Title:
THE INVESTMENT CLUB
Author: Doug Cooper
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Pages: 362
Genre: Literary/Upmarket Fiction
Forty million people visit Vegas every year but most never
get past the strip. What about the people who live there? What brought them
there? What keeps them there?
Told from the perspective of a seasoned blackjack dealer, The
Investment Club tells the stories of a self-destructive, dwarf
entrepreneur, a drug-addicted musical performer-turned-stripper, a retired,
widowed New Jersey policeman, a
bereaved, divorced female sportscaster, and a card-counting, former Catholic
priest before and after their fateful meeting at the El Cortez Casino in
downtown Vegas.
As the five learn the greatest return comes from investing
in one another, their lives stabilize and take on new, positive directions. But
their love and support for each other can take them only so far before they
must determine the meaning and value of their own lives.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
The First Page
Date: Friday,
January 17, 2014
Dow Jones Open:
16,408.02
Never split tens.
The words flashed in their eyes and
formed on their lips. A nervous fingering of chips followed. Except for third
base, the last, and most important, seat at the table. He controlled the fates
of the other players, a role he seemed to enjoy. His stout digits remained
steadfast, cupped over the stack of ten black chips measured to split the hand.
Never had a doubt. Once he saw the house had a five of hearts, he knew his
play.
My left hand slid to the shoe, eyes
directed toward first base. “Twelve.”
The brim of her faded green
military cap angled downward, concealing her eyes and half of her tawny face.
Her hat was more fashion than function, this girl had never served, at least in
the armed forces. Her body, though, was all function. Lean and mean. Definitely
put on this earth to move. It was just a question of if that was in the
vertical or the horizontal.
She waved her hand over the cards,
never lifting her gaze from the table. “I’ll stay. You’re going to bust.” She
was there for one purpose: to make money. Played every night. Never for less
than $25 per hand and often as high as $200 when she really got rolling. I
wouldn’t say she was unfriendly or mean. Just had an edge to her. Wanted to be
left alone and not have to talk to anyone.
Next to her in seat two, a burly
man, about six foot two or three—somewhere in his late sixties—nodded approvingly.
He had a half-inch gray flattop that with each tilt of his head revealed a
thinning patch on top. “Good girl,” he said. “You don’t have to have great
cards; just need the dealer to have worse ones.” He plucked a red five-dollar
chip off his stack and placed it next to his bet. Holding up his index finger,
he said, “One card, down please.”
Sliding the card from the shoe
without revealing the value, I said, “Down and dirty.” Directing my attention
to his neighbor, I nodded at the seventeen in front of the surgically enhanced
Barbie doll in seat three. “The ol’ mother-in-law’s hand.”
She furrowed her brow, barely
wrinkling her taut forehead. “What does that mean?” It was obvious she didn’t
know the game, but she wasn’t stupid either. Everything she did had a purpose.
What she revealed at the table was exactly what she wanted the others to see to
elicit the reaction she desired.
“It’s a seventeen,” I said, about
to drop one of my standard lines, good at least a few times a night. “It’s like
your mother-in-law. You want to hit it, but you can’t.”
“Well, I don’t have to worry about
one of those.” Her eyes sank to her cards. “So do I hit or not?”
About the Author
Doug Cooper is the author of
the award-winning novel Outside In and The Investment Club
available October 2016. He has a BS in Mathematics Education from Miami
University and a MA in American Studies from Saint Louis University. Always searching, he has traveled to over twenty
countries on five continents, exploring the contradictions between what we
believe and how we act in the pursuit of truth, beauty, and love. Originally
from Port Clinton, Ohio, he has also called Cleveland, St.
Louis, Detroit, New York, and Oslo, Norway home. He now lives in Cleveland working on his third novel Focus Lost.
No comments:
Post a Comment