LUCKY CATCH
The fifth Lucky O’Toole Vegas
Adventure
By
Deborah Coonts
Trouble
always comes in threes. At least that’s
what Lucky O’Toole, the VP of Customer Relations for Las Vegas’ primo Strip
casino/hotel, the Babylon, has heard for years from her mother. So, tonight, when Teddie, her former lover
shows up at her office unannounced and very unexpected, her father offers
Teddie a job at the Babylon, she is called to deal with a pig in residence at
one of the hotels most exclusive and opulent suites, and Lucky’s current lover,
Jean-Charles Bouclet stops answering his phone leaving Lucky to handle his
five-year-old son, Lucky figures she has tonight’s compliment of chaos covered.
As
usual, she is a tad optimistic.
With
a cadre of celebrity chefs with the maturity of teenagers in Vegas for a televised
cook-off, a prized Alba truffle in the Babylon’s care, and her mother’s
pregnancy racing toward the inevitable, what could go wrong?
When
the truffle is stolen from the walk-in in Jean-Charles’ gourmet burger joint at
the Babylon and a young chef apparently killed with a smoking gun is found in
Jean-Charles’ food truck on the back lot, trouble takes a sinister turn.
And
Jean-Charles still isn’t answering his phone.
Another
body is discovered. This one stuffed in
an oven at Jean-Charles’ eponymous restaurant and set to broil.
Desperate
to put a lid on the body count and more than frantic over her AWOL lover, Lucky
uses her Vegas contacts to search in places and in ways the police wouldn’t or
couldn’t. Teddie insists on riding
shotgun. Lucky hasn’t the time nor the
resolve to say no. She’s never been able
to resist Teddie … not really. With
danger dogging their heels, Lucky finds herself falling once again under his
spell as they traverse Vegas, being drawn deeper and deeper into the highly
competitive world of high-end eateries and the battle for the very rare, most
highly prized gourmet foodstuffs.
Would
somebody really kill for a truffle?
In
a heartbeat.
And
when Lucky’s path crosses the killer’s… will her goose be cooked?
EXCERPT: LUCKY CATCH By Deborah Coonts