Sun City

By Joseph Di Prisco

Subjects: Mystery, Suspense, Blackjack (Game), Fiction, Gamblers

Description: Sun City is a tale of professional blackjack players and counters, set largely in Las Vegas and South Africa. The first strand of the story zeroes in on Dolly Leone, a gambler of unmatched proportions who is close to skipping town due to unpaid monies to his bookmaker. As luck would have it, at this moment Dolly uncovers the manuscripts of a member of Dolly's old gambling circle-a team that made irreversible waves in casinos worldwide in the 1980s. Under mounting pressure, Dolly gets the bright idea to patch together Val's philosophical and other scribblings into a presentable piece of work, hopefully to bring monetary profit into Dolly's hands. Di Prisco brings to life a cast of eccentrics, including Dolly the gambler and scammer who might be a killer, Pasquale the big-money backer, Valentino Comfort (a.k.a. the Schoolboy), a philosophy minor, and Tess, sometimes called the Teaser. About the author: Joseph Di Prisco is the author of Confessions of Brother Eli, a novel published in 2000 by MacAdam/Cage Publishing. He is also the author of two books of poetry, including Poems in Which (Bear Star Press; winner of the Brunsman Poetry Prize). He is the co-author of two books for parents: Field Guide to the American Teenager and Right from Wrong, both published by Perseus Publishing. Di Prisco has been a member of a Roman Catholic religious order, a publicist, a consultant, a waiter, a bartender, a restaurant general manager, a professional card counter, and a longtime teacher and school administrator. Born in Brooklyn, he now lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, photographer Patricia James.