Lucky O'Toole - Tor/Forge Blog

April 2013 #TorChat Sweepstakes

April 17, 2013January 25, 2024torforge

Did you participate in today’s #TorChat? We hope you enjoyed it and look forward to your participation in next month’s chat!

In the meantime, here’s your chance to win a prize! Three lucky winners will receive a hardcover edition of A Time of Change, by Aimée and David Thurlo, and a mass market paperback edition of So Damn Lucky by Deborah Coonts. Leave a comment below to enter!

And again, we’d like to thank Deborah Coonts and David and Aimée Thurlo for participating. And thanks to our own Publicist Aisha Cloud for moderating!

Sweepstakes closes to new entries on April 24th at noon.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins April 17, 2013 at 4:30 p.m. ET. and ends April 24, 2013, 12:00 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. Please see full details and official rules go here. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

What's New

Starred Kirkus Review: Lucky Bastard by Deborah Coonts

April 1, 2013April 8, 2024torforge

“If you’re entertained by sex, innuendo and a few fantasies you’d like to see played out—and who isn’t?—you ought to have Lucky and her extended Vegas family (So Damn Lucky, 2012, etc.) on speed dial.”

Lucky Bastard, by Deborah Coonts, gets a starred review in Kirkus Reviews!*

Here’s the full review, from the April 1 issue:

Like everything else in Vegas, the corpse is displayed extravagantly, draped over the hood of a candy apple red Ferrari, the heel of a Jimmy Choo stiletto embedded in her neck.

Lucky O’Toole, that lusty, wryly self-deprecating troubleshooter for the glitzy Babylon Casino, is patching up the ding the departing cabaret singer Teddie left in her heart by drooling over French chef Jean Charles. She’s just fired the much-loathed poker room manager and secured a seat at the high-stakes table for a deaf young man when she’s called on to deal with the dead woman perched on the pricey Ferrari spotlighted in the casino’s dealership. Babylon security tapes show the soon-to-be-dead gal cheating but losing big anyway, then getting followed from the card table by Dane, her soon-to-be ex. As Lucky and Detective Romeo try to round him up, other problems surface. The poker room manager is poisoned. Shady Slim Grady, who always shows up for the big-stakes poker tournament, turns up dead in his plane, and his wife, bimbo Betty Sue, insists on sending him off with a gaudy Celebration of Life party. The deaf kid disappears. Offshore betting sites come into play. A storm makes Lucky traipse through Vegas sewer pipes after a mystery woman. Jean Charles’ 5-year-old son is due to arrive from France, and Lucky is scared to meet him. The Department of Justice is running a sting operation that has as much a chance of succeeding as the mayoral campaign of Lucky’s mom, a former madam now hitched to the Babylon’s Big Boss. Then, just as matters are simmering down, Teddie returns.

If you’re entertained by sex, innuendo and a few fantasies you’d like to see played out—and who isn’t?—you ought to have Lucky and her extended Vegas family (So Damn Lucky, 2012, etc.) on speed dial.

Lucky Bastard will be published on May 14th.

Kirkus Reviews is a subscription-only website.

What's New

Lucky Stiff receives a starred review from Booklist!

February 1, 2011April 8, 2024torforge

Lucky Stiff by Deborah Coonts gets a starred review in this month’s print edition of Booklist.

Below is the full review:

Lucky Stiff: With a mother who runs a bordello, a boyfriend who’s a female impersonator, and a job as a “problem solver” for her father’s luxurious Babylon Resort and Casino, Lucky O’Toole is quintessential Vegas. Rounding up a swarm of bees that escaped from an exhibit and helping District Attorney Daniel Lovato, who is stranded naked in a hotel closet, are all in a day’s work. But Lucky’s life gets even more complicated when Evelyn Wabash “Numbers” Neidermeyer is dumped into Mandalay Bay’s shark tank. Numbers was last seen alive at the Babylon, and, worse yet, Lucky’s good friend Jeremy Whitlock, an ace private investigator, is the prime suspect. Fast-paced, witty, and full of colorful characters, Lucky Stiff is a sure bet to be a readers’ favorite. Although this works as a stand-alone novel, Coontz’s hilarious tale, so full of delicious details you can almost hear the slot machines, is actually the second book in the Lucky O’Toole series (Wanna Get Lucky?, 2010). Libraries will definitely want both titles.

What others are saying about Lucky Stiff:

“[A]s lively and endearingly wacky as Wanna Get Lucky?”
Kirkus Reviews

“Very much in the spirit of Carole Nelson Douglas’ Midnight Louie mystery series (sans talking cats), Coonts covers similar Sin City territory with a dash of CSI and Janet Evanovich in her second glitzy, lighthearted novel featuring Lucky O’Toole.”
Publishers Weekly

Lucky Stiff
Coonts, Deborah (Author)
Feb 2011. 368 p. Forge, hardcover, $24.99. (9780765325440).

What's New

Lucky Stiff gets a starred review!

January 19, 2011May 10, 2024torforge

Lucky Stiff by Deborah Coonts gets a starred review in Library Journal.

Below is the full review:

Lucky Stiff: In an ironic twist, loan shark Numbers Neidermeyer’s body is found in a shark tank in a Vegas casino. Everyone, it seems, wanted Numbers dead, and soon Lucky O’Toole (Wanna Get Lucky?), customer relations pro at the Babylon, is drawn into the case. She was one of the last people to see Numbers alive, and one of her best friends is the primary person of interest. Other lively subplots include Lucky’s mother, a Vegas madam, auctioning off a young woman’s virginity; Lucky’s boyfriend being offered a music deal that will result in a long tour; and a top Mafia godfather asking Lucky for a favor she can’t refuse. VERDICT Watching Lucky navigate the dangerous shoals of the male-dominated world of gambling is a delight. Las Vegas is the perfect setting for this witty tale of misdirection and larger-than-life characters. Fans of J.A. Konrath’s Jack Daniels series will love this.

What others are saying about Lucky Stiff:

“This wonderfully funny and entertaining mystery stars Lucky O’Toole, head of customer relations at a Las Vegas resort. Readers who like cozy mysteries with a lot of sass, great dialogue and a plot that flies will love this.”
Romantic Times

“[A]s lively and endearingly wacky as Wanna Get Lucky?”
Kirkus Reviews

Lucky Stiff
Coonts, Deborah (Author)
Feb 2011. 368 p. Forge, hardcover, $24.99. (9780765325440).