This is a very entertaining and interesting book. It is light on description and heavy on action. The characters were drawn from a Damon Runyan playbook, and had remarkable strengths and weaknesses. The evil ones were truly evil, and the good ones were questionable. The book follows Waverly, a professional gambler as he examines his life and steps out of his world. As a lost soul he travels to a place of his youth and the home of his lost son. He makes a number of connections along the way, none of them good. I won't give away the ending when he returns to his gambling life, but it was the reason I rated four stars instead of five. Still well worth a read.

Just great reading. As books written and published in earlier times this novel lacks the techno jargon so familiar in many more modern reads. Though some terms not familiar to me it is as easy to glaze over those words as it is a foreign language phrase. Action on top of more action with characters as colorful as any I’ve met between pages. Warning to future readers there are terms amongst the pages that would be considered racist, bigoted, or not politically correct in today’s world. But all things considered that is how it was and probably still is in certain circles. In the world of convicts, ex–convicts and criminals the language fits. Add to that the rural like setting and it is easy to fall into step with the characters and the action. A most enjoyable read.

Graphically brutal crime thriller is an appropriate description for this book. Kakonis has the ability to create deeply flawed characters that never-the-less propel an action stuffed adventure.

Waverly has issues and his soul searching leads him in a journey to his past that embroils him in some Midnight problems. A missing package of drugs appropriated by a minor delusional miscreant puts an assortment of escalating bad guys on Waverly's field of play. A plethora of unnecessary roughness calls would characterize this book with some of the violence stomach wrenching.

Surprising camaraderie plays a part in Waverly's survival. Waverly's mentor in survival skills plays a cameo of sadness. Midnight may play a future role in Waverly's life as short as it may be.

This was a good mystery and action adventure.