King of My Scars by Abby North; Whoever Romances in Vegas Stays in Vegas

 

King of My Scars by Abby North; Whoever Romances in Vegas Stays in Vegas

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Abby North’s Suspenseful Romance novel, King of My Scars, can be a bit paint by numbers in terms of romance but it doesn't shy away from darker and more disturbing topics like domestic abuse, battered person syndrome, stalking, and self-esteem issues.

Ariana has fled her abusive husband, Aaron. She leaves their swank Los Angeles home for Las Vegas hoping to move on. She is rescued in a tight spot by Denham King, hotelier, who moves her to one of his penthouse suites. He's handsome, charming, helpful, and kind but Ariana is reluctant to pursue a romance with him. She has had two previous bad relationships and isn't sure she is ready for #3. Then again the third time could be the charm.

Ariana is a strong yet vulnerable lead character. North expertly details how her trauma affected many of her actions in the present. Her trauma is realistically described and depicted and despite being put into a new romance. It doesn't shy away from her fear and reluctance to embark on another serious relationship.

That she has had two abusive relationships is a very understandable detail. She fled her first boyfriend Jonny who stalked her so much that she moved cross country and changed her name. When she encountered Aaron, she was susceptible to the love bombing, the manipulation, the controlling masquerading as caring, and the sharp criticisms coming from her latest lover.

While one would expect Ariana to recognize the signs and flee immediately from the scene, that isn't always the case. She was so determined to believe that her prior relationship was a one-time thing that she justified the abuse until it was too late. There is also a part of her that believed that she deserved the abuse that she was given. 

She emerged as someone with low self-esteem, PTSD, and battered person syndrome. She may have been able to physically leave the situation but mentally and emotionally, she's still there.

This perspective helps to understand the context of her struggles so they make sense. She is in danger a few times and is rescued by Denham. While it can be cringy and some would say dated, in this specific situation it works. She has extreme PTSD from both of her bad relationships so of course she would be on edge and feel helpless. These situations probably aren't helping either.

Ariana is naturally cynical and mistrusts Denham. Even though he's handsome, wealthy, charming, and empathetic, she is still living in the mindset of reluctance and caution that were her survival instincts during her previous relationships. After all, if Aaron was able to play the part of a nice guy before revealing his true colors, who’s to say that Denham isn't doing the same?

I don't know if North intended this but there are times when the Reader doubts Denham 's sincerity. There are a few red flags like when he uses his vast wealth to solve problems, hides information from Ariana, or veers towards arrogance. While Denham is written as a better alternative to Ariana's exes, he could become yet another abuser in her life and Ariana might have fallen into familiar and toxic territory. 

Perhaps these are traits that make Denham a multi-layered flawed character, but it could also be a commentary that Ariana’s suspicions are not entirely wrong. At least, Denham is aware of those traits and works on them so Ariana doesn't end up with more of the same.

The Las Vegas setting is also a subtle play on the book's themes of relationships. It is a city of glitz and spectacle where one can't always tell fantasy from reality at first. Someone is drawn to a casino for the atmosphere and the opportunity to win easy money. A few hours later they give away their life savings and have to go to Gambler's Anonymous. 

Ariana’s exes and Denham are like that, good looking, flashy, charming, charismatic and appear like nice guys to her. She is drawn in by the fantasy and then is left battered by the reality of her ex's abusive natures. 

What sets Denham apart from them, is that he is able to transcend the initial illusion that often comes with first meeting someone who creates instant attraction. He is able to show through his actions that he is a good man and has the patience to wait for Ariana to recognize that. 

He is the reality of love that lives within the Vegas illusions and helps Ariana to live in that reality as well. 

Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner's Gambit by James Anderson Foster; Las Vegas Setting and Interesting Concept Are Winners, But It Needs work to be an Ace in the Deck

 Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner's Gambit by James Anderson Foster; Las Vegas Setting and Interesting Concept Are Winners, But Average Plot and Dialogue Come Up Snake Eyes

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery. 

Spoilers: Las Vegas is this year's Caribbean. 

In 2023, the top setting was the Caribbean with its scenic beaches, beautiful plants and animals, troubled history, and intriguing myths and legends and was the center of some brilliant, wonderful works. 

Well this year’s setting instead is an arid desert filled with neon lights, glitzy casinos, wild entertainment, and 24 hours of excitement, debauchery, and tackiness. Of course it’s a great setting for literature.Along with Jo Szewczyk’s Gen X and Richard R. Becker’s Third Wheel, James Anderson Foster’s Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner’s Gambit is the third book this year that has Sin City as its primary setting. It has also been the setting of previous books, Thunder Road by Colin Holmes, Psychonautic by Darren Frey, All Eyes on Me by Linsey Lanier, and portions of What Immortal Hand by Johnny Worthen. It is definitely a city of addiction, obsession, decadence, and the pursuit of temporary pleasure that feeds into tales of murder, violence, crime, lust, drug abuse, mental illness, unhappy home lives, and sometimes dark magic and supernatural night creatures. 

Deck Runner’s Gambit gives us a great setting and an interesting concept. However, there are some serious flaws in the execution that turn a promising book into average.

Malcolm “Mal” Byrne is lured out of his dull cubicle 9 to 5 job by a series of psychedelic threads of light and cryptic text messages from a mysterious number. During his pursuit, he is followed by some sinister magic users who attack him. He is rescued by his friend, Jake, who is gravely wounded in the process. In his grief and guilt, Mal meets Jake’s friend, Eli Hawthorne, who is part of a secret organization called the Deck Runners, magic users who use their impressive supernatural powers of energy manipulation to fight against another group called the Peerage. Eli and the other Deck Runners also sense magic inside Mal and he signs up. Good thing too, because a Peerage member, Cassie Draven, has found a way to use dark magic to destroy the modern world and build a magically run one around it. 

The strongest aspects of the book are the Las Vegas setting and the initial concept of people studying and using arcane magic in the modern world. It is a great idea to use Vegas as the primary setting because it is one of the American cities which typify modern life at its worst. Everything there is now, loud, bright, fast, and transient. Everything in Las Vegas from the games, casinos, food, entertainment, is a means to get rich and achieve personal pleasure. It would be the antithesis of studying something like magic which would require deep concentration, intellectual curiosity, solitude, and a deeper understanding into the subconscious beyond a quick win and a night of pleasure. 

This strange dichotomy between the setting and the character’s pursuits is first explored in the opening chapter. Among the neon signs, the blaring games of chance, the excited screams and disappointed cries of gamblers, Mal sees the threads of magical energy leading him to the Deck Runners. Once he is attuned to the idea of magic, he sees it all around him. It becomes more real than the artifice that he usually experiences. This acceptance of the metaphysical world gives Mal purpose that a drab office life in such a glitzy city would not bring. He is excited and enraptured by this adventure. While it’s scary and ultimately filled with consequences, Mal sees  that it is preferable to the previous life of quiet desperation he lived where he was surrounded by noise and longing to be heard. Magic gives him a voice and a drive that he would otherwise not have had. 

Deck Runner’s Gambit is a book that is not without its flaws and oddly enough they become noticeable once Mal joins the Deck Runners and begins practicing magic. The powers are pretty interesting and some are even unique. For example, the Runners draw specific cards and bring forward whatever magic they need from them such as light, or fire, water, whatever is necessary. It requires thought, concentration, and some improv especially when the Peerage also has access to such powers. The concept of two competing teams of magic users is pretty interesting and raises the question whether which side is truly right or wrong, or if they are  simply separate schools of magic with different philosophies but similar practices. But this world comes at the expense of the characterization within it.

Once Mal is introduced to the idea of magic however, his transformation from student to master is a little too rushed. This is a man who spent his whole life not believing, a skeptic, someone who probably never questioned or explored the unexamined life. He was just content to work, flirt, eat, go home, get money, hang out with friends, and sleep. It’s great that he is open to this new world and admirable that he wants to be a part of it. But it would also make sense for there to be more reluctance and timidity about his pursuits, a hesitancy to fully embrace or believe in what is in front of him. After all, living in Las Vegas, he would have seen plenty of illusionist acts and one would imagine that he would look for a nonexistent curtain, expect a lovely assistant to pop up, or wonder about the tricks behind the magic.

 It could also work the other way as well. Mal could be so open to the pursuit that he acts recklessly. He could lose his temper or consider using his magic for selfish means before he wises up. But he adjusts and adapts too quickly to be believable. There should be more development in his steps between Magician Padawan and Magician Jedi Knight. 

There is some cringy dialogue that borders on cliche. (“Welcome to the final act,” Cassie taunts. “..:Looks like your runner has run out of deck.”) It’s to the point where if you have read these types of books before, you can predict exactly what the characters are going to say before they say it. (“This isn’t over, Cassie!”) Some of it’s fun in a cheesy action fantasy sort of way but after a while it gets repetitive and makes one wonder if the book was written while watching too many movies or TV episodes. That may also account for some of the plot points that are meant to be twists that are all too easy to guess.

Vegas Arcana Deck Runner’s Gambit is aces when it comes to setting and concept but it needs work to really come up a winner. 

Surviving Gen X by Jo Szewczyk; Bizarre, Confusing, and Witty Mish-Mash of Getting Laid and Finding Love in 1990’s Las Vegas

 Surviving Gen X by Jo Szewczyk; Bizarre, Confusing, and Witty Mish-Mash of Getting Laid and Finding Love in 1990’s Las Vegas

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It wouldn't surprise me if Jo Szewczyk’s Surviving Gen X existed in the same universe as Richard R. Becker’s Third Wheel. It almost could be a stealth sequel. Third Wheel was a seriocomic Crime Thriller about a geeky but troubled kid in 80’s Las Vegas encountering a bevy of eccentric criminals in an attempt to stave off boredom and get rich. Surviving Gen X is a seriocomic Literary Fiction about a disaffected 20 something in 90’s Las Vegas encountering a bevy of eccentric friends, acquaintances, and lovers in an attempt to stave off loneliness and get laid. Between the two books, there appears to be a natural progression of age and experience that develops within the protagonists the more they venture into Sin City at various points in their lives.

Surviving Gen X doesn’t have much in the way of plot. It focuses on an unnamed Narrator who goes from one misadventure to another. He encounters little people, runaway Mormons, glam rock tribute bands, persistent exes, violent crooks,gamblers, apartment crashers who never leave, bartenders with suspect mob ties. BDSM club goers, homicidal religious types, addicts, prostitutes, and many other colorful locals and tourists that Las Vegas has to offer. 

The book bounces around in an excitable stream of conscious manner which is less concerned with what happens than how these incidents are seen through the Narrator’s eyes. He is a sarcastic jaded character who is filled with dry one liners. (At a costume party someone mistakes his Willy Wonka costume for Prince. He sarcastically tells the Reader, “My name is not Prince and I am not funky.”) He observes everything with a wry detachment that alternates between bemused excitement and world weariness at the shenanigans in which he falls into. 

The Narrator isn’t exactly the warmest of souls. He is quite often shallow and careless in his feelings towards others particularly in his romantic relationships. He cares more about getting some than getting into a relationship. When he finds someone that he actually does care about, he pursues her behaving like a stalker instead of someone who is truly considerate about what she wants and how he is making life difficult for her. 

Nonetheless, he does show genuine understanding and concern towards others. After a very weird night, he meets Gene, a French little person. The two bond while they are in jail and escape together. The two become friends united in their pursuit of women and potential happiness. The Narrator and Gene assist each other in their romantic troubles and usually find themselves in various hapless situations but emerge with their friendship intact.

The Narrator also has a potentially developing relationship with Annie, an unhappily married Mormon woman. His pursuit of her is problematic but it is born out of genuine concern especially when he encounters her abusive religious husband. There is a genuine concern for her welfare and even if the Narrator is not always wise in his gestures towards her, he does care about her beyond a one night stand. The Narrator’s relationships with Gene and Annie veer towards heart in a novel that is more concerned with showing the surface of life in Las Vegas and little of the substance.

Actually the most important character is not Gene, Annie, or even the Narrator. It is Las Vegas itself. It is shown in all of its facets. There are various chapters like one set at the Fetish and Fantasy Ball, an elaborate masquerade in which one's darkest sexual desires are filled, which show the city in all of its licentious weirdness. It is seen as vibrant, loud, obnoxious, intoxicating, iconoclastic, lascivious, tacky, exciting, and hypnotic. It is the type of city where it’s easy to find a good time but not easy to find a peace of mind.

That’s what the setting does to the characters. They are aware of the shallowness and fall into it. They can’t find anything meaningful so they drink, party, have sex, and live for the moment. It is not the cry of free spirits. It is the cry of desperate souls who are drowning in the ennui of their excitement. They have given up on looking for any meaning. They just want to have a good time even when they are sick of it. 

That’s what the Narrator wants to find: some meaning in his life. Something beyond the surface shallow world that surrounds him. But finding unhappiness in his pursuits causes him to withdraw even more into that shallowness. Ironically the title is called Surviving Gen X because that’s all that he is doing. He is surviving, but not growing, developing, or really living.

New Book Alert: Third Wheel by Richard R. Becker; Nostalgic High School Memories Turn Dark and Disturbing

 

New Book Alert: Third Wheel by Richard R. Becker; Nostalgic High School Memories Turn Dark and Disturbing

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Richard R. Becker’s previous book, 50 States, was an ambitious and ultimately successful endeavor in which he wrote an anthology of fifty stories that were set in each state. His drive to capture the setting, dialect, and character of each state and its residents was perfection beyond comparison.

Becker's next work, Third Wheel, is a bit less ambitious but still a brilliant work. It begins as a nostalgia piece of 80’s kids living their best days during a time of music videos, shopping malls, and Dungeons and Dragons. Instead it becomes a much darker and grittier tale involving greed, corruption, violence, and murder.

In 1982, teenager Brady Wilkins moved with his family from the Midwest to suburban Las Vegas. Brady feels out of place in Party Town and joins a group of friends including older boys, Mick and Brett in playing Dungeons and Dragons. After Brett moves away, Mick draws in another kid, Alex, into their inner circle. Unfortunately, Alex's interests lie less in the realms of fantasy with paladins, clerics, thieves, and wizards and more in the real world of gangsters, dealers, addicts, and criminals. Alex becomes involved in drug dealing and then gets his friends into the scheme. Suddenly, Brady finds his close network of friends are not the people that he thought they were.

The book is a definite change of tone. It begins light-hearted with a strong tinge of nostalgia. I actually lived in Las Vegas from 1989-90 (while my father worked at Nellis Air Force Base. Yes, that Nellis, conspiracy buffs!) so it's actually very easy for me to picture the setting and time period. 

The first few chapters seem to imply a fun romp with high school hijinks and plenty of details to remind any 80’s kid. If you were a D&D player, the references and descriptions of game play will be fun to read through. 

We also see the wild parties when the parents are gone. When underage drinking and drug taking flows freely, the hook ups are plentiful, the cops are a phone call away, and someone's parent arrives at literally the worst moment. It's a tried and true staple of any coming of age story particularly one set during the rad consumerist spoiled spirit of the 80’s.

Brady is the typical kid who is on the outside of this group. He enjoys the D&D games and the parties but he's on the outer fringes of the in crowd. He sees other kids acting more daring and wilder than he does. He is often just the hanger on and after thought, the one that the cooler kids “forget” to pass the joint to and probably think he should just stay home. He isn't geeky enough to be a nerd and not wild enough to be a stoner. Brady's just there.

During these early chapters, there are hints of a dark undercurrent because of Alex. During the D&D games, he declared that fantasy games are stupid and knows where they can have some real fun. Then he starts lecturing them about Church of Satan founder, Anton LaVey more to shock his friends than actually following any of LaVey’s teachings. At the parties, he gives his friends hard drugs instead of the usual pot almost as if testing the effects on them. He then gets Brady and Mick into drug dealing to the point that when Brett returns to the group, he barely recognizes his old friends.

Once the drug dealing and criminal activity becomes prominent, lighthearted nostalgia ends. Third Wheel becomes a dark gritty crime drama. What was once fun and games and a way to relieve boredom becomes a means to get money, respect, and to survive.

Brady falls into Alex’s world feet first. At first, it's exciting and shakes up his world but the more he falls in, the more he loses parts of himself-friends, love interests, family, and parts of his identity. 

There is a point in the book where the dark undercurrents become overcurrents. Violence ensues and everything that Brady once did, thought, and believed is called into question. He is left to face the real consequences of what a life can bring and how much he stands to lose.

Third Wheel takes different tones and does both well. It's a comparatively smaller work than 50 States but no less brilliant and powerful.

New Book Alert: Thunder Road by Colin Holmes; Hard Boiled Detective Novel Begins In Noir But Takes A Detour Into Science Fiction

 

New Book Alert: Thunder Road by Colin Holmes; Hard Boiled Detective Novel Begins In Noir But Takes A Detour Into Science Fiction

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Colin Holmes' Thunder Road is one of those detective novels that has fun playing on real events or possibly real events. 

Set in the late 1940's, it borrows heavily from the hard boiled noir detective genre with the loner detective hired to solve a case that takes him right into a den of gangsters, prostitutes, corrupt officials, and many secrets yet to be exposed. But then it takes a very strange and bizarre detour into Science Fiction which either can become the highlight or the worst thing about this book.

Jefferson Sharp has been removed from his position as a cattle thief investigator with a Ft. Worth investigation company as well as his position as husband when his wife, Evelyn, files for divorce.

Divorced and unemployed, Sharp goes gambling in Ft. Worth's Thunder Road. There he is spotted by Doyle Denniker, casino owner and gangster. Denniker wants to hire Sharp to keep watch on Myron Williamson, an associate of his rival, Bobby Caples. It's a simple tail-and-report job.

The assignment ends up being anything but simple when Sharp finds himself surrounded by dead bodies, feuding gangsters, mysterious aircraft, suspicious military personnel, and a piece of what appears to be tinfoil that is out of this world.

Thunder Road is one of those types of historical detective novels that marries its fictional world with the real world and events, well allegedly real events anyway. While Sharp faces fictional gangsters and criminals he discovers that they are connected to real life gangsters, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky.

 Through  Sharp's investigation we learn about the creation of Las Vegas from a backwater forgettable desert town to the gambling and entertainment venue that we know today. We also see how the creation of the city played into the decline of Lansky and Siegel's one time friendship. 

Siegel wanted Vegas to be a glitzy success. Cost was no object. He even personally oversaw the construction of the first casino hotel, The Flamingo, later known as the Flamingo Hilton (named for the womanizing Siegel's then girlfriend, Virginia "Flamingo" Hill).

 Lansky however was concerned about the cost and felt that the showboat Siegel was getting too full of himself and drawing too much attention to the illegal dealings. Unlike most friendships which end with a fight or a Twitter battle, Siegel and Lansky's friendship ended with a bullet in Siegel's head. (Fun Fact: Siegel and Lansky were the inspiration for the characters, Moe Greene and Hyman Roth respectively in The Godfather franchise.)

It's brilliant how Holmes weaves Sharp's investigation with real life people like Siegel and Lansky. It gives a sense of history to this noir novel. Thunder Road seems to be a descendant of works like James Ellway's L.A. Quartet series (which The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential are a part) which uses a fictional case to comment on the very real and salacious past of certain American cities. This connection shows that in fact and fiction, there is a dark history that leads to the problems that are still prevalent to this day.

So far not bad, but then things get weird. Because Thunder Road then references another event from the late 1940's one that you would not expect to find in the genre: the alleged U.F.O. crash in Roswell, New Mexico (that's where the tinfoil comes in). 

For those that don't know: In 1947, a mysterious aircraft crashed outside Roswell, New Mexico. Eyewitnesses even saw bodies near the craft that didn't look human. Authorities insist that it was a weather balloon and the supposed bodies were merely crash test dummies. However most people believe that the craft was a U.F.O., the bodies were the alien occupants, and that the United States government covered up the crash and the results.

 Some also think that the Roswell crash was also tied to the mysterious section of Nellis Air Force Base, called Area 51, in Nevada (strange how Nevada appears a lot in Thunder Road isn't it?). Many people have seen strange lights and aircraft flying in and out of Area 51. Conspiracy theorists have been obsessed with it, even to the point of planning a raid on it three years ago.

 That's when Thunder Road steps away from detective noir and jumps right into science fiction conspiracy theory. It makes Thunder Road stand out from other neo noir books. The plot then makes the stakes higher than just a simple gang war. However, the book takes Sharp's investigation to a level that is distracting and only has a tangible connection at best to his initial case. 

Perhaps this is a case of Holmes doing too many things in one book. Maybe he should have split the ideas into two different books. He could have kept the noir detective book in this one and put the Area 51 stuff into a separate book. Maybe he could even have saved it for another Sharp book.

Besides the separate subplots that Thunder Road takes, there are some really great things to recommend. Among them is the development of the relationship between Sharp and his female friend, Roni Arquette. Longtime friends, they have been unlucky in love with Sharp's recent divorce and the death of Roni's husband.

 Roni and Sharp often taunt and tease each other but also are one another's confidant and partner. Roni even assists Sharp in his investigation by tailing and spying on potential targets. 

Throughout the book, Sharp and Roni are put in danger and have some very heated arguments to disguise their developing attraction towards each other. It would be interesting if a sequel to Thunder Road comes about and not only do Roni and Sharp become romantically involved but Roni becomes his partner. She is smart and observant enough to help him out. Their barbs and wit will keep one another on their toes for the rest of their lives.

Thunder Road has some aspects that work well, maybe not necessarily together. However, Holmes' book definitely makes a thunderous addition to the detective noir genre.

Weekly Reader: All Eyes on Me: A Miranda and Parker Mystery Book 1 by Linsey Lanier; An Eye For A Good Gruesome Murder Mystery About The Trappings of Fame

 

Weekly Reader: All Eyes on Me: A Miranda and Parker Mystery Book 1 by Linsey Lanier; An Eye For A Good Gruesome Murder Mystery About The Trappings of Fame

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: For all those who love graphic gruesome murder mysteries especially when the victim is a divalicious star laid out in a grotesque way say "Eye!" Then read All Eyes on Me A Miranda and Parker Mystery Book 1 by Linsey Lanier.

Miranda Steele has had a traumatic past. She survived an abusive first marriage, the abduction and return of her daughter, and a near death experience. While most would be justified in wanting to cower into their home and hide, Miranda instead teams up with private investigator Wade Parker. Their relationship has gone from associates, to lovers, to a married couple. When one is called, the other is there as an equal partner.

Their current case is a pretty violent one that puts them right in the forefront of public consciousness. Ambrosia Dawn, a famous pop singer/diva has been found the desert outside of her Las Vegas home, dead, bruised and possibly poisoned. As if that wasn't bad enough, her eye has been gouged out by a melon baller. Kind of ironic since one of her biggest hits is the love song, "All Eyes on Me." The killer certainly has a sick twisted sense of humor and possibly a desire for revenge against the beautiful famous singer.

All Eyes on Me combines a great protagonist with a gripping mystery. The best detectives for these type of mysteries are the ones that have personal demons of their own or where the case involves them specifically. In this case, we have Miranda whose emotional baggage is ever present. After what happened before with her ex and daughter, Miranda's nerves are on edge and her senses are sharply acute all symptoms of PTSD. However, she is also able to use that private pain to help others. She can put herself in their situation, because she had been in their situation before. Miranda empathizes with the victims and sometimes with those who commit crimes because she can see where they are coming from.

Besides her observational and empathetic skills, Miranda is a good detective good enough that Parker puts her in charge of the investigation. Besides leading the inquiries, she answers media questions and challenges the mysoginistic Sgt. O'Toole who isn't happy about working with a woman.

Parker isn't as developed as Miranda, but he proves to be as competent and dedicated to the pursuit of justice as his wife. He is caught between believing in Miranda's abilities to solve the mystery and concern for her because of all that she had been through. One nice touch that the duo have is they use their original last names and don't let people know that they are married. It's hard enough for a woman like Miranda to be taken seriously in detective work, acknowledging their marriage would only further complicate things. When police officers or suspects look at Miranda, they are able to see an investigator that happens to be a woman rather than the lead private investigator's wife. Their hidden marital status make them equals.

Besides the detectives themselves, the mystery is pretty fascinating. The deceased, Ambrosia Dawn, is the typical murder victim that spent a lot of time cultivating a public image of beauty, charm, and kindness but those closest to her could see the bad tempered violent bitch underneath. There are plenty of suspects that could have killed her because they have all felt her wrath. Her husband, Cameron, a former Elvis impersonator is very emotional but seems to be keeping extra company during the grieving period. Ambrosia's sister, Blythe, stood behind the scenes and now has her chance in the spotlight. The cook, Suzie, who has been at the bad end of Ambrosia's rants and knows Ambrosia's favorite treats and how to make them just right. Scottie, the bodyguard, has had a few flings with staff members and is just the kind of muscle to drag a woman's body through the desert and hold her down if necessary. It is a house and staff full of potential leads that lead to other clues. Since multiple suspects look possible to be the killer, the resolution is a genuine surprise and is very well handled.

All Eyes on Me is a great mystery in the hard boiled detective genre. It is definitely worth a read. After all, the eyes have it.