I have admired Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" series for years - I think Book #20 will be upon us soon. She started the heroine in an exotic locale with an unusual job for a female. The Burg, NJ; bounty hunter.
But Evanovich's heels are getting nipped at by a relatively new comer - Deborah Coonts with four books and counting in her "Lucky O'Toole" series. Whether this style imitation was a deliberate act on Coonts part is unknown.
Here's the formula as I see it (but I'm not creative enough to duplicate it, more's the pity.)
Exotic locale - Las Vegas
Job - Vice President of Customer Relations, the Babylon Hotel and Casino
Heroine - Lucky O'Toole, daughter of the Babylon owner aka "Big Boss" and Mona, former owner of a bordello in Pahrump, NV.
Boyfriends - She was dumped by Teddy, a female impersonator/singer/ songwriter who got discovered. She claims he had a better wardrobe than she did.
Possible love interests - the hunky French chef at the Babylon; Paxton Dane, security/mystery man.
Jump start the book with a wildly insane murder:
Woman falls from a Las Vegas sight-seeing helicopter into the Pirate Lagoon at Treasure Island which, unsurprisingly, kills her. Or was she already dead when she went in?
A magician disappears in the middle of his act - for realsies.
In "Lucky Bastard" a beautiful woman is found splayed across the hood of a bright red Ferrari in the hotel showroom, stabbed in the carotid artery with the spike heel of one of her own Jimmy Choo shoes.
"Lucky Bastard" by Deborah Coonts A Tom Dougherty Assoc. book
349 pages $25.99
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