Unholy Tricks, by Reese & Bird a jpoc bridge book review

This is the second book in the "Monks of St.Titus" series in which we see the Abbot and his community spending as much time at the Bridge table as at Prayer. The book is presented as a collection of individual or grouped hands and there is no need to tackle these books in sequence. The hands are interesting and the presentation is very funny indeed.

The material originally appeared as a series of articles, written by David Bird, in various Bridge magazines. Terence Reese is credited with adding some polish and a famous name, to the book form.

The great appeal of this book is that the characters seem so real. Of course, you do not meet that many monks at the local bridge club, but you do meet people just like the Abbot and so on.

By setting part of the book with two monks working as misisonaries, the authors also have an opportunity to introduce a fair share of the zany too though.

The highlight of this book is the section in Africa where the missionaries win the trials to represent Upper Bhumpopo in the African championships and then travel to Tunis to play as internationals and have a shot at qualifying for the Bermuda Bowl. It's very funny and the hands are also interesting.

The hands are well chosen and the play problems presented all fit to the characters of the players involved. Often this gives a clue if you are trying to solve the problems before reading about them.

Any Bridge player with a sense of humour will love this book.