Ring Game

Joe Crow #4

by Pete Hautman

Directed by a family friend who wants him to investigate his daughter's fiance, ex-cop Joe Crow finds himself caught in the middle of a conflict between the would-be groom and the man's murderous cult. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 12, 1941

About the author

Peter Murray Hautman is an American author best known for his novels for young adults. One of them, Godless, won the 2004 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The National Book Foundation summary is, "A teenage boy decides to invent a new religion with a new god."

Reviews

[John Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining, a great story and characters, well written, a lot of fun (not serious stuff.)

[Elizabeth Basileo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved these stories about Joe Crow and I wished there had been many more of them. They reminded me of Elmore Leonard’s tales—witty, tongue-in-cheek, smartly plotted and just a good crime caper.

[Carl Brookins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth novel by an accomplished writer. I thoroughly enjoyed the first three of Hautman’s books and this one is even better. They’re almost all here in this multiple caper novel: Joe Crow, Axel Speeter, and Sam O’Gara, not to mention Arling Bigg, Carmen, Hyatt Hilton, Chuckles and a female body builder named Flowrean Peeche.

Sometimes, you might have to stop reading to wipe the tears of laughter out of your eyes. This one takes a jaundiced look at several contemporary phenomena, including body-building, television news coverage, clean water, marriage, and most everyone’s desire to live forever. Statistically speaking, we are living longer. Every year or so, it is announced in the press that people have longer and longer lives. Statistically speaking, that should mean that ultimately we’ll live forever, become immortal.

Of course, the enhancement of that effort to ultimate longevity may need some assistance, some guidance. It happens that there is a group, a cult, if you will, anxious to help you divorce yourself from the Death Program and never die. Naturally there are expenses.

Meanwhile, Joe Crow, inveterate poker player, is creating a series of rules for himself, whilst trying to discreetly learn a bit more about Hyatt Hilton for Axel Speeter, who is nominally, at least, Carmen’s father. Hyatt wants to marry Carmen, and Axel wants to be sure the guy is on the up and up. Along the way, Crow forgets to follow a couple of his own poker rules, one of which is “When you go fishing, beware the fish.” But the rule Crow forgets with almost disastrous results is this one: “Don’t play in wild card games.” There are a whole deck of wild cards in this tale.

[Karl Jorgenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hahahahaha. Pete is a funny, witty writer. However, he never uses five words when fifty will do. Much of the snappiness and humor is lost as one plods through belabored description. Also, I didn't know the characters going in; I haven't read the previous books in the series. So in the first four or five chapters I meet a dozen freakin' weirdos, none of whom appear to be connected to each other or to any story. It took a lot of grinding away, to the middle of the book, before I understood who the players were. And I still didn't know what the story was. The characters are unbelievably wonderful: they ought to be, they each get 20,000 words all to themselves. Maybe I'll read an earlier work.
The length of the book--I can't help thinking he's making up for Mary Logue's insubstantial 'Clair Watkins' series.