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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Lost Vegas by Steve Brewer

E-book package deals are becoming the rage and they are always a good deal for both the reader and the authors. Die Laughing 1 contained humorous mysteries/thriller by several authors with whom I was unfamiliar. And for $.99?   The first in the compilation was Lost Vegas by Steve Brewer.

Shades of Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder with perhaps a touch of noir. Tony Finn and his crew are asked to hit a casino in a small town in Nevada so the owner, a former Chicago hit man, can claim insurance money and make it more competitive with the only other casino in town, run by Big Jim Kelton. It’s your typical heist story gone a bit wrong although I prefer ones with more subtlety and less explosive violence.

Brewer handles things well although not as deftly as Westlake.  Certainly a pleasant way to spend time waiting in line or at a doctor’s office, but hardly memorable. Slumming can be fun, too.

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