Jokers Club  Dark secrets are like dead bodies—sometimes, they
refuse to stay buried. It isn’t often I read a book that I have
trouble putting down, but the Jokers Club grabbed my attention
and wouldn’t let go. Gregory Bastianelli is a master at creating
rich and fully-developed worlds and then inviting us to explore
them with him. In Jokers Club, Bastianelli weaves what is
seemingly a straightforward tale—years ago a group of friends
were involved in a horrible accident, one that they have kept
secret for all their lives. But now, at their first reunion in a
decade, they begin to die, killed one by one at the hands of a
mysterious assailant. Is one of their members the killer?  Even
on its own terms, the tale that Bastianelli presents is rich and
detailed enough to make a fine story, but he is not content to
let us off so easily. Instead, he gives us a narrator in Geoff
who is haunted by both the past and a tumor that is slowly
consuming his brain. The story that he tells us—both in the form
of his contempor