Bridge books reviewed - 5

'The Bridgefather' - after The Godfather by Mario Puzo. An account of Don Cortisone's entry into the tournament bridge scene.

"Farewell, My Dummy" by Phillip and Robert King ia a worthy sequel to "The Kings' Tales" and "Contract Killers". It comprises five funny stories with a bridge theme; in the style of five famous authors - Raymond Chandler, Jeffrey Archer, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen and Victor Mollo. The deals are interesting and well analysed. The parodies provide an apt setting for both instruction and entertainment.

In 1997 Phillip and Robert King produced a collection of original bridge-related short stories and amusing pastiches entitled "Your Deal, Mr. Bond". The title piece is a short story featuring James Bond, who is assigned by M to defeat a villain named Saladin who is threatening to explode nuclear bombs in several major cities. Bond impersonates real-life bridge expert Zia Mahmood in order to combat Saladin at the bridge table. The short story includes bridge game charts in a similar fashion to that used by Ian Fleming in Moonraker, in which Bond similarly plays a high-stakes game of bridge against that novel's villain.

"The Principles of Restricted Talent and other Bridge Stories" by Danny Kleinman and Nick Straguzzi is an anthology of humorous stories featuring Chthonic, the bridge playing robot. The stories draw unmercifully funny porteaits of the bridge players, as Chthonic's bridge brilliance and ill-conceived contempt for his human creators leave them all in his wake. A particular target is the pompous Director of the Cybernetics Research Institute, whose opinion of his own bridge expertise differs greatly from that of his protoge.

In "Persistent Human Bridge Errors", by Danny Kleinman, Chthonic, the irascible bridge-playing computer , is back. This time time he's attempting to teach humans a little about the game of bridge - not in order to turn them into competent players, as he recognises that is impossible. But he thinks that he may be able to get the reader to the point where he won't laugh at him behind his back every time he plays a card. Esch chapter of this wickedly funny book highlights a different 'human bridge error', and points why and how it should be avoided. Entertaining and instructive.

Bob Smithers is dead, although few in the tournament bridge scene will shed any tears.
"Takeout Double", by Jim Priebe, tells the story of Art Frazer, the ambitious police lieutenant assigned to the case. Art knows the bridge world well and reckons that should give him the inside track on cracking his first homicide investigation; the one that will bring him the promotion he so much wants. But Smithers made enemies easily, both at the bridge table and away from it, and Art has plenty of potential murders to investigate. Even his own bridge friends have to be treated as suspects as he begins to uncover a complex tangle of jealosy, ambition, sex and deceit amongst people to whom he knows that bridge is far more than just a game. Then a second body shows up!

Art Frazer, the bridge-playing detective who made is debut in the previous book is faced with a new mystery in Jim Priebe's "Double Elimination". Bodies are coming to light in cottage country in upper new York state, and once again bridge seems to be an intrinsic part of the case. Fraser has to wrestle with problems in his personal life too, as he faces career and family decisions at the same time as he is tracking down a ruthless killer.

In "Deadly Hold Up" Art Fraser has left Buffalo and moved his new family to Florida where he is setting up as a private investigator. However, he's soon called back North to Boston, where a robbery at the ACBL Fall Nationals has left one man dead and a whole lot of money missing. The local homicide cops aren't overjoyed to have Fraser involved, but they're also struggling to understand the ins and outs of the bridge tournament world. The two camps work out an uneasy arrangement as the mystery deepens...

If Miss Marple's village had boasted a bridge club, it might have been very like the one in Pemberton, the North Ontario setting for this Canadian mystery novel. "Deadly Endplay" by Ken Allen is a story that evokes the slow pace of life in a small rural town, and whether there even was a murder is part of the mystery. The game of bridge is closely interwoven with the lives of the people in Pemberton -- we meet the characters partly through bridge columns from the local paper, and in many cases, get to see how their personae at the bridge table differ from those in their everyday lives. The 'deadly endplay' of the title relates to a deal that comes up in a club game, and also refers to how the murder - if it was a murder - was committed.

What do you think of this central idea - students who don't have the capabilities to cope with the 'hard' sciences and maths can take bridge classes instead? After all, it's a subject that deals with critical thinking and has language implications! Is that a look at our future? The bridge and the plot in Bill Townsend's "Bridge Out of School" are inextricably interwoven. There are heroes, heroines, villains, love, blackmail and LOTS of interesting bridge hands.
About the Author: Bill Townsend is bridge columnist for the Yorkshire Post, He also writes a regular column in Englisg bridge and contributes articles to Bridge Plus. A well-known player on the national scene, Bill represented England Seniors in the 2000 World bridge Olympiad.

Even social bridge can be a little of a roller-coaster, where partners rocket up and down together from euphoria to 'you idiot' - while club and tournament bridge are worse still. Indeed, when a married couple play bridge together they tend to drag the marriage along with them - for better or worse. For the answer to the social dilema of "How To Play Bridge with your Spouse... and Survive!", read the book by Roselyn Teukolsky. You will learn to deal with such situations as premarital bridge, bridge with another couple, disaster recovery, romantic weekends, mid-life crisis and even children. All of these phases of a bridge marriage are subjected to Ms Teukolsky's witty and engaging analysis and advice.

In "Right Through the Pack Again" by Ron Klinger, each card again tells the story of its importance in a particular deal and in so doing the book pays homage to the original classic. This time the Old Master is in a coma and the cards attempt to bring him back to consciousness, to revive him with their tales of derring-do. Not only are the deals themselves entertaining, but they are instructive too. You can test yourself on the problems and then go to the solution later in the book and thus improve your own game.

Taking you from world championship tournaments to big money rubber bridge, "Around the World in 80 Hands" puts you at the table as thousands of dollars (or a world title) change hands on the turn of a card. In the smoke-filled clubs of London and New York, characters such as Moonbeam, Harry the Hores, Godzilla and Hannibal the Canibal play against Zia Mahmood high stakes. World Championships hang in the balance in Chile, Italy and Bali. In the jet-set resorts of Europe, the top pros play invitational money tournaments with millionaire sponsers. Share the favourite memories of one of the world's best as Zia Mahmood takes you around the world in 80 hands.

"Tales Out of School" is a collection of humorous bridge stories from the witty and satirical pens of David Silver and Tim Bourke. It will delight readers with the adventures of their alter ego, the hapless Professor Silver, as he struggles towards his own version of excellence despite a malevolent and incompetent administration and a D-grade student body. And as with Victor Mollo and David Bird, Silver/Bourke's selection of fascinating bridge hands makes their stories even more enjoyable.

"A Study in Silver" is a second collection of humorous bridge stories from David Silver and Tim Bourke. This time they turn their satirical eyes on the classics of film and literature: Sherlock Holmes, Moby Dick, and even Dracula cannot escape involvement in Professor Silver's adventures. As always, a wide selection of fascinating bridge hands makes the stories even more enjoyable.

In "Bridge: The Silver Way", by David Silver and Tim Bourke, astute readers will recognise allusions to Hemingway and other literary giants , while movie buffs will enjoy the 'bridge versions' of Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Startrek and other favorites. The book ends with Professor Silver taking on Death and the Devil in the ultimate post-mortem analysis.

Professor Silver returns for a fourth series of adventures in "The Naked Bridge Player and Other Stories ". Our hero of the three previous volumes takes on new opponents as the authors find fresh literary targets to lampoon. The man who brought us the Silver Certainty Principle, the Eastwood convention ("Do you feel lucky, partner?") and the concept of the supremacy of the heart suit in bridge now takes aim at The Matrix ("Will you cut the red cards or the blue?"), The Three Musketeers ("All for one... me"), and All Quiet on the Western Front ("Have you heard of the Geneva Convention...?") among many others.

"Thirteen Diamonds" by Alan Cook. Lillian Morgan is bored with life in a retirement community, but she gets more excitement than she hoped for when a fellow resident drops dead at the bridge table--while holding a perfect hand of thirteen diamonds. Intrigued by the astronomical odds against this happening, she uses her mathematical background plus assistance from her beautiful granddaughter and friends to prove that a murder was committed--but not everybody wants her to find the murderer. I really enjoyed this book because the protagonist is different from any other...The writing is energetic and very funny, which is also a good way to describe Lillian.