Take Down: 1 (Billy Cunningham, 1) - Tapa blanda

Whoever says crime doesn’t pay isn’t doing it right.

There are hundreds of casinos in Las Vegas, and Billy Cunningham knows how to rip off every one. His scams are a thing of beauty—so perfectly orchestrated that onlookers believe he and his crew are winning fair and square. In a town where bosses will kill to protect their profits, Billy can’t afford to make mistakes, but even the best-laid plans can go wrong...

Desperate to keep his team out of jail, Billy agrees to help stop a legendary family of thieves from taking down a casino. But he has no intention of breaking the cheater’s code: never rat out your own kind. He’s running his own con on the casino’s psycho owner and his vicious, violent wife. Throw in a murderous drug dealer, a vengeful gaming agent, and the girl Billy’s never forgotten, and this scam artist is playing for sky-high stakes: a cool eight million, and the chance to live long enough to spend it.

James Swain is the nationally bestselling author of seventeen mystery novels. His books have been named Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews Best Mystery Books of the Year, and he has received three Barry Award nominations and a Florida Book Award for fiction. In 2006, he was awarded France’s prestigious Prix Calibre .38 for Best American Crime Writing. Born in Huntington, New York, he graduated from New York University and worked as a magazine editor and screenwriter before moving to Florida to run a successful advertising firm. When he isn’t writing, he enjoys researching casino scams and cons, a subject on which he’s considered an expert.