A Gambling Man

David Baldacci

15 April 2021
9781529061826
711 pages

Synopsis

Evoking the golden age of crime, and for fans of Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie, comes A Gambling Man, from one of the world’s bestselling thriller writers, David Baldacci.

A lucky roll of the dice
California, 1949. Aloysius Archer is on his way to start a new job with a renowned Private Investigator in Bay Town. Feeling lucky, he stops off at a casino in Reno, where he meets an aspiring actress, Liberty Callahan. Together, they head west on a journey filled with danger and surprises – because Archer isn’t the only one with a secretive past.

A risk worth taking
Arriving in a town rife with corruption, Archer is tasked with finding out who is doing everything they can to disrupt the appointment of a top official. Then two seemingly unconnected people are murdered at a burlesque club. In a tight-lipped community, Archer must dig deep to reveal the connection between the victims.

All bets are off
As the final perilous showdown unfurls, Archer will need all of his skills to decipher the truth from the lies and finally, to prove she’s a star in the making, will Liberty have her moment in the spotlight?

A Gambling Man is the second historical crime novel in David Baldacci’s Private Investigator Archer series, following the Sunday Times top five bestseller One Good Deed.

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini steps smoothly into the role of Archer, an ex-con who is looking for work as a private investigator. Narrator Brittany Pressley portrays Liberty Callahan, a sexy beauty who craves stardom...They are a duet of perfection, smoothly switching tone and timbre when necessary. As the twisting plot keeps listeners engaged, Ballerini and Pressley's performance—to use a 1940s expression—"takes the cake"!

E.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021

One of his finest books. Great character, great story, great portrait of an era
One Good Deed represents David Baldacci’s move into historical crime with a new character, ex- jailbird Aloysius Archer . . . Unsurprisingly, the talented Baldacci proves to be as adept in this new venture as he is in his contemporary-set novels