'Albuquerque Turkey' a solid work of fiction

By Mark Lasser

We’re taking a little departure this week to review a novel that will be of interest to gamblers and fans of con-artist literature by a well-known poker player.

John Vorhaus is an interesting guy. A regular contributor to Card Player magazine and creative consultant to the film and television industry, Vorhaus has just delivered an intriguing and utterly enjoyable novel called “The Albuquerque Turkey.”

I’ve been reading tons of books on gambling all year and it’s a refreshing and welcome break to take in a piece of solid fiction and humor. This is an excellent read for spring vacation, summer reading or just a break from analyzing odds, poker trends and trying to figure out how to score comps.

Vorhaus has a writing style that’s part Terry Southern, part Raymond Chandler and maybe a little John Fante. The book picks up where his last novel, “The California Roll” leaves, off but don’t worry – one need not have read the first book to follow the action in this tale of grifters, gamblers and artists, both con and actual artists.

The story follows Radar Hoverlander and his girlfriend, Allie, as they get entangled in a complex web involving Radar’s father and his best friend Vic. Like a good con itself, the book has you thinking you know exactly what’s going on, only to have the rug pulled out from under you again and again. In the way fans of horror genres look forward to getting startled and scared, one has to appreciate the masochistic pleasure of being set up and fooled repeatedly by a well-constructed mystery/con.

Frankly, it’s difficult writing about this book without giving up one spoiler after another, so pardon me if I’m vague on details; the book has as many twists and turns as the canyon route from Denver to Black Hawk.

The settings for the story are a combination of Santa Fe, N.M., with it’s desert/tourist/artist ambiance, and modern Las Vegas, where shiny new casinos battle for attention with dusty, beaten-down neighborhoods, polished casino hosts, desperate times and the allure of open, sandy spaces. As Coloradans are frequent visitors to both locals, this makes for a fun read.

Radar and Allie are affable, big-time con artists set on living a straight life in Santa Fe after making a big score in California. We find the couple in a nice house with a new dog, searching for jobs in a bad economy and thinking of taking some classes to establish themselves in their newly adopted home.

Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. A series of events conspire to entangle them in the exact lifestyle they’ve been trying to escape. Many writers who create a story like this have very one-dimensional characters that fail to inspire the reader. Vorhaus’ intimate knowledge of casino culture, Las Vegas and apparently subversive art (some interesting references to Banksy, Christo and Kundera) serves him well in avoiding the trappings of weak characters and settings and makes what might be a ridiculously implausible tale otherwise believable and engaging.

It’s also a boon that the author has experience in visual media. The story is inherently cinematic and one can almost see the film version unspool as the story gets more and more complex. I have the movie cast in my mind if the author wants to hire me as a consultant for the film version!

The book was released on March 22 in hardcover and is available at bookstores, Amazon.com and I’m sure there’s a link from Vorhaus’ website www.radarenterprizes.com.

Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can hear him talk about gambling and casinos every Friday at 5 PM on KEZW AM 1430. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.