BOOK REVIEW - No Dice (OT Novel)

[Mike]

No Dice by Mar Preston © 2010 Create Space ISBN: 978-0984495207
352 pages Paperback $12.95 (U.S.) Novel

And now for something completely different – a book about casinos in
California. Time to step away from weighty topics and sit back with
an uncomplicated (relatively speaking) mystery.

This a story about a small town facing an invasion – not of aliens
(illegal or otherwise); not by a foreign enemy; nor even by zombies.
It is an invasion of....casinos.

Santa Monica is a town divided. On the one hand are the casino
backers who see the influx of money into the city as a good thing. It
will mean more money for the schools, the police, and the hotel owners
and operators. On the other hand are those who oppose the casinos
because the of the perception that it will inherently mean more crime
and a lowered quality of life.

There are a couple of minor problems with this story.

It is obvious that it is intended as the start of a series, so there
has to be a certain amount of backstory generated, and the characters
need to be developed so the reader can develop a level of caring about
them. Unfortunately, while attempting to do so the author resorts to
what would be called “quick dissolves” in movies. You see little
snippets of events which are unrelated to what is happening during the
main flow of the story at that point. There is no indication that you
are breaking away from the body of the story, and this is
disconcerting, to say the least.

Another problem is that certain events occur which should, logically,
lead to certain results, yet they simply dead-end with no
explanation. This is most unsatisfying, to say the least.

There s nothing unbelievable in this story. In fact, given the boom
in gambling in this country, it is an all too common occurrence. In
spite of the fact that it was published two years ago, it is set
slightly further back – Bush was in the White House, Schwarzenegger
was Governor of California and things were looking good for
deregulating all kinds of industries.

I was a little disappointed by the climax. There was a potential
there for much greater conflict and tension. Instead it simply seemed
to “wimp out”. The major players in the drama came across as less
than fully believable in the end. Still, for the majority of the book
they caught and held your attention. If I were to rate it on a scale
of one to five, I would give it a solid 4 and a little more.