February 2009 - 24

Tricks of the Trade
Writing bridge fiction is a tricky endeavor. How important is the game to the story? Should there be lots of bridge
deals? Just a few? Can you get away with none? The key, of course, is an engaging story no matter how much bridge
is incorporated in the narrative. The following reviews by Paul Linxwiler, Brent Manley and Dave Smith will help you
judge which of these five books with bridge themes might suit your taste.

bridge player plunges to
her death from a railroad
trestle in a small town in
northern Ontario. Was it a
suicide? A tragic accident? Was she
lured to her death by a murderer? As
the story in Deadly Endplay ($15)
by Ken Allen unfolds, some of the
people involved begin to suspect that
there was foul play.
The author tells a tale of many
players. Their personalities are revealed through bridge. As the author
says on his web site: "In order to
portray the role of bridge in the lives
of the characters, it is necessary to
show them in action."
This leads to why this book gets a
good review. The problem with most
bridge fiction is there is a lot of fiction, but not much bridge. This can't
be said about this work. There are
plenty of bridge deals, and they are
entertaining. How the players react to
and deal with the problems is interesting. Although much of the story is
away from the table, bridge is always

lurking in the background. The bridge
is geared for the intermediate to
advanced player with something to be
appreciated by all, even the expert.
The artwork and photos are appealing. Each chapter begins with a photo
designed like a playing card. It shows
a bridge-related scene, but the bottom
of the card is a mirror image of the
top. This is perhaps a metaphor about
how a player's approach to bridge
reflects their personality.
Another plus is the small-town
setting. The pace of the town is
similar to the pace of the book. It's
not so slow as to be boring, yet not
so fast that the reader can't see into
the lives of the players as the story
unfolds. The author gives care to his
craft - the character development is
excellent.
In The Unkindest Cut ($6.99) by
Honor Hartman, Emma Diamond has
a passion for bridge. She is a recent
widow and decides to attend a bridge
tournament with three friends. There
she discovers a famous bridge player

and teacher with a knife in his chest
and the queen of diamonds in his
hand. She also discovers there are
more than a few people who wanted
him dead.
Emma can't resist trying to solve
the murder. Is it one of his ex-wives?
The manager he just fired? The son
he has ignored and rejected? The
woman with whom he had an affair
that just ended? Maybe the killer is
his rival, a bridge professional with
whom he had feuded for many years.
The suspect list is long, but Emma
is determined to find out what happened and, perhaps, keep the killer
from striking again. The amateur
sleuth angle might remind readers
of the television show Murder, She
Wrote starring Angela Lansbury.
Hartman has a charming writing
style, and the plot moves at a nice
pace with adequate character development. This is a book more likely to
appeal to women than to men. Bridge
players may enjoy the book because
of the bridge backdrop, but it does not

Bridge Bulletin

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2009