A Donald Westlake novel with both mystery and comedy elements. Taxi Driver Chet Conway arrives at his bookie's to collect on a bet he won and finds the man dead and his money gone. His quest to get his bet paid sees him suspected of Chet's murder by multiple organized crime factions and Chet's sister (who he later falls in love with), as he comes to wonder if the killer might be a member of his own poker circle.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Gay: Poker player Jerry is either Camp Gay or Camp Straight, with his lack of interest in any woman throughout the story.
- Big Sister Instinct: Abby is determined to avenge her brother.
- The Gambler: Chet and most of his friends are both poker players and bet on horse races.
- Henpecked Husband: Fred Stehl's wife Cora is always on him about his gambling and showing up to disrupt the poker games.
- Let Me Get This Straight...:Doug: Let me try and get this straight. You got yourself mixed up in Tommy's murder somehow, and got shot at yourself. And you say it was with a gun that was stolen off you while you were here at the game last Wednesday.
- The Mole: Tommy the bookie turns out to have been working for a rival mob boss. One of Chet's poker buddies is also a mob associate keeping an eye on him for the gangster Napoli.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Detective Golderman has a calm personality and asks intelligent questions about the case without harassing Chet. Subverted when it turns out that he's a Dirty Cop.
- The Unsolved Mystery: Even after the killer is exposed it's still unknown who took Chet's money from the apartment.
