Plot or Premise

Fantastic opening — a gambler who hits a run of bad luck, and a loan shark who collects from his losing client pretty aggressively. Oh, and Kinsey apparently has two black eyes from trying to catch a shoplifter?

What I Liked

There is a LOT going on, with lots of characters running around, almost all of them obsessed with money. Angry cops, mobsters, gold diggers, cheating spouses, lock pickers, blackmailers, informants…it’s complicated.

What I Didn’t Like

The story jumps around a LOT from person to person, and so it doesn’t feel like a Kinsey story for good parts of the book, but it’s not egregious.

The Bottom Line

More characters, less Kinsey, but it works.