Hard Luck

by Barbara D'Amato

Overview

HIGH STAKES

Chicago journalist Cat Marsala has just begun her assignment on the state lottery when murder falls into the picture-literally-as a lottery official takes a leap during the multistate lottery conference.

Suicide... or murder? It's curious to Cat-and to the police-that the guy took his mighty plunge right before his meeting with her. Especially curious since he'd hinted at some great exposé material-such as "misappropriation" of lottery funds.

Cat's investigation into the numbers game is fascinating, educational... and dangerous. Because the money is big, the stakes are sky-high-and a killer is not about to let a nosy free-lance journalist spoil the odds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628152258
Publisher:	Speaking Volumes, LLC
Publication date:	07/22/2015
Series:	A Cat Marsala Mystery , #3
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

Barbara D'Amato was the 1999-2000 president of Mystery Writers of America. D'Amato is also a past president of Sisters in Crime International. She writes a mystery series starring Chicago freelance investigative reporter Cat Marsala, a series starring Chicago patrol cops Suze Figueroa and Norm Bennis, and standalone novels.

D'Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. Her research on the Dr. John Branion murder case formed the basis for a segment on Unsolved Mysteries, and she appeared on the program. Her musical comedy The Magic Man and the children's musical The Magic of Young Houdini, written with husband Anthony D'Amato, played in Chicago and London. Their Prohibition-era musical comedy RSVP Broadway, which played in Chicago in 1980, was named an "event of particular interest" by Chicago magazine.

A native of Michigan, she has been a resident of Chicago for many years. D'Amato has been a columnist for the Sisters in Crime newsletter and Mystery Scene magazine. She has worked as an assistant surgical orderly, carpenter for stage magic illusions, assistant tiger handler, stage manager, researcher for attorneys in criminal cases, and she occasionally teaches mystery writing to Chicago police officers.

Editorial Reviews

Chicago freelance journalist Cat Marsala, in her third outing here (after Hardball and Hard Tack ), watches the story of her career land--literally--in front of her when Jack Sligh, an Illinois lottery official, plummets to his death from a skyscraper. Cat recognizes the corpse because she'd made an appointment with Sligh in regard to an article she was writing on the proposed Central States Lottery. Convinced Sligh was pushed, Cat begins an in-depth investigation of his co-workers at the Illinois state lottery as D'Amato develops her solidly plotted story. Many of the employees Cat talks to belong to the large family of Sligh's estranged wife Doris Furman: her sister, brother, nephew, and her father, who may well have mob connections. Cat explores the ramifications the Central States organization might have on the Furman-controlled state lottery to determine what, if anything, Sligh knew or intended to reveal that might have gotten him killed. As the case proceeds, details of Cat's private life, including a parrot that quotes Shakespeare and a boyfriend in a detox unit, give the tough, street-smart reporter a distinctive, warmly human quality. ( May

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly