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ADVENTURE/ESPIONAGE/GAY/ POLITICAL/THRILLER MYSTERY
blackjack
It’s 2066. the world, torn apart earlier in the century by terrorism and rampant disease, is simmering on the edge of change. Rica Marin is a mercenary, spy, actor, torch singer, woman of many talents, opinions and doubts. She travels the crumbling roads of an under-populated America made up of scattered small nations, a half-civilized, half-barbaric mix of leftover tech and roving bandits. Hiring out to local chiefs, she takes any assignment that pays well and doesn’t offend her flexible morality.

In this fast-paced near-future adventure, she takes an undercover job as a lounge singer in Tahoe, in the country of Sierra, spying on a powerful casino clan accused of everything from con games to treason. As she becomes entangled with the family—the eccentric matriarch Judith, the charismatic general Samm, and the matriarch’s seductive sister Jo—she begins to wonder who the villains really are.

The book has Machiavellian plots, war, romance, political maneuvering, and murder. Rica both fears and is attracted to the idea of what the world seems to be coming to, and to the people who are trying to bend it their way. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who cares? The problem is, the lusty protagonist begins to care more than she wants to. Amid spies and counterspies, casualty-ridden political and military skirmishes, and threats from a self-righteous neighboring country, she realizes that the coming change is forcing her to choose sides for the first time in her life.

The novel has been called "a beautifully worked out post-apocalyptic thriller," and "one of those books that the reader simply cannot set aside"! As one reviewer put it, "Blackjack will grasp any reader by the throat and hang on till the end. What characters! What plotting! What a wealth of historical background (especially of the Twentieth Century) and the descriptive setting of the 'New World' from our time forward to the plot setting of 2066!"
Read A Review:

Fast-paced action and a decisive, strong-minded heroine make this a good choice for fans of postapocalyptic thrillers.

Library Journal


A sort of Mad Maxine for the flat-accented, Marin makes a convincing antihero for the post-U.S. age, an era seemingly closer than ever before.

G.G., North Bay Bohemian


...Blackjack is truly one of those books that the reader simply cannot set aside. A story whose pace is akin
to the speed of a rocket-launcher missile, Blackjack will grasp any reader by the throat and hang on until the end. What characters! What plotting! What a wealth of historical background (especially of the Twentieth Century) and of the descriptive setting of the 'New World' from our time forward to the plot setting of 2066. Accomplished author Lee Singer, who has already published suspense novels as Shelley Singer, is a writer never to be missed. Blackjack will linger in the mind for long after the completion, with the question ringing: "Could a near-future like this actually occur?"

Annie, Euro-Reviews