The Gambling Man, (An Archer Novel Book 2), David Baldacci, Edoardo Ballerini, Brittany Pressley, narrators
World War II is over. It is the last year of the 1940’s. Aloysius Archer, a veteran, is moving on. After serving his sentence for a crime he did not commit, he leaves Poca City and stops in Reno at a casino. There he meets Liberty Callahan, a woman with stars in her eyes. His luck was running high, and he shares his gambling winnings with her. Later that night, Archer and Liberty rescue a down and out man from gangsters collecting on his gambling debts. He winds up buying the man’s unique car, a Delahaye, made in France before the war, with the steering wheel on the right side. He hopes that the man will use the money to pay his debts and move on. That does not seem to be in the cards, though, and Archer and Liberty, head out of town, hoping to be one step ahead of the mob that is after them. Liberty decided to go to California with Archer for what she hoped would be fame and fortune in Hollywood. He was going for what he hoped would be a new start and a new career as a private eye in Bay City. Liberty decides to hang around Bay City for awhile, and she gets a job singing and dancing at a club called Midnight Moods. Archer starts working for Willie Dash and his “very private investigation” service. Soon, the club and the “very private investigators” are embroiled in murder and mystery.
There is a campaign in Bay City, for a new mayor to replace the former mayor, Benjamin Smalls, who recently drowned in his bathtub. Sawyer Armstrong, the man who pretty much owns the whole town, including the sheriff, is “seemingly” supporting his daughter Beth’s husband, Douglas Kemper, for the job. Beth’s relationship to her father seems very dependent, and she seems closer to him than to her husband. The man running against Douglas is Alfred Drake, a quiet, unassuming dentist. Kemper has a far more outgoing personality and is more likely to win, especially with the very influential Sawyer backing him.
Dash and Archer are hired to help Kemper win the political race. When Archer meets Kemper’s father-in-law, Armstrong, it is a violent introduction with several warnings and an additional job offer. As dead bodies suddenly start to pile up at the Midnight Moods and Willie Dash’s office, Dash, a former FBI agent, wants to solve the crimes as well.
There are so many characters, it sometimes gets confusing. The crude sexual content seems unnecessary and seems to degrade the women in the book. The author seems to want to make the women strong, but they seem to be of loose character, as well.
Archer seems like such a good soul, yet he, too, is capable of tremendous violence. The mystery twists and turns with many completely unexpected outcomes. The book is not the best, but it will hold the reader’s interest, even though the end result is like a foregone conclusion from the get-go.
The male narrator is superior to the female narrator who seems to give the same voice and personality to all of the female characters, regardless of their age or personality.

Much better than the first in this series. Are you in the mood? to return to the mood of Mickey Spillane? The glamour and dark side of the late 40s and early 50s? This is it, with a mystery thrown in for fun.