Author Information
James Swain's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    23 Books (6 Series)
  • First Book:
    November 1989
  • Latest Book:
    August 2020
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Full Series List in Order

Billy Cunningham

1 - Vegas Con (Feb-2015)
2 - Bad Action (May-2016)
3 - Super Con (Dec-2017)

Lancaster & Daniels

1 - The King Tides (Aug-2018)
2 - No Good Deed (Aug-2019)
3 - Bad News Travels (Aug-2020)

P.I. Jack Carpenter

1 - Midnight Rambler (May-2007)
2 - The Night Stalker (Oct-2008)
3 - The Night Monster (Sep-2009)
4 - Program (Oct-2010)

Peter Warlock

1 - Dark Magic (May-2012)
2 - Shadow People (Jun-2013)

A Tony Valentine Mystery

1 - Grift Sense (Jun-2001)
2 - Funny Money (Jun-2002)
3 - Sucker Bet (Apr-2003)
4 - Loaded Dice (Jun-2004)
5 - Mr. Lucky (Mar-2005)
6 - Deadman's Poker (Apr-2006)
7 - Deadman's Bluff (Jun-2006)
7.5 - Wild Card (Oct-2010)
7.6 - Jackpot (Oct-2010)

Vincent Hardare

1 - The Man Who Walked Through Walls (Nov-1989)
2 - The Man Who Cheated Death (Oct-2010)

Book List in Order: 23 titles




  • Amid the neon and the big special ugly of Las Vegas, mild-mannered Frank Fontaine is beating the brains out of the Acropolis Casino. The house cops think the dealer, a blonde named Nola, is part of the con, but no one can prove a thing. For Tony Vale...



  • Tony Valentine has a gift for grift: He can walk into a casino and spot a cheater across a crowded floor. A man who still uses pay phones and won't spend more than a buck for coffee, Tony has protected Atlantic City gambling palaces for twenty years ...



  • A hardened ex-cop, Tony Valentine now nabs hustlers who rob casinos, and the Micanopy Indian Reservation Casino in South Florida desperately needs his expertise. A blackjack dealer has rigged a game, dealt a player eighty-four winning hands in a row,...



  • When Tony Valentine, a master at catching casino cheaters, jets to Las Vegas to look for his missing son, he lands in the middle of a dangerous turf war between rival casinos. Valentine's longtime pal then taps him to figure out how an amateur won $2...



  • Tony Valentine made his living and his name as a cop in Atlantic City -- and is now known worldwide for his ability to spot the kinds of scams, grifts, and rip-offs that cost casinos billions every year. A man with a biting wit who drives a '92 Honda...



  • Tony Valentine is an expert at spotting cheats. He's tossed them out of gambling casinos from Atlantic City to Las Vegas and Monaco. But though Tony has never met a scam he couldn't crack, his son and partner, Gerry, has just walked into one with a b...



  • A blind poker player named Skip DeMarco is scamming the world's largest poker tournament in Las Vegas, and cheating-expert Tony Valentine and his son, Gerry, have been hired to find out how. DeMarco is tied to some dangerously desperate characters wh...



  • A new breed of predator is stalking the steamy streets of South Florida: an ingenious serial killer as elusive as quicksilver, with a distinctive MO. He plays the Rolling Stones' "Midnight Rambler" while he tortures his victims. At all times this man...






  • Hard-edged, evocative, brilliantly paced, James Swain's novels of crime and punishment in South Florida delve into a shadowy realm where criminals, victims, and cops share the same truths, the same lies, and sometimes even the same nightmares. Abb...



  • The shadowy side of the Sunshine State, where blood runs cold even in the tropical heat, is the tantalizing, terrifying territory few know better than James Swain. His razor-sharp tales of criminals, cops, and South Florida -- style suspense bite lik...



  • DEADLY PLEASURES MAGAZINE Review by George EasterI’ve been a big fan of this series since its inceptionwith GRIFT SENSE. Swain has a natural gift for storytelling.The various scams are fascinating in their ingenuity and forthe clever detection that...



  • From the bestselling novelist the New York Times calls a writer of “Ingenious Entertainments” comes a dazzling thriller pitting the world’s greatest magician against a deadly killer who calls himself Death.Can someone really predict the future?...



  • THE PROGRAM PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONFrom the national bestselling mystery novelist the Wall Street Journal calls “One terrific writer” comes a heart-pounding thriller pitting a deadly serial killer against two determined FBI agents. Is it possible to ...



  • DEADLY PLEASURES MAGAZINE Review by George EasterI’ve been a big fan of this series since its inceptionwith GRIFT SENSE. Swain has a natural gift for storytelling.The various scams are fascinating in their ingenuity and forthe clever detection that...



  • Peter Warlock is a magician with a dark secret. Every night, he amazes audiences at his private theater in New York, where he performs feats that boggle the imagination. But his day job is just a cover for his otherworldly pursuits: Peter is a member...



  • In Shadow People, national bestselling author James Swain’s brilliant follow-up to Dark Magic, magician Peter Warlock has a dark secret. A psychic who peers into the future, he is able to use the information to alert the authorities to pending trou...



  • Whoever says crime doesn’t pay isn’t doing it right. There are hundreds of casinos in Las Vegas, and Billy Cunningham knows how to rip off every one. His scams are a thing of beauty -- so perfectly orchestrated that onlookers believe he and hi...



  • Con artist Billy Cunningham is no stranger to the casinos of Las Vegas -- he’s ripped off every single one. But his latest scam -- a year in the making -- promises his crew their biggest payday yet. Billy has thought of everything down to the last ...






  • An adrenaline rush of cons, grift, and murder in a town where deadly double-dealing is the name of the game. Master grifter Billy Cunningham has built a lucrative career conning a long list of Las Vegas casinos. In fact, he’s never walked into o...



  • Reality and illusion blur in this Washington Post bestseller that Michael Connelly calls “a hundred percent adrenaline rush disguised as a detective novel.” Nicki Pearl is the perfect daughter -- every parent’s dream. And that of strangers,...



  • A human-trafficking case hits dangerously close to home in a heart-racing thriller by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The King Tides.

    A disturbing missing-person case reunites ex-Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster and FBI Agent Beth Daniels. Sk...



  • Family secrets become a blackmailer’s deadly weapon in this pulse-pounding thriller by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of No Good Deed. The shocking suicide of Beth Daniels’s father -- a prominent surgeon -- has thrown the FBI agent into ...


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

James Swain has published 23 books.

James Swain does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Bad News Travels, was published in August 2020.

The first book by James Swain, The Man Who Walked Through Walls, was published in November 1989.

Yes. James Swain has 6 series.