LUCK BE A LADY by Gemma Halliday and T.Sue VerSteeg

Fiction, Cozy Mystery

4****

Blurb: Tessie King has just inherited the biggest casino in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada: the Royal Lakeside. What she didn’t bargain for are the problems she’d inherit with it. Having left Tahoe years ago, the underbelly of the casino trade is a far cry from the art world Tessie is used to. High-stakes cons, inside jobs, wise guys… Tessie quickly realizes she’s in way over her head. And things go from bad to worse when questions start to arise about the nature of her father’s death. Enter FBI agent Devin Ryder, member of the Nevada Organized Crime Task Force. He’s had his eye on the Royal Palace for months, and with the suspicious death of its leader, Ryder now has Tessie squarely in his sights. If Tessie doesn’t want to be running her casino from behind bars, she needs to find out how her father really died, who’s behind it, why, and how to get them into Agent Ryder’s hot little hands before he gets his hands on her. All the while catching a con-man, beating the competition, and running a multi-million dollar business.
Tough job? Fo’get about it. All in a day’s work for this lady luck.

THOUGHTS: This was an interesting cozy mystery in that you had the usual trope of a young, single woman returning to where she spent part of her childhood and meeting up with old friends, but that’s where the comparison to other cozies stops. Tess has returned to the casino her father owned only to find out that upon his death, she became the new owner. She hasn’t been there in several years and even while growing up only spent some holidays and summer vacations there. He divorced her mother when she was two and her mother moved from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco. So they weren’t close. But Tess discovers how much her father actually cared for her – and then she finds out that he was murdered. And she is the head of the casino for only ten days until the board of directors meet. And someone is stealing big money and jewels from the patrons. And the head of security doesn’t want her there. But she has her best friend from when they were kids – he now works the front desk. And her teen heart throb who is a famous snowboarder who helps promote the casino. And a hot FBI agent who’s looking into possible mafia connections.

Tess has a lot on the line if she’s going to get ahead of what’s happening. Plus, she needs to decide if this is what she wants—give up being the curator for her art gallery in order to take on all the issues with the casino. But her father didn’t raise her to be a quitter.

Recommended.