No Pat Hands — J.J. Lamb

2014 SHAMUS AWARD NOMINEE FROM PRIVATE EYE WRITERS OF AMERICA (PWA). When a Northern California Indian tribe's plan to create an oceanfront casino-resort is stymied by murder, a tribal leader seeks help from a friend, Las Vegas-based private investigator Zachariah Tobias Rolfe III, who specializes in solving gaming-related crimes … on either side of the tables. Rolfe immediately becomes embroiled with two murders, attempts on his life, a dishonest Washington lobbyist, a number of underhanded locals, and a pair of beautiful women before solving the case. The book further contrasts the devastating experience of a single Northern California Native American tribe, from its first conflict with the white man in 1776, to its heroic return from near extinction through casino ownership. Past or present, it's the land; it's always been about the land.