Official Review: Heat in the Vegas Night by Jerry Reedy

[Okafor Prosper]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Heat in the Vegas Night" by Jerry Reedy.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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It all began in November 1980. Broke and laid off work in the logging industry in Oregon, Jerry Reedy aka Red receives a life-changing phone call from his old friend, Spanky, who invites him to come down to Lake Tahoe to learn professional gambling from Spanky's older brother, Steve Kammeyer aka the Boss. With very limited financial options, it seemed as Red had no choice but to take this opportunity, and he did. Starting out as a runner, Red joins the "Kammeyer group" on adventures across different casinos in Vegas.

Giving readers an exposé of the organized crime controlled casinos in the early 1980s, Jerry Reedy's Heat in the Vegas Night details the process behind organized cheating in gambling, employing a mirror to spy on dealers' hole cards and individuals performing different roles that are key to the end game that is taking the dealers' money and evading arrest by the authorities. This meant that the story was action-packed and fast-paced from the beginning and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

I'm not very familiar with blackjack. So, there was always the worry that I would be lost in the sea of blackjack terminologies in the book. However, the author did an outstanding job of explaining each term in detail, including an appendix that sheds more light on the meaning of those terms.

While the story is heavily focused on gambling, the author also does very well to show how good relationships were gradually formed between the members of the group and how important these relationships were to the success of their missions. They were literally as thick as thieves, and this was illustrated in how they looked out for each other even in the worst of situations. The story continued to reveal twists and turns as the group achieved most wanted status. With respect to editing, I found only about four minor grammatical errors throughout Heat in the Vegas Night. Therefore, I would say that the book was well edited.

However, the book wasn't without flaws. Firstly, a few things that happened in the story weren't explained adequately. For example, Steve's decision break character by forcing the group into pushing drugs was explained to have been influenced by a mystery girl that never makes an appearance in the story. There were more instances like this in the book. In addition, I would have liked an improvement in the author's description of the feel of different cities. The group traveled a lot, but it felt as if the whole story took place in the same city.

Heat in the Vegas Night is an intriguing and enlightening read that kept me glued from start to finish. The fact that it is a true story makes the book even more mind-blowing. All things considered, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. My complaints mentioned previously convinced me that the rating is fair. I would recommend this book to fans of action novels. Lovers of blackjack will also enjoy reading this book.

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Heat in the Vegas Night
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[Anon_Reviewer]

I'm glad you were able to follow the story line, despite being unfamiliar with blackjack. I might try this out. Thanks for the wonderful review!