The Investment Club

by Doug Cooper

Overview

Silver Medalist for Best West-Mountain Regional Novel 2017
Winner of the 2017 International Book Award for Best Literary Fiction
Finalist for Best New Fiction at the Best Book Awards
Finalist for the Red City Review Best Literary Fiction Award

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945572005
Publisher:	Rare Bird Books
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Pages:	362
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Doug Cooper is the author of the award-winning novel Outside In. He has a BS in Mathematics Education from Miami Universityand an 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. The Investment Club is his second novel.

Editorial Reviews

"We’ve all heard that “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” But what happens to the people who stay in Vegas long after the rest of us are well on our way home? Doug Cooper does a masterful job shining a seasoned, sun-baked eye on the lives and losses that transpire both in and away from the casinos; the result is — you’ll pardon the pun — hands-down the best Vegas-based investment you’ll ever make!
—David Kukoff, editor of Los Angeles in the 1970s and author of Children of the Canyon

Praise for Doug Cooper’s Outside In:

"A deep, entertaining read about all the truths that find us when we’re looking the other way."
—Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight, Bad Sex on Speed, and Happy Mutant Baby Pills

"Rarely does an author capture the frenzied descent into drug and alcohol abuse as Doug Cooper does in his tumultuous novel, Outside In. A story of disillusion drowned in excess, tempered by the decisions we make to survive another day. A searing debut."
—Stephen Jay Schwartz, Los Angeles Times best-selling author of Boulevard and Beat

"This modern take on finding oneself shows readers what can happen when you completely lose control and become someone you are not. It reminds us all of Shakespeare’s counsel, ‘To thine own self be true.’"
—Weldon Long, author of the New York Times bestseller The Power of Consistency

"Outside In takes readers on a wild ride with the final destination being a rediscovered sense of self."
—Colleen Hoover, author of the New York Times bestseller Slammed

"Doug Cooper writes authoritatively about the ease with which circumstances conspire to ensnare a promising young teacher into a lush life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It remains to be seen how easy it will be for him to get himself out—or if he will just become another bleached-out lotus-eater in the Florida sun. A charismatic cast of characters populates this promising novel from a rising talent."
—Stuart Smith, CEO, Central Recovery

“[An] insightful coming-of-age story.”
—Foreword Reviews

“…the relatable tale of one man’s quarter-life crisis that will resonate with readers of all ages.”
—Red City Review

“A look at one man’s belated coming of age that’s equally funny, earnest, romantic, and lamenting, Doug Cooper’s debut novel explores the modern search for responsibility and identity, showing through the eyes of Brad Shepherd how sometimes, we can only come to understand who we truly are by becoming the person we’re not.”
—Literally Jen

From the Publisher