I love the psychology behind a good con. Con artists are the ultimate anti-heroes - masterful manipulators and highly observant, but unscrupulous at heart. And after reading a GQ article on “real-life superheroes” – people who dress up in homemade costumes and patrol their neighborhoods – I became fascinated by that psychology, too. Las Vegas is the capital of con and Cons—a unique city bursting with swindlers and cosplayers decked out in full regalia. What better place to set a crime novel? And thus—voila—Con Me Once was born.
The tagline says it all – “Whoever says crime doesn’t pay isn’t doing it right.” Pubbed in 2015, this book is often compared to Ocean’s Eleven as it contains the same main elements: the con artist and his experienced crew, the girl, Vegas. What’s opposite is the focus – this book emphasizes plot over character. While I love this book’s complex con-within-a-con, Billy Cunningham is not particularly likable as a main character. If you enjoy Vegas’s dark side, this book and its two sequels, Bad Action and Super Con, are for you.
Whoever says crime doesn't pay isn't doing it right.
There are hundreds of casinos in Las Vegas, and Billy Cunningham knows how to rip off every one. His scams are a thing of beauty-so perfectly orchestrated that onlookers believe he and his crew are winning fair and square. In a town where bosses will kill to protect their profits, Billy can't afford to make mistakes, but even the best-laid plans can go wrong...
Desperate to keep his team out of jail, Billy agrees to help stop a legendary family of thieves from taking down a casino. But he has no…
November
Road, for me, is a book of people. Each character struggles with morality in
their own way.
Frank Guidry, the central character, is a fixer, and sometimes a
little more if it means saving himself. Guidry’s big, easy life in New Orleans
is about to change. He knows it instinctively, he’s in danger, and he has to
run. Charlotte Roy must also run to take her two young daughters and flee
from an alcoholic husband and a suffocating life.
They meet on the road, and
Guidry finds what he’s always been looking for in Charlotte, a reason to live,
just when life has never been so precarious for him. I read this book over and
over again.
Set against the assassination of JFK, a poignant and evocative crime novel that centers on a desperate cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s America-a story of unexpected connections, daring possibilities, and the hope of second chances from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone.
Frank Guidry's luck has finally run out.
A loyal street lieutenant to New Orleans' mob boss Carlos Marcello, Guidry has learned that everybody is expendable. But now it's his turn-he knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Within hours of JFK's murder, everyone with ties to…
Pete Hsu’s twelve stories are largely set
where I live in Southern California. The title story in the collection starts
on the freeway, where Southern Californians like me spend much of our time.
Each story is disarmingly disquieting, perfectly capturing trauma, terror, and
tragedy from the point of view of children and young people. I found Hsu’s
sentences deceivingly simple as well, which adds to the heartbreak of characters
who have no agency in this out-of-control world.
There’s hope in Hsu’s pages as well. In the
story ‘A Penny Short’ the narrator wonders if we’re “are all secretly good
people just waiting for some angel to tap us on the shoulder.”
It’sa gripping collection that left me unsettled in the best possible way.
Full of warmth, terror, and underhanded humor, If I Were the Ocean, I'd Carry You Home, Pete Hsu's debut story collection, captures the essence of surviving in a life set adrift. Children and young people navigate a world where the presence of violence and death rear themselves in everyday places: Vegas casinos, birthday parties, church services, and sunny days at the beach. Each story is a meditation on living in a world not made for us-the pervasive fear, the adaptations, the unexpected longings. A gripping and energetic debut, Hsu's writing beats with the naked rhythms of an unsettled human heart.
I’ve always adored romance books—there’s nothing like the thrill of meeting characters that you know you’re going to fall in love with just as much as they’re going to fall in love with each other. I didn’t start out intending to write about rock stars. But when I was sitting down in front of that first blank screen looking for inspiration, it was a rock star that took shape in my mind. There is something so inherently appealing about the artistic, tortured souls of musicians. Relationships in the spotlight come with very special challenges, and I love exploring how characters navigate these while still developing passionate, soul-deep emotional bonds.
Lick was another of my earliest rock star romance reads. It takes the rock star trope and combines it together with the accidentally married trope, and I loved every second of it! It was so much fun reading about how these strangers deal with waking up after a wild night out on the town in Las Vegas only to realize they’re now married. That would be difficult enough without one of them being a very famous rock star. This story is sexy, entertaining, heartbreaking, and heartwarming, all at the same time. Not always an easy combination to pull off, but Kylie Scott manages it beautifully.
Waking up in Vegas was never meant to be like this.
Evelyn Thomas's plans for celebrating her twenty-first birthday in Las Vegas were big. Huge. But she sure never meant to wake up on the bathroom floor with a hangover to rival the black plague, a very attractive half-naked tattooed man in her room, and a diamond on her finger large enough to scare King Kong. Now if she could just remember how it all happened.
One thing is certain, being married to one of the hottest rock stars on the planet is sure to be a wild ride.
Having heard Celtic legends as a kid made me want to either become a leprechaun or a goddess with the power to remake the world’s worst parts. Although I didn’t achieve either, I write about both, as well as other quirky people who march to the rhythm of delightfully offbeat drummers. I so adore eccentric people and jaunty environments, I’ve built a career out of writing them. That has allowed me to capture the sassy voice of the daughter of madcap Hollywood stars, the outrageous garments worn by a cheerfully fake psychic, and the journey of a brokenhearted chef who can’t quote an adage normally to save her life.
Although I don’t usually read dark fantasy, Charlotte and the Demons has become one of my favorite books.
Young Charlotte’s father is an abusive alcoholic, causing his kids’ lives to fall apart. Suddenly, the floor of Charlotte’s closet opens into a gateway to hell. Charlotte’s soon meeting the underworld’s worst baddies. She crushes on Ezequiel, a clerk who does secretarial work for the Old Guy, the Prince of Darkness who seems to have lost control over his underworld.
A plot that turns in the most unexpected ways, the richness of the humor, and the engaging voices of an imaginative range of characters make this novel creative and unique. I wasn’t sure how it would end, but the last chapter absolutely made my heart fill with joy. You’ll love it.
She prayed for an angel, but demons entered her life.
Nine-year old Charlotte lives in Las Vegas amid a hellish scenario of domestic violence. A vision of a beautiful woman on a screen door appears, and she prays for a guardian angel.
She's convinced the vision is of the Virgin Mary.
No dice.
It's the demon Lilith in disguise.
One night, Ezequiel, a fledgling demon of 16, strikes a match in her closet. He steps into her bedroom adorned with both horns and halo. He warns that satanic forces are headed her way, but he can only do so much…
I’ve been playing card games since childhood, and have had a parallel interest in the mathematics behind the games for nearly as long. While I didn’t visit Las Vegas in person until 2000, the stories of how that city was built around the gaming industry quickly came to fascinate me. Digging into the details of the people who have made that city what it is and have come to make their way in the desert has been a fascinating sidelight that has enhanced my recent work writing books on gambling mathematics.
This book stands out from the rest on my list because it’s about a gambler, not a casino executive.
Barry Meadow set out to play blackjack in every casino in Nevada one fall. Blackjack Autumn chronicles his travels and adventures across every corner of the state: the good, the bad, and the ugly. He tells the tales of a card counter experiencing wide variation in casino amenities and game protection strategies, interspersed with some provocative thoughts on life in general.
This is more than a book about blackjack; it’s a series of personal adventures that I frequently reread to this day.
What is it like to take two months off from your life and travel alone throughout Nevada, playing blackjack in every casino in the state?
Barry Meadow did just that. Leaving behind his business, his fiancée, and his son, he set out with a suitcase, a tape recorder, and $8,000 on the trip of a lifetime. He had no idea what he would find. All he knew was that every day would be an adventure and every joint would be a risk.
Meadow ran into cowboys and Indians, suffered the Stardust curse, split tens in Winnemucca and learned more about…
Pet names in romance can make or break a book, in my opinion. Sometimes, they can be offputting, but other times, pet names make me smile. They elevate the chemistry between characters–turn the heat up a notch on a steam scene, make you blush, and make you fall in love with the characters. When I read a pet name I can imagine the tone, level, and timbre. It makes me feel like I'm there in the pages with the characters. I think it's because a pet name or nickname is special. A person assigns it to you because they care–or, better yet, within the pages of a romance, they love.
Stinger is one of the most original love stories I've ever read, and it's written in Mia's characteristic, heartfelt way.
Carson and Grace were both so easy to like, and they felt real. I'll never forget the scene where they're trapped in the elevator because I felt like an interloper trapped with them. Carson called Grace “Buttercup,” which is, of course, one of the romantic names out there, thanks to The Princess Bride.
When you read Mia Sheridan’s books, it feels like a possible wish–she doesn't write just happy ever afters; she writes dreams come true.
A spicy second-chance standalone romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Archer's Voice.
Sometimes, you don't even realize anything is wrong until someone comes along and changes you, and makes you want more.
Grace Hamilton is the girl with a plan. She knows exactly where her life is going, and prides herself on always achieving her goals. She's never stepped outside the lines she draws for herself, and never considered what her heart truly wants. That is, until him.
Carson Stinger doesn't play by any rules except his own. Working in the adult entertainment industry, he doesn't care…
I was a cop for twenty years. And while I always saw True Crime as a busman’s holiday, I loved crime fiction all along. Eventually my own writing took me there, as well. I love how crime fiction, much like good science fiction, explores the nature of human behavior in a way that isn’t as prevalent in other genres. As a result, I’ve read widely in the field, always gravitating toward the darker and grittier entries. The lone wolf protagonists who either live by a code or undergo a fascinating change within the book or series has also been my focus.
This book starts in the same moment as Slayground, but follows Alan Grofield as he flees the scene, instead of Parker.
Grofield is more of a grifter than a straight-out thief, and his roles in the thieving scams tend to reflect that. I love that his true love is acting and him taking scores is simply a means to allow him to pursue that passion.
I enjoy the slightly lighter tone of the Grofield novels, though they are still what I’d call gritty. And I love how Stark created a “Parker-verse” long before the idea of an IP universe was commonplace.
When he's not carrying out heists with his friend Parker, Alan Grofield runs a small theater in Indiana. But putting on shows costs money and jobs have been thin lately - which is why Grofield agreed to fly to Las Vegas to hear Andrew Myers' plan to knock over a brewery in upstate New York.
Unfortunately, Myers' plan is insane - so Grofield walks out on him. But Myers isn't a man you walk out on, and his retribution culminates in an act of unforgivable brutality.
That's when Grofield decides to show him what a disciple of Parker is capable…
I am a lifelong fan of cozy mysteries, starting with Nancy Drew. Although I have written primarily about women of the 19th-century American West, I always longed to write mysteries. The Irene in Chicago Culinary Mysteries is my fourth series but the first outrageous one. The books combine my love of all things culinary (I’ve even written cookbooks) and my love of Chicago, my hometown. What makes them outrageous? Irene’s diva-like deceptions and Henny’s snarky commentary.
Anastasia Pollock is caught in an outrageous situation. Husband, Karl, is at a sales meeting in Harrisburg. No, wait! He drops dead in Las Vegas where he has gambled away their nest egg, tuition for their sons’ college, and $50,000 he owes a loan shark. Lucille, Anastasia’s hateful mother-in-law, an outspoken eighty-something card-carrying Communist, has moved in with Anastasia because she’s broke and has nowhere to go. Anastasia designs projects for a craft magazine, and Marlys, her self-centered fashion editor, is found dead, glued to Anastasia’s office chair. When it turns out that Karl and Marlys were having an affair, Anastasia is the prime suspect in the murder. Anastasia survives all this with sarcastic humor, deadpan comments, and a parrot who quotes Shakespeare. First in a highly successful series.
When Anastasia Pollack’s husband permanently cashes in his chips at a roulette table in Vegas, her comfortable middle-class life in New Jersey craps out. She’s left with two teenage sons, a mountain of debt, and her hateful, cane-wielding Communist mother-in-law. Not to mention stunned disbelief over her late husband’s secret gambling addiction, and the loan shark who’s demanding fifty thousand dollars.
Anastasia’s job as crafts editor at American Woman magazine proves no respite when she discovers a dead body glued to her desk chair. The victim, fashion editor Marlys Vandenburg, collected enemies and ex-lovers like Jimmy Choos on her ruthless…
I was a teenage drug addict, starting with alcohol then gradually moving onto marijuana then onto crystal meth. I wrote a memoir about my year as a methamphetamine that details my drug usages, and how it nearly destroyed my life and everyone around me.
A truly heartbreaking book about an alcoholic who travels to Las Vegas to drink himself to death, and the prostitute who falls in love with him. It’s a haunting story about addiction, but also a tragic love story. I feel this book is one of the best depictions of alcoholism, and how it can ultimately destroy you. The tragic story extended into real life as the author committed suicide a few weeks after signing the film rights. It is a hard read, but that’s what makes it amazing.
A re-issue of John O'Brien's debut novel, a masterpiece of modern realism about the perils of addiction and love in a city of loneliness.
Leaving Las Vegas, the first novel by John O'Brien, is the disturbing and emotionally wrenching story of a woman who embraces life and a man who rejects it.
Sera is a prostitute, content with the independence and routine she has carved out for herself in a city defined by recklessness. But she is haunted by a spectre in a yellow Mercedes, a man from her past who is committed to taking control of her life again.…
