Fiction about Games

Chess

Stephen Carter, The Emperor of Ocean Park.
A judge who was rejected for the Supreme Court because of his connection to a suspected criminal dies and leaves a mysterious note and a chess piece for his law professor son.

Brooks Hansen, The Chess Garden.
A doctor serving in the concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War sends his wife twelve letters with chess pieces.

Paolo Maurensig, The Luneberg Variation.
The death of a man in a chessboard-shaped maze is linked to chess games played between a concentration camp inmate and commandant.

Katherine Neville, The Eight.
The story of a 20th century woman seeking a missing chess set is paralleled with that of an 18th century novice who discovers that her abbey is hiding a chess set with mystical powers.

Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Flanders Panel. Mystery
An art restorer in Madrid is drawn into a shadowy world when she discovers an inscription on a painting of a chess game between the Duke of Flanders and his knight.
 

Crossword Puzzles

Nero Blanc, The Crossword Murder. Mystery
A crossword puzzle author is murdered, leaving behind five puzzles that may point to his killer. First in a series about crosswords.

Parnell Hall, Clue for the Puzzle Lady. Mystery
A police chief seeks the help of a crossword puzzle writer to interpret a clue found on the body of a runaway. First in a series about crosswords.

Ruth Rendell, One Across, Two Down. Mystery
A crossword aficionado dreams of getting his hands on his mother-in-law’s money after her death and decides to help her along.

Cards & Gambling

Paul Auster, The Music of Chance.
Two men play poker with a pair of eccentric recluses and find themselves imprisoned.

Dave Barry, Tricky Business.
An unusual assortment of passengers embark on a gambling cruise aboard a ship with another function.

Frederick Barthelme, Bob the Gambler.
A couple get caught up in the world of gambling at a local casino but soon long for a quiet life.

Nancy Bartholomew, Strip Poker. Mystery
An exotic dancer’s boss loses his club in a poker game and is accused of murder.

Jill Davis, Girls’ Poker Night.
On poker night, a group of friends in New York exchange stories of dating disasters.

Eric Dezenhall, Money Wanders.
A disgraced presidential pollster is persuaded to help an Atlantic City casino owner improve his image.

Ian Fleming, Casino Royale.
James Bond follows a trail of money through the casinos of the Riviera in pursuit of a secret organization called SMERSH.

Steve Hamilton, North of Nowhere. Mystery
When the poker game he joins is robbed at gunpoint, P.I. Alex McKnight feels compelled to find the thief.

Donald Harstad, The Big Thaw. Mystery
The discovery of two frozen burglars leads Sheriff Carl Houseman to uncover a plot to blow up a riverboat casino.

G.W. Hawkes, Gambler’s Rose.
A card shark who falls in love and decides to go straight enters one last high-stakes poker game to earn the money to break free.

Martin Hegwood, Jackpot Bay. Mystery
A P.I. hired to facilitate an insurance audit at a Biloxi casino witnesses a deadly shootout.

Georgette Heyer, Faro’s Daughter.
A gambler’s daughter who supports herself at cards pits her skill against an arrogant gentleman who thinks she led his cousin astray.

Michael McGarrity, The Big Gamble. Mystery
When a body is discovered in an old missing persons case, Police Chief Kevin Kerney uncovers a link to another murder and an illegal gambling operation.

Susan Moody, Death Takes a Hand. Mystery
A bridge teacher arrives for a game only to find the three players all dead. Part of a series about bridge.

Perri O’Shaughnessy, Writ of Execution.
A lawyer helps a woman in danger after winning the biggest slot machine jackpot in Lake Tahoe history.

Tim Powers, Last Call. Science Fiction
A poker player returns from retirement for one final hand in a 21-year-old game that won him a fortune but may have cost him his soul.

Bill Pronzini, Step to the Graveyard Easy.
A man making a fresh start in life meets two grifters who try to cheat him in a poker game.

Lawrence Shames, Tropical Depression.
A lingerie king and a Native American concoct a scheme to open a casino in Key West, inciting the greed of a local Mafioso and a crooked politician.

Richard Stark, Backflash. Mystery
A thief targets a floating casino on the Hudson.

James Swain, Funny Money. Mystery
An ex-cop investigating a friend’s murder becomes embroiled in a multimillion dollar blackjack scam in an Atlantic City casino.

Eric Wright, The Last Hand. Mystery
A lawyer’s murder leads an Ontario detective to a poker game organized by the city’s top lawyers.

Computer Games

Donna Andrews, Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon. Mystery
A woman working at her brother’s computer game company finds a dead body on the mail cart.

Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game. Science Fiction
A boy is sent to Battle School to learn to defend Earth against a race of aliens, but he soon realizes the training scenarios are more than just games.

William Gibson, Neuromancer. Science Fiction
Two computer experts hired to break into a heavily guarded databank venture into cyberspace and discover they are pawns in a deadly game.

A.J. Holt, Watch Me.
When an FBI computer expert discovers a network of serial killers playing an all-too-real computer game, she decides to seek justice at any price.

Caroline Preston, Lucy Crocker, 2.0.
A woman who helped her husband develop a popular computer game learns he’s having an affair and heads to the Wisconsin woods with her sons.

Game Shows

Richard Bachman, The Running Man.
In a future where game show contestants risk death to win riches, a man with a sick daughter struggles to stay alive in the “Running Man” game.

Jim Brown, 24/7.
A reality show on a Caribbean island turns deadly when an unknown entity takes over the game and starts killing contestants.

Dorothy Samuels, Filthy Rich.
When a woman ruins her boyfriend’s chance to win $1.75 million on a game show, he breaks up with her on TV and she becomes a media celebrity.

Amusement Parks

Lincoln Child, Utopia.
A computer engineer tries to determine what’s causing the computer-operated rides at an amusement park to turn deadly.

Margaret Maron, Slow Dollar. Mystery
A North Carolina judge discovers that a man murdered at a carnival was a member of her family.

Michael Raleigh, The Riverview Murders. Mystery
Chicago P.I. Paul Whelan tries to find a man who hasn’t been seen in 30 years and whose disappearance may be related to an unsolved murder at Riverview Park.

Stella Whitelaw, Spin and Die. Mystery
A British P.I. investigating thefts at a department store discovers a connection to a death on an amusement park ride.
 

The Lottery

David Baldacci, The Winner.
A single mother who was forced to participate in a crooked lottery scheme finds herself hunted ten years later.

Pete Hautman, Mrs. Million.
A woman who wins millions in the lottery offers a reward for the person who brings back her wayward husband, leading to a hot pursuit.

Jim Kokoris, The Rich Part of Life.
A man wins the lottery and is besieged by scam artists and family members who want a share.