October 30, 2007

My good friend Jana DeLeon (author of Rumble on the Bayou), who writes the funniest, most off-the-wall romantic mysteries, has a new book out….today! Yay! Just in time for Halloween.

Check out this cover. Isn't it great? 

Look and see how many "unlucky" things you can find in the picture. I think it's the cutest thing, and it really gives you a good feel for the book. Fun, fun, fun.

Here's the back cover blurb:

Everyone in Royal Flush (heh), Louisiana, knows Mallory Devereaux is a walking disaster. At least now she's found a way to take advantage of her chronic bad luck: by "cooling" cards on her uncle's casino boat. As long as the crooks invited to his special poker tournament don't win their money back, she'll get a cut of the profit.

But Mal isn't the only one working some major mojo. There's a dark-eyed dealer sending her looks steamier than the bayou in August. Turns out he's an undercover agent named Jake Randoll, and for a Yank, he's pretty darn smart. Smart enough to enlist her help to catch a money launderer. As they race to untangle a web of decades-old lies and secrets amid a gathering of criminals, Mallory can't help hoping her luck's about to change…

Heh heh. I've read the book and it's so much fun–with a great mystery, funny characters, and a wonderful hero.

Have I mentioned, too, that Jana, like her character Mallory, is really unlucky? Particularly when she travels. Never has she taken a flight that goes smoothly–it's either delayed (and I'm not talking ten, fifteen minutes–I'm talking hours), or cancelled, or you sit on the tarmac during the delay, or any and/or all of the above….you name it. Always, always a problem. Sometimes more than one.

And the unluckiness doesn't just apply to Jana. If you fly with her, you also get the bad karma. And, as I found out recently when I flew to NY, even if you talk to her from 2000 miles away, you get the bad karma.

(I am not answering the phone on days that I travel from now on.) 

Trust me. She knows wherein she writes, on the topic of unluckiness.

In fact, she can shut down a table of blackjack by walking up to it. Her husband can vouch for it and won't allow her anywhere near him when they're in Vegas. (Which is where she eventually wants to live. I don't think she'd be very popular.)

So Jana took this idea of a "cooler"–a bad-luck-bringer–in a casino and built a story around it. It's great fun. I mean, what else do you expect from a story set in a town called Royal Flush?

Not only were [the guys at the bar] not Yankees, they were port-a-john salesmen, which was almost worse. Ever since Walter Royal had figured out the need for portable potties and built his manufacturing plant, the town of Royal Flush had never been the same. Hell, it hadn't even been called Royal Flush at the time, but one of the city council members decided to get cute over a bucket of beer at Lucy's Catfish Kitchen and the rest was history.

Heehee. Okay, so have I sold you yet? If not, go check out the full excerpt at Jana's Web site and get thee to a bookstore.

This is the second hottest lavender-colored book that's going to be released in the next year, *wink* so you'd better grab it now! Trust me. How often do I pimp books on my site? Huh?