The Game Of Thirty

The Game of Thirty (1995)
By William Kotzwinkle — Bantam
ISBN: 0553573853, Condition: Used, as sold by Crappy Old Books

This is the book you buy when you want a mystery, but you also want it slightly strange, slightly clever, and just unsettling enough to make you wonder if you’re the one being played.

In The Game of Thirty, William Kotzwinkle takes the classic urban detective story, sprinkles it with ancient echoes, odd details, and puzzle-box plotting, and then gently nudges it off-centre so nothing is ever quite as straightforward as it looks. It’s the kind of novel where you think, “Ah, I see what’s going on,” and the book replies, “No. No, you really don’t.”

This particular copy, now making its latest move courtesy of Crappy Old Books, comes in gloriously Used condition, meaning:

• A softly creased spine, suggesting at least one previous reader turned pages at pace while muttering, “Just one more chapter, then I’ll sleep,” and lied.

• Slight wear along the edges, like a veteran of multiple backpack rides, bus journeys, and coffee-table interrogations.

• Gently yellowed pages, the warm, nostalgic tint that says, “Yes, I am from the mid-90s and no, I don’t apologise.”

Inside, you get:

• A New York that’s just a bit too full of secrets, shadows, and people who know more than they should.

• A detective who’s smart enough to realise that when a case looks like a game, someone, somewhere, is planning to win.

• A sense that the past and the present are not minding their own business, and have decided to collide in increasingly inconvenient ways.

Kotzwinkle writes with that slightly skewed, sly energy that says he’s enjoying himself just a bit too much:

• Dialogue with bite, where almost everyone knows more than they’re saying.

• Scenes with a faint surreal shimmer, like reality has been tilted five degrees to the left.

• Clues and red herrings so intertwined that even the red herrings might be holding something important.

As for the Crappy Old Books specimen in your hands, you may also notice:

• A cover that looks like it’s been staring at other crime novels on second-hand shelves for years and has Opinions.

• The occasional micro-crease on a corner, perhaps marking a favourite twist or a particularly sharp line.

• That indescribable old-paperback smell: part dust, part history, part “someone else once got very invested in this.”

You’ll like this used copy if:

• You enjoy mysteries where the detective has to solve a puzzle, not just a crime.

• You’re fond of books that feel like they’re testing you as much as you’re testing them.

• You take a quiet, perverse joy in stories where the rules are never fully explained—but everything still clicks in a strangely satisfying way.

And because you’re getting it from Crappy Old Books, you’re not just buying a novel; you’re adopting a veteran of previous reading campaigns. It has:

• Been opened, closed, and opened again.

• Survived at least one tidy-up where lesser books did not.

• Made it far enough to cross your path, which in itself feels like a move in some obscure literary game.

So go on—take The Game of Thirty home. Put it on your shelf. Let it sit there for a day or two, looking faintly conspiratorial. Then open it and realise, a few chapters in, that somewhere between the city streets and the strange little details, you’ve been drawn into a game you didn’t even know you were playing.

Fortunately, this one only messes with your head, not your life.

Probably.

Keep browsing: See more Crime books Other books by William Kotzwinkle