Stud Poker by John Francome

A fairly decent thriller, all in all. It suffers from having too many characters- the Italians and the Czech agent added so little that their inclusion simply wasn't worth the paper it was printed on- and having sex scenes that read like the author's fetish roleplay, but it's a solid book nonetheless that's fast-paced enough for most of these issues to be of no major consequence. The main cast is honestly pretty good for a thriller, my personal favourite being Gavin Holmes the cynical journalist with an affinity for drink. They're nothing amazingly deep or unique but they're engaging enough to keep the story going. The biggest flaw is a structural one, really, and it's that the protagonist Paul Raven is entirely in the dark for the majority of the book as to what's happening, while we get multiple subplots starring various antagonists who know exactly what's going on. The result is Paul has perhaps the least agency out of anyone. The depiction of the sole lesbian character honestly isn't too bad, especially for the early nineties, up until all that is thrown away when she suddenly becomes mentally unhinged and tries to rape the female lead. It's not only homophobic but completely out of character and ruins a decently written villain. Overall, though, it's a solid thriller let down by moments of convolution and author self-indulgence. 5/10  Stud Poker on Amazon Yearly rankings:    25   Before the Fall by Noah Hawley 26        The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley 27      Stud Poker by John Francome 28         Force of Nature by Jane Harper 29       Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick