Wanna Get Lucky? by Deborah Coonts

Wanna Get LuckyNarrated by Renee Raudman

If you were to ask me what kind of mysteries I enjoy, I’m likely to tell you that I really enjoy those featuring serial killers. In fact, the more graphic the violence, the better I like it. Needless to say, I was a little skeptical when I began listening to Wanna Get Lucky?, the first book in Deborah Coonts’s Lucky O’Toole series. It’s lighter than my usual reading choices, but I stuck with it and I’m really glad I did.

Lucky O’Toole works as the head of customer relations in a Los Vegas hotel called the Babylon. She deals with all manner of zany things: an intoxicated, naked man passed out in a public stairwell, a woman determined to keep three cats in a pet-free hotel, and a really bizarre blackmail scheme involving cockroaches. She takes all of this in stride, never seeming to bat an eyelash. Lucky’s good at her job, and her peers know it. She’s one of the most envied women in the business.

The book opens with a young woman’s fall from a helicopter. Everyone thinks it’s just another suicide, but Lucky isn’t so sure. When both her mother, who happens to be a well-known madame, and her boss try to stop her from looking into what happened, Lucky is pretty sure a lot of people are hiding something. She makes it her business to find out exactly what it is. In the process, she manages to dig up deeply buried secrets, involving Vegas itself, as well as her own family.

Coonts’ book is populated with a delightful cast of supporting characters. We meet Theodore – the top female impersonator in Vegas, a private investigator everyone calls “The Beautiful Jeremy Whitlock”, Detective Romeo – a rather naive police detective, and many, many others. It was this set of characters, more than the book’s actual plot, that kept me listening. I wanted to know how things would turn out for them.

As always, Renee Raudman’s narration was a pleasure to listen to. I’m used to her narrating things with more of a paranormal bent, but Wanna Get Lucky proves Raudman’s versatility. She performs a mystery just as well as she does fantasy or paranormal romance. This is a wonderful thing. I’m always pleased when narrators aren’t forced into a certain genre.

This book was told in first person from Lucky’s point of view and this works particularly well for audiobooks. Raudman easily captured Lucky’s razor-sharp wit and overall unflappability and seemed quite comfortable performing her character. In fact, the narration helped me to actually like Lucky. At first, I felt a little ambivalent but Raudman provided a means for me to really get to know her.

The supporting characters were also distinctly voiced. Raudman did well with a wide variety of accents, ages, and pitches. I would imagine reading so many characters in a way that makes it clear who is speaking at any given moment would be challenging, but, listening to Raudman made it seem easy. She’s one of very few narrators who could have pulled this off so well.

After finishing the book, I checked Audible to see if more entries in the series were available. I’m not sure I’ll hurry up and buy book two, but it’s good to know Lucky Stiff is ready and waiting if I decide I want to check it out. I was also pleased to see that Raudman narrates the entire Lucky O’Toole series – there are six in the series. If anyone can do them justice, it’s the very talented Renee Raudman.

Audible classifies this book as suspense/thriller with a subcategory of modern detective and I agree with the classification. Lucky does become romantically involved with someone, but the romance is not the focal point of the book. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure where the author would take the romance angle. Would Lucky fall for Theodore, or would it be Paxton Dane, a somewhat enigmatic Texan who shows up in Vegas under slightly suspicious circumstances? If you want to know the answer, you’ll have to grab the book.

If you’re looking for a really intense mystery, one that will keep you on the edge of your seat, Wanna Get Lucky won’t do it for you. However, if something fun and intriguing, with a ton of likable characters is what you’re after, then I definitely recommend this audiobook.

Shannon


Narration:  A

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my ear buds in

Violence:  Fighting

Genre:  Mystery with secondary romance

Publisher:  Brilliance Audio

 

Wanna Get Lucky was provided to AudioGals for review by Brilliance Audio.

2 thoughts on “Wanna Get Lucky? by Deborah Coonts

Comments are closed.