It’s no secret that Dean Wesley Smith has a unique voice. He is known for it, along with a penchant for coming up with outside the box ideas for new series.

And although his Cold Poker Gang Mysteries is perhaps his most mainstream series, he still finds a way to put his own unique twist on it.

Enter his group of poker-playing retired detectives who take on the coldest of cases.

Here’s the series synopsis:

If you love puzzle mystery novels, complicated cold cases, and detectives tackling the most twisted crimes, take this opportunity to introduce yourself to USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith’s Cold Poker Gang. Smith takes you into the world of his acclaimed novel Dead Money with a series focused around a group of retired Las Vegas detectives playing poker and solving cold cases. Retired Detective Bayard Lott hosts the weekly poker games at his home. The group calls themselves the Cold Poker Gang. And they have proven very successful in solving cases they take out of the deep freeze.

And if you’ve been waiting for this super-popular mystery series to be available in hardcover, now’s your chance to help make that happen and receive a lot of exclusive rewards along the way.

We launched a new Kickstarter last week aimed at producing hardcover editions of the books in this series, including the upcoming new release, Bottom Pair, and we’ve already hit two stretch goals!

The Kickstarter offers lots of great rewards including an exclusive workshop on writing mystery series, as well as some really fun stuff like a set of Cold Poker Gang poker chips and playing cards to match. And because we’ve hit those two stretch goals, everyone who supports the Kickstarter at the $5 level and up also gets Luck Be Ladies: A Poker Boy Collection and Fiction River: Risk Takers as well as a choice of any WMG Publishing Lecture on Teachable.

The Cold Poker Gang novels have been described as fast reads and twisted mysteries that leave the reader guessing about where they will end up. The novels are all set in Las Vegas and every book uses something about the city that is unique to Las Vegas in one way or another.

In fact, reading these books makes you feel like you’re in Vegas, so what better way to make a virtual trip to the city right now than through these books?

Check out the Cold Poker Gang Kickstarter here.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer, working mother, and brain tumor survivor.