4-1/2B, Eros

A seasoned space trader faces his hardest deal yet: the crooked courts of Venus. Captain Hank Karns has flown every route in the solar system, but when his closest friend lands in a Venusian prison on a fabricated charge, he finds himself in territory more dangerous than any asteroid field. The planet's ruling elite run a tight game of bribes, frame-ups, and eliminated witnesses. Karns has to play their corrupt politics with his own deck, using the street wisdom of a trader who knows when someone's bluffing and when they're holding a knife. The friendship at the core gives this pulp adventure its emotional weight: this isn't about profit or glory, it's about one man refusing to let the system swallow someone he loves. Jameson writes with the blunt, confident prose of someone who understood that science fiction's job was to make you turn the page, not to teach you anything.