But it would be unfair to the reader to reveal what happens
when a gang of professional crooks gets wind of the scheme and moves to
muscle in on this bettors' dream of a long-odds situation. Worked out
with all the meticulous detail, terror, and suspense of a nightmare, the
tale is, on one level, comparable to a Graham Greene thriller; on
another, it explores a group of people, their relationships fears, and
loves. For as Leslie A. Fiedler says in his introduction, "John Hawkes..
. makes terror rather than love the center of his work, knowing all the
while, of course, that there can be no terror without the hope for love
and love's defeat . . . ."