So Damn Lucky

December 5, 2011
In the first chapter of Coonts’s engaging Lucky O’Toole adventure (after 2011’s Lucky Stiff), magician Dimitri Fortunoff dies on stage while re-enacting a famous Houdini escape. Lucky, as head of customer relations at Las Vegas’s posh Babylon Hotel, must do damage control, but even for this six-foot, multitalented beauty it isn’t easy. Lucky suspects Dimitri was the “Masked Houdini,” who enraged many Vegas magicians by claiming he would reveal all of Houdini’s closely held secrets. Could one of them have killed him? The investigation takes a bizarre turn when Dimitri’s body vanishes and Lucky receives a death threat, delivered by a stuffed rabbit. Meanwhile, the continual shenanigans at the hotel keep Lucky hopping. Whether tactfully dissuading a senior citizen from marrying her dog or discreetly extricating an amorous couple from their complex sex toys, Lucky proves first-rate at her job. Fans of lighter mysteries will have fun. Agent: Susan Gleason.