Hunt [is] a psychological thriller of a completely riveting nature and with some undertones of a deeper nature.

Among other things, it is a tale of addiction, and here Dostoyevsky (himself a convulsive, sometimes self-destructive player) has the edge on [A Alvarez] in The Gambler. Mr Alvarez's professionalism as a poker player is at war with his professionalism as an artist. The games he describes are mostly dramatic, but they sometimes fail in communicating, being too full of the terminology which only the long-hardened card player knows. This apart, I find no flaw in a brilliantly succinct story (the author gauges perfectly the length of each chapter—some long, some very short—according to the episode to be highlighted). It is also a splendidly evocative portrait of Dante's narrator in the person of Conrad Hunt, half-way through his life and with his sense of direction confused. (p. 44)

The...