Reviewed by: The Unmaking of Duncan Veerick Deborah Stevenson Levin, Betty The Unmaking of Duncan Veerick. Front Street, 2007 [204p] ISBN 978-1-932425-96-3$16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-9 Sixteen-year-old Andrew Lang considers himself a sort of money-making mathematician rather than an addicted gambler. His friend Scott and coworker Jasmine know better, though, particularly when they are drawn into Andrew's desperate efforts to replace the $600 he lifted from the register at his father's dry-cleaning business and subsequently lost at the poker table. After an abortive attempt to unload the crack cocaine he discovered in the pocket of a customer's coat and a close shave with the drug dealer who runs the local underground game, Andrew settles on a plan to recoup his losses at a casino. Here the action shifts from ethics drama into the road-trip genre, with the three teens faking their way into the casino in purloined garments from the cleaners and having one heckuva night in which Andrew hits it big (using cash Scott steals from his father as seed money) and sexual opportunities are embraced. It looks like a happy ending on the horizon, with Andrew hooking up with Jasmine, returning the money, penitently achieving a rapprochement with his heretofore enraged father, and deciding that sex and sudoku are as satisfying as the poker table. Luper could be taken to task for establishing Andrew as true addict and then letting him weasel so easily out of his obsession. However, readers who pay close attention to the tail end of the saga will note that Andrew and Scott are now running a small stakes game (running it, not playing in it, mind you) for the high-school set, and perhaps Andrew isn't quite as willing or able to dodge temptation as he plans. While this lacks the dark intensity of Pete Hautman's Denn Doyle books (Stone Cold, retitled No Limit, BCCB 11/98, All-In, 9/07), YAs willing to pony up a couple of hours reading time should be pleased with the payoff. Copyright © 2007 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois