As I discussed in my last post, both "Wild Cards Book VI: Ace in the Hole" and "Wild Cards Book VII: Dead Man's Hand" began life as part of one single book. The original idea was that this book would have six plot threads devoted to wrapping up the long running storyline involving Wild Cards' first major villain, Greg Hartman, a.k.a. Puppetman and two plot threads involving a murder mystery story that would also wrap up other long running storylines. When the two writers working on the murder mystery plot line wrote so much material that it would not fit in Book VI, a decision was made to spin the murder mystery story into it's own separate book.Thus, while most of the Wild Cards books proceed chronologically, "Dead Man''s Hand" and "Ace in the Hole" take place about the same time. While most of the Wild Card Character's are occupied with the event of the Democratic primary chronicled in "Dead Man's Hand", long time supporting cast member, the joker information broker, Chrysalis is found murdered. Her bodyguard, private detective Jay Ackroyd, known to his chagrin as Poppinjay (written by George R.R. Martin) for the distinctive popping sound that occurs when he uses his ability to teleport the objects he points at, finds the body and take it upon himself to catch the killer. Meanwhile, Chrysalis' former lover, the non-powered vigilante, Yeoman (written by John Jos. Miller) finds himself implicated in the killing and comes out of hiding to catch the real killer.
Naturally, the two cross paths alternately as adversaries and allies. Interestingly, Ackroyd never seriously considers the possibility that Yeoman might be the killer. Instead, Ackroyd's strong moral code and dislike of violence clashes with Yeoman's use of lethal force to deal with his enemies. In the meantime, the two cross paths with almost every major antagonist in the series. Bludgeon, the Shadow Fist Society, Ti Malice, and the Shadow Fist Society all put in appearances.
Even Puppetman casts his shadow over this book. One of my few complaints about "Ace in the Hole" was that Jay Ackroyd was kind of a deus ex machina: He shows up out of nowhere with damning evidence of Greg Harman's crimes in his possession. This book has the opposite problem. Here, we see Ackroyd find the evidence and we see a few scenes from the previous book from his perspective but the thread just kind of ends. The book does everything but outright say "Read the last book to find out how all this turned out." It serves as a distraction from the mystery at the center of the book especially since "Ace in the Hole" already established that Hartman is not the killer.Of course, villains like Puppetman are not the book's sole concern. The final confrontation is ultimately between the two leads and their wildly different visions of justice with both sides bringing up valid points. Yeoman and Ackroyd are both heroes, yes, but they are too different to ever really be on the same side. Like "Ace in the Hole" before it, the ending is more nuanced the hero beats villain (though there is some of that too) and the story is better for it. I would recommend reading "Ace in the Hole" and "Dead Man's Hand" together. The stories are really two halves of a whole: exploring what it means to do the right thing and be a hero when confronted with complex moral choices. Although individually both books have their flaws, together, they are my favorite books in the series.
