Wanna Get Lucky?, by Deborah Coonts (REVIEW) — High Heels, Whiskey, & Murder under the Vegas Lights

A pretty young thing does a swan dive into a hotel pool part-way through a splashy  production number, surprising the hundreds of people watching. 

 

It’s a cool effect. Problem is, she’s not part of the show, and her unscripted entrance—tumbling from a helicopter—is also her exit... her very, very final one.

 

Meanwhile, in another hotel... an enormous fellow is sleeping off a bender in a not-so-out-of-the-way stairwell, clad in nothing more than his pasty-white Birthday Suit. 

 

A Japanese billionaire has just crashed the brand-new Ferrari he’d put on his room tab. 

 

A national group of swingers is due to arrive any minute, as is a huge contingent of techno-geeks ready to get their nerd freak on. 

 

And absolutely everyone who is—or aspires to be—”someone” in the adult film industry will also be converging shortly, for a XXX-rated version of the Oscars.

 

In newcomer Deborah Coonts’ delicious Wanna Get Lucky?, it’s Vegas, baby... and they don’t call that glitzy little desert playground  “Sin City” for nothing.

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For Lucky O’Toole—head of Customer Relations at the Babylon, Las Vegas‘ newest premiere hotel/adult playground extravaganza—it’s all in a day’s work, though. 

 

Or it would be, if not for that fatal bellyflop from the chopper during a nightly pirate show. 

 

Why? Because she’d been an employee at the Babylon... someone Lucky is positive wasn’t about to kill herself.

 

The alternative—that it was the very public murder of a perfectly-ordinary cocktail waitress—is one hassle Lucky doesn’t need... but she’s set on finding out what happened, anyway. 

 

Lucky knew and liked the girl—it’s personal.

 

But no one—not her boss, other coworkers, investigators, even her own mother—cares to be much help.

 

Nor does life conveniently pause to let her handle things. 

 

Every time she turns around, there’s another little fire to be put out (like the naked guy, the drunk guy, and anyone else who just isn’t being catered to quite enough), plus the mad flurry of final preparations for all the various conventioneers and paparazzi. 

 

And at some point, Lucky hopes to squeeze in a little time for some personal life, too.

 

Wanna Get Lucky? is a fast-paced romp throughout, from that very big splash at the beginning all the way to the thrilling end. 

 

Full of terrific characters—drawn with surprising depth and compassion—and snappy dialogue, it’s impossible not to get hooked. 

 

Coonts has created a real winner in Lucky—a smart, capable, but not too-perfect heroine (yes, she straps on some killer Jimmy Choo's... but they hurt her feet, and she's sort of clumsy in them), with the most divinely-dry wit and snappy comebacks around. 

 

(Seriously, I grinned, chuckled, and smirked my way through the entire book... and was really sad to turn the last page.)

 

The other star here deserves a shout-out, as well—Vegas, a city which was born in a dry desert and has managed to transform itself with a glamorous, neon-lit veneer into a place where wild fantasies can come true... and where secrets can be kept (if one believes the popular slogan, anyway). 

 

Coonts offers a cool, insider look at stuff visitors aren’t meant to see or even think about, and it lends her story a real authenticity and a feel all its own.

 

And what about the mystery, you ask? It’s a really good one! It isn’t entirely unexpected (which also means it isn’t unbelievable), but it comes with plenty of twists and turns that you won’t necessarily see coming.

 

If Wanna Get Lucky? were a drink, it would definitely be a long, tall, cool one... much like Lucky, herself. As for me, well... I’m just sitting here, anxiously waiting for my refill. Hope you’ll join me. 

~GlamKitty