Sleepless in Las Vegas received an Award of Merit in the 2014 Holt Medallion contest!
Book Blurb
After nearly destroying each other’s careers, PI-intern Val LeRoy and seasoned Las Vegas P.I. Drake Morgan are forced to work together. If each had their way, they’d walk, but when threatened by a dangerous criminal who jeopardizes their lives and families, they put aside their differences to solve the case. As the hunt for the truth intensifies and their passion rivals the triple-digit temperature, Val and Drake learn why Las Vegas is the city that never sleeps….
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Characters
Val LeRoy
Twenty-four-year-old Val was Cammie Copello’s friend and wanna-be PI partner in The Next Right Thing. After Cammie moved back to Denver to marry and start a family, Val, still determined to be a PI, talked her way into an apprenticeship with prominent sixty-something Las Vegas PI Jayne Diamond, owner of Diamond Investigations, who has a reputation for “eating apprentices for breakfast.” Despite her dragon-lady rep, interns are eager to work for Jayne because earning her coveted “Diamond Grade” can be a booster rocket for a new PI’s career.
This apprenticeship is also a chance for Val to rebuild her life. Eight years ago, she lost her home and only family, her beloved grandmother, during Hurricane Katrina. After several failed relocation attempts, she's landed in Las Vegas, a town she views as her last chance to "get it right."
Drake Morgan
Thirty-three-year-old Drake, a Las Vegas native, returned home from his military intelligence career seven years ago to help care for his dying father. After being framed for a theft, and losing a managerial job in hotel security, Drake opened his one-man P.I. shop. The story opens on the three-year-anniversary of his father's death when Drake's home is destroyed by arson, and he has a good idea who did it. An underground figure not happy with evidence Drake's investigations might uncover.
Tormented by his past and reeling from events in the present, the last thing Drake wants to do is mentor some green, wide-eyed wanna-be P.I. who's already undermined his investigation. But he does it anyway because Jayne Diamond is an old, trusted friend who needs his help. As he works a case that could make or break his family, Drake learns that his wanna-be sidekick has grit it takes to be a real P.I.
