Keepers of the Book

Book excerpt: Even if it was only this one last day, it was as if time stood still, the clock broken years earlier. This was our history, our family and identity. The lucky few among us had been bestowed another round, another chance. Our parting shots insinuated insults to those who listened through unknowing ears, but words of love from brothers of the heart. Set in the shady world of illegal gambling and based on true events spanning three decades, Keepers of the Book presents an insightful, behind-the-scenes memoir of lifelong friends caught up in a high-stakes bookie operation gone awry. One is a pathological gambler with a deep-seated inferiority complex who is recognized as an easy mark; another has a sadistic bent and a bad habit of not paying his customers. Undesirable traits for those who hang a shingle advertising themselves as Bookies, and the reason their scheme to manipulate the Las Vegas point spreads is doomed from the start. Some get away with it, and a few get caught-others aren't so lucky.