Bryce Courtenay 
Jack of Diamonds 

During the Great Depression there was little hope for a boy born into the slums of Cabbagetown, Toronto. But Jack Spayd is offered a ticket out in the form of a Hohner harmonica, won by his brutal, drunken father in a late-night card game. Jack makes music as a way to escape his surroundings, and his talent leads him to a jazz club and, eventually, to the jazz piano. Jack is a virtuoso and hits the road, enchanting audiencesfrom Toronto to Moose Jaw, London to Las Vegas, where he is caught up in theworld of elite poker and falls under the spell of his boss, the enigmatic Bridgett Fuller. Vegas is a hard town ruled by the Mafia, but Jack prospers until his luck turns bad and he falls foul of the Mob. Forced to run for his life from Vegas, he must also leave the woman he adores. His adventuring takes him to the copper mines of the Belgian Congo, to a rare and valuable bird that may seal his fateand to the love of a very different woman. Jack of Diamonds is the spellbinding final novel of a beloved storyteller, a tale of a young, talented man fighting to achieve his ambitions and using his considerable talents to find his way in a perilous world.