The Art of Losing, by Keith Dixon

This is an excellent, tragic tale of an impoverished documentary filmmaker who gets involved with a bad-news buddy in horse race fixing scheme, which turns out badly. Worse, the bookies he owes money to seem to love hurting deadbeats more than they love money.

The tile or Keith Dixon's tight, modern-noir tale is a good indicator of the protagonist's M.O. -- I think he is ready to check out, but he wants to end his life in a risky, thrilling way, and still have a chance of making it out alive on the other side.

Released last year, The Art of Losing deserves more attention than it received. $16.47 on Amazon