High Hand — Gary Phillips

The city of Las Vegas becomes a glitzy, gun-happy backdrop for ex-showgirl Martha Chainey--the provocative new protagonist from the author of the acclaimed Ivan Monk series.

Six feet tall with a don't-mess-with-me attitude, Chainey (nobody calls her Martha) is a courier transporting large sums of money under the table for casino owners. She's been around long enough to know the score and has no qualms about making her living in the shadows of Sin City's neon lights...until the day her luck runs out.

Ambushed by masked shooters who make off with seven million in cash, Chainey's been given 72 hours to recover the casino owner's money--or else she can pick out her own coffin. Her desperate run leads her all the way to San Francisco and back home to West Las Vegas--Black Vegas--where she calls in markers from friends and foes alike. But it's on the strip's famous Glitter Gulch that Chainey will enter the ultimate poker game. The stakes: winner take all. The wager: her life.