This Isn't a Game

August 8, 2016
Jackson Oliver, the hero of Moss’s thoroughly enjoyable first novel and series launch, owns a Costa Rica–based online betting site, VegasVegas. In addition to sporting events, VegasVegas is giving odds on the outcome of the trial of Hollywood film director Andrew Marvel, who’s charged with murdering his wife: acquittal, guilty verdict, and—at 100 to one—dropped charges. When a punter logs on asking to place a $1,000 bet on dropped charges, Jackson obliges, convinced there’s no chance that he’ll have to pay out. A few days later, a video supplying an airtight alibi for Marvel turns up. Thinking that the timing is just too pat, Jackson sets off for Vermont, the scene of the murder and the place where the bet was made. He has only three days to discover if his bettor is a murderer, an accomplice, or just lucky. After that he must pay up or be blacklisted from the gambling industry. This winning debut offers insights into gambling odds, antiques, the raising of buffalo, the film industry, and small-town morality.

An offshore online casino is caught between bankruptcy and blacklisting when a long shot pays off.Kenny, linemaker for VegasVegas.com, would rather stick to handicapping predictable events like football games and horse races. But VegasVegas owner Jackson Oliver, insisting that BigFatJackpot.com made more profit from the Michael Jackson trial than from the World Series, puts up an entertainment page for sideshow bets, like the outcome of The Bachelorette. The Andrew Marvel trial is a current favorite, with odds running 2 to 5 for a guilty verdict for the movie director accused of killing his wife, Audrey, in their summer home in Vermont. Acquittal is 7 to 4, and 100 to 1 against the charges being dropped, odds so long that Jackson is willing to raise the limit to $1,000 for Cass Gallaway, a nobody from Greensboro, Vermont. Next day, of course, the DA announces the dismissal of the charges, based on a videotape his office received showing Marvel at a motel three hours away at the time Audrey was killed. Jackson can't afford to pay off; Gallaway threatens to report him to the Offshore Gaming Commission if he doesn't get his winnings within three days. So to avoid the commission's blacklist, Jackson leaves sunny Costa Rica for Greensboro, where he bribes the owner of the Morning Loon Motel to give him a room that would normally be snapped up by one of the reporters covering the trial. Readers expecting juicy murder details or an inside peek into the glamorous world of offshore gambling are treated instead to a tepid slog through rural Vermont as Jackson grapples with questions like "Who was the last person to log into Cass Gallaway's account on the computer at the public library?" and "Why did Gallaway go all the way to Brattleboro to stare at a farmer's antique weathervane?" It may not be a game, but Moss' debut isn't really an adventure either, since the owner of VegasVegas turns out to be BoringBoring. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.