Take Down (Billy Cunningham, 1) Paperback – February 10, 2015

The thing I like about this book is that it describes the world of cheaters in Las Vegas and other gambling places. I never knew much about this world. Although I did read the book about the MIT students who cheated. This was more expansive. This unknown world--at least to me--kept me entranced. The characters seemed to love primarily the thrill and daring of the cheat and secondarily the money which kept their lifestyle in place. The cheaters have to outwit the casino security and the gaming commission, who are the main character's antagonists. The main character is Billy. He is smart and daring and has a team who is devoted to him. In fact they idolize him. He takes care of them and they are loyal to him and take care of him. They are his family. Other relationships are short-lived. Billy, believe or not, went to MIT for one year but left--read the book to find out why. This is definitely a book worth reading if you want to find out about the cheater's life.

I'd never heard of James Swain, much less Billy Cunningham or Tony Valentine, before he was recommended to me by a friend when I asked for reading suggestions for my trip to Italy in December.Well, 3 books later, I think you could say that I'm a Swain fan!As another reviewer mentioned, some characters can be outrageous, but not so crazy as to be totally absurd. Some teeter on the edge, but overall I found the characters pretty fascinating and very authentic; from Cunningham himself, to his friends, the gaming commission folks, casino bosses, and when you include his Valentine series in the discussion, his next door neighbor Mabel as well.All in all, this is good reading. It makes time fly by and you're always interested in what the next chapter brings. In some respects, it reminds me of the earlier books in the James Patterson's Alex Cross series, although much better researched and generally more believable.The information on casinos and the various scams people have used to cheat them is downright fascinating. In that respect, it reminded me a little of Tom Clancy in the effort taken to gather accurate information and share it with the reader. I never knew the numerous methods used to cheat or the level of sophistication of some of them. Most of us have probably seen Ocean's 11 and have some idea of a few of the measures taken by casinos to combat cheats - Swain does an excellent job of showing you the other side of that coin and demonstrating exactly what the casinos are up against.Needless to say, I highly recommend.

I enjoyed the Tony Valentine series of the retired detective who assists casinos in determining how they are getting ripped off and by whom. This character, Billy Cunningham, relates the tales from the other side as one who rips off the casinos. I had a chance to meet James Swain at a signing and was extremely impressed with his card mechanic skills - I think his website has some demos from TV interviews - and he pretty much convinced me that playing cards with strangers is probably not a good idea and if you are visiting casinos be prepared to write off the losses as entertainment. At any rate, he is a nice guy and a talented writer so I am going to kick this 3.5 star effort up to a 4. The content regarding casino rip offs is interesting and well done but the writing is a bit "thin" in dialogue and characterization. Great way to pass the time with a bit of "mind candy" for the beach or plane flight.

I am usually not a fan of caper books, but something about the back-cover copy of TAKE DOWN caused me to buy and read this “first-for-me” James Swain crime book.This is not your father’s caper story, not by a long shot. Sure, as in the case of all good caper books, the plot is intricate and the characters are quirky, but TAKE DOWN offers what any well-written crime novel and caper book should offer – and much more.The story is terrific, entirely believable, and captivating. It passed my best test for a great plot: Knowing how rotten I would feel the next day, I still read the book until too late in the evening for too many evenings, and never regretted how tired I was the next day.The characters were so well crafted I felt I knew them although this book was my first experience with them. I found myself cheering for Billy all through the book and always surprised by the decisions he made because they often differed from what I would have predicted. Yet his decisions, after the fact, always seemed right and entirely natural to me.As I said, this was the first Swain book I’ve read. I’ve ordered five more. Eventually I will read all he’s published. And, as a crime writer myself, I will reread TAKE DOWN to see how Mr. Swain achieved so well the effects he did so I can learn from him.

I felt the story was fun and it had interesting premise, in that it followed the life of a cheat in hollywood. The prose was fair, but there was too much implausibility in the story and for that reason it became uneven. Sometimes it felt like the author was forcing bits and pieces into place. It would lose that smoothness you expect from an author, so you would be following a portion of the story and then something would happen and you'd roll your eyes and say 'really'? It was hard to get too engaged in this book because of that. So all in all it wasn't a bad read but not an author I'm rushing out to get his other works for right away.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! "Billy" is a quick-witted, very likeable not-so-bad guy who counts loyalty to and protection for his "crew: above all else. It was fun watching him juggle overlapping problems and setbacks while staying true to his character.Mr. Swain, please give us more Billy Cunningham stories!

Very ordinary

Well written and I enjoyed the plot and characters. I found it an easy and compelling read.

Good.

A bad guy and his crew that its hard not to root for. Lots of info about Vegas that makes you look at the city in a new light.