WagerEasy
As soon as I finished Tom Farrell’s intelligent, exhilarating sports betting mystery-thriller WagerEasy, I checked the author’s background to see why his writing conveyed such a thorough understanding of detective work and detective language.
A retired lawyer? Nope. A chemist? No. Golf course starter? Don’t think so. City Hall clerk? Not really. Handicapper? To be expected, but not what I was looking for.
What strikes me about WagerEasy, as much as the labyrinth of intriguing storylines surrounding the legalization of sports betting in 2018 and the brutal murder of a player in the thick of it, is the way Farrell writes — as if he has lived the life of a private investigator at some point, contrary to his resume.
He is very careful with his words in order to captivate readers, especially as they pertain to protagonist Eddie O’Connell, a bartender, sports gambler and budding PI, and his uncle, retired police detective Mike O’Connell. They seem to know exactly what to say, when to say it, what not to say, and when to hold back. They try to decipher who knows what, as others try to figure them out and their own degrees of info. They know when to bluff with purpose, and they know how to glance sideways at each other to convey unspoken messages — of which there are many in this complex tale.
NO PRICE TOO HIGH WITH RISKS THIS BIG
In the course of it all, Eddie learns a valuable lesson from his uncle: “It didn’t matter if we were focused upon a large corporation, a small startup, a simple partnership, or an individual. What mattered was the degree of risk and the amount at stake.” And the perpetrator in question, depending upon the above degrees of difficulty, “might do whatever it took, and sometimes that included murder.”
The opening scene is reminiscent of one of the grizzly killings from Silence of the Lambs, taking us to a vacant factory in Chicago, where Eddie and Uncle Mike see a man “strung up by ropes in a spread-eagle, star-shaped design — a mad artist’s conception of pain.” And that’s not the half of it.
As it turns out, Eddie recognizes the victim, Jimmy Golding (AKA Jimmy the Leech), a former gambling buddy who apparently got in over his head.
Eddie and Uncle Mike are called in by one of Mike’s contacts, mob boss Rosario Burrascano, who believes he is being framed for the murder. He hires the two to investigate the matter and find the real killer.
What would be the motivation? The plot takes place on the verge of the legalization of sports betting. Everyone wants a piece — from the bigshot mobsters like Burrascano to the many small-time bookies whose livelihoods are threatened and need to protect their own portfolios of high rollers. This is all happening as a large Euro sports betting operation known as WagerEasy is setting up shop in Chicago and doing its legwork to gather partnerships and accounts, with various levels of sleaze. Eddie even manages to gain a job inside WagerEasy to pursue his investigation.
INTERESTING PERSONALITIES ABOUND
The interesting characters — and levels of involvement and/or suspicion of each — are almost too many to mention, which is a testament to the complexity of the plot and the joy of the reading experience.
To name a few: Sloan, a Dallas businessman trying to rally the smaller bookies into a consortium of his own; Walsh, the regional manager of WagerEasy’s Chicago office, who takes in Eddie but whose motives are suspect; Oscar, the local bookie to whom Eddie owes a debt; Blick, a businessman in town for a gaming conference but perhaps more; Yuri, a female body shop owner accused of attacking Blick in a local bar after Blick’s racial slurs; Tara, a WagerEasy employee whose habits and actions give clues to a hidden agenda; and Kubala, an ex-con who has it out for Eddie and seems to show up where you least want him.
Eddie and Uncle Mike negotiate through Chicago’s seedier side trying to piece together an intricate puzzle. In the process, Farrell has created a literary puzzle of his own, taking readers along to share his characters’ actions, suspicions and emotions. Not all players, to be sure, are how they may first appear.
WagerEasy, as Kirkus accurately describes, is smart and fast-paced. Anyone who enjoys trying to unravel a good mystery, with plenty of twists and memorable characters, has the pleasure of knowing that more is on the way from this author who thinks and writes like a former detective, despite what his bio tells you. I have my own suspicions!
Visit Tom Farrell’s BookTrib author profile here.
Nice article, waiting for another.