Summary

In Vegas getting a bang out of the 4th of July wouldn't be stretching a pun too far. The holiday is a great excuse for an over-the-top blow out. Most, if not all, of the major hotels have spectacular fireworks displays, timed in sequence, and launched from the rooftops. Of course, the Babylon and Lucky are in the middle of it all. In thinking about the citywide explosive displays, my thoughts turned to another era, not too long ago, where gunpowder was put to a slight more nefarious use. Unlike many others, I'm not all that intrigued with the Mob history in Vegas, but what has sort of captured my imagination is the power-struggle era when the Family was being escorted out and the corporations were warring for control with the Culinary Union. Back then, mainly in the seventies, there were several bombings in restaurants whose owners refused to Unionize. That got me thinking...Of course, Jimmy G, the restaurateur introduced in LUCKY STIFF, would have been one of the holdouts. After all, he was cut from the same cloth as the Big Boss. Ah, the big Boss. We don't know too much about his history. How did he grow and thrive during the Mob days then transition so seamlessly to the corporate era?Does he have any secrets?Questions Lucky has been able to avoid...until now.And, with a fireworks display to coordinate, her heart pining for Teddie, the French chef angling for more attention, Dane lurking in the shadows, and Mona in hormonal over-drive, it's not like Lucky has the time or the energy to deal with a grudge decades in the making.LUCKY BANG opens with another explosion in one of Jimmy G's restaurants. Lucky narrowly escapes being a casualty--for the second time. The same thing happened to her when she was very small. Too unique to be a coincidence, the second bombing forces Lucky to delve into a past she would rather ignore.Old wounds are reopened and her life will never be quite the same.