a hundred novels. Puts that moth-eaten first draft we’ve all got in the bottom drawer of our desk to shame, doesn’t he?

Smith’s main protagonist is Doc Hill, who has to solve the murder of one of the most celebrated poker players of the age. The combination between detective and poker play strikes a good balance, and Doc Hill is frequently in peril as he goes about trying to solve the series of murders while winning the biggest poker tournament that he’s ever taken on.

One of the quotes thrown about after the book’s release was that, ‘Dean Wesley Smith does for poker what James Patterson does for serial killers’, which is – thanks to James Patterson’s International reputation, a huge compliment.