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Pregnancy risked Meg’s life, so Laurie became her surrogate. No one expected the tragic ending to what should have been a
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Book Reviews
Poisoned bonbons and one hot babe
GETTING LUCKY
By Bob Sanchez
196 pp. iUniverse $14.95
Reviewed by Julie McGuire
I’m a sucker for a good mystery. The more nuanced the characters, and the more twisted the plots, the better. If a mystery keeps me reading past my bedtime, and has me asking “why didn’t I see that coming?” then it is a hit. Even better is the read-in-one-sitting novel that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Sanchez’s novel scores on all counts.
While the multiple meanings behind the title are unveiled throughout the book, it is immediately evident that it is readers who get lucky when they pick up Bob Sanchez’s second novel Getting Lucky. With characters as nuanced and interesting as those created by Dennis Lehane, settings as integral to the plot as any Ian Rankin has depicted, and the laugh-out-loud humor of Carl Hiaasen, Sanchez, author of When Pigs Fly, is on his game.
Private Investigator Clay Webster has seen better days. He’s lost his long-time job as a cop for the Lowell, Massachusetts, police force after assaulting a fellow officer. His rock-solid marriage to Molly—for whom he still swoons—has crumbled after the death of their son, Sean. Webster’s other son Jerry—a bit of a player—has provided him with a rat-infested apartment cum office. And, most urgently, he’s desperate for companionship and cash.
When the novel opened, I immediately felt as though I was in the middle of a film noir with voice-over narration in the background; the atmosphere is fraught with the noirish sense of not much can go right for anybody involved. Webster himself sets the tone as he describes himself as one “slightly ripe” cop:
Add a sense of humor, a dash of decency, and a taste for Beethoven. Sear with the loss of a son. Drain off the self-pity, and set it aside. Add salt to taste, and garnish with small paychecks. One Clay Webster comin’ up.
So when beautiful and sexy—come on Clay, just admit it—Bonita Esquivez asks him to find her husband, Lucky, our private investigator’s pocket-book (ahem) is thrilled, though he may momentarily feel as though he’s betraying Molly with the unwholesome thoughts. For a nice bit of cash, Webster thinks he’s got an easy missing persons case. Find Lucky, and Webster will have the undying gratitude of one hot babe. Or so he thinks. The reader, however, already knows that Mr. Webster has never been that lucky. When his lovely client is poisoned with a box of bonbons, Webster wonders just what the hell he’s gotten himself into. Readers will definitely want to sit back and enjoy the ride as they find out what it is that Mrs. Esquivez wants to hide. There’s definitely more at stake than a straying husband.
I loved the flow of this sexy, sophisticated, funny mystery. The characters are authentically loveable or detestable, and every shade in between. Take slimy Senator Carleton Swinburne, who is “fighting” Lowell’s “moral decay” by taking on A Touch of Love, the new adult-oriented store rotting the town. Or the delightful Chantal Ladoute, Webster’s ex-nun friend and sometimes date.
I badly wanted to root for Denton La Rock Junior—a/k/a “Dipshit”—who’s got nothing going for him and makes regular prank calls to Webster. No, the reader isn’t surprised that Webster takes Denton in as a kind of mangy stray that has grown on him. Webster is that kind of guy—the macho man with the soft spot smack in the middle of his heart.
I loved Choop, a Cambodian teenager who inadvertently stumbles on one of the plot’s central clues. I fervently hoped that Choop would get his act together in the end. One of the most interesting characters of all is Lowell, Massachusetts, with its intricate canals, seedy side streets, ethnic neighborhoods, and undeniable grit. It is clear that New Mexico resident Sanchez once spent much time in Lowell and still has a soft spot for the place.
Sanchez throws in a host of minor characters who are equally interesting. Finding out how he connects them all is good fun. I don’t want to give away any of the plot, so I’ll just note that one of the things I loved about this book is that I didn’t figure out all the connections until the end. Way to go, Mr. Sanchez.
With When Pigs Fly, Sanchez established himself as a heck of a good writer with a wicked sense of humor. On his website, Sanchez boasts that his first novel “sold over 500 copies and earned iUniverse’s Editors Choice, Reader’s Choice, and Rising Star designations.” With Getting Lucky, Sanchez proves that the first time wasn’t beginner’s luck.
Sanchez always travels with several copies of his novels with him. So find out where he’s headed to next. Maybe you’ll get lucky and snag an autographed copy. I suspect Sanchez is going to be a household name very soon. The real mystery is why a big-time publisher hasn’t already snatched him up.
Julie McGuire, fiction editor of The Internet Review of Books, is a paralegal. Her personal essays and poems have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor and several small periodicals. She and her family live in Virginia.
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