Quick Silver - Softcover

Howard, Clark

3.37

19 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451158318 ISBN 13: 9780451158314

Publisher: Signet, 1989

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Passionately in love with a woman he does not known is his half-sister, Tony Donovan, the illegitimate son of a wealthy mine owner, struggles to become part of the early gambling boom in Las Vegas

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From Publishers Weekly:

Intense, deeply haunting and enlivened by charismatic fictitious and real-life characters, this saga about Nevada's silver mining and gambling industries covers the period from 1919 to 1953. Following World War I, a trio of ex-MarinesMike Donovan, Jim Delavane and Buck O'Crottyencounters sensuous Ruby Surrett. She and Jim have an affair, despite his recent marriage. When their torrid relationship inevitably ends, Ruby weds Mike while she is carrying Jim's child. Their destinies irrevocably meshed, they all settle in Virginia City, where Jim amasses wealth as a swaggering mine owner; Buck, a man of formidable integrity, is the mine workers' union representative; and Tony, Ruby and Jim's boy, is taken in by Buck after a fire kills the Donovans. Unaware of his real paternity, Tony courts Francie Delavane, Jim's daughter, but their misbegotten passion falters when Francie learns about Tony's background. Tony becomes an executive at the Flamingo, "Bugsy" Siegel's opulent hotel casino in Las Vegas. Now a sophisticated businessman and a protege of mobster Meyer Lansky, Tony has two obsessions: finding Francie and identifying Buck's murderer. Turbulent emotions and confrontations fill this spellbinding tale that pits highly principled characters against wanton, amoral ones. To maintain the suspense, Howard (Dirt Rich) deftly shifts from past to present. He is a superlative storyteller.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Nevada's hard-rock mines, legalized prostitution, and exotic casinos are rich resources for fiction. Unfortunately, this novel fails to take advantage of them. Not that it is dull. As we follow Tony Donovan's romantic pursuit of Francie who, unknown to him, is his half-sister, we read about cave-ins and labor disputes; a saintly labor organizer; brutal strike-breakers; Indians and their religion; the loss of a fortune on an unlucky poker hand; incest; and gangsters, including Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lanskydescribed at times in flashbacks and flash forwards. There is simply too much here to allow characters or locales to be developed; readers must flesh out the events for themselves.Elsa Pendleton, Computer Sciences Corp., Ridgecrest, Cal.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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