A Death in Vegas – a Review

Nothing exciting ever happens in the life of the president of a company that specializes in bugs for organic gardening. Right?  Wrong.  An innocent night with a sexy lady bug sends him on a race to find her killer before he is locked up for the crime.

A Death in VegasPatton Burch is the president of BedBugs, a company that specializes in bugs. I don’t like any bugs, but these bugs are special: they benefit organic gardening.

During a trip to Las Vegas for a convention, he becomes a suspect in the death of a young lady who was working at his convention as a sexy lady bug. When she is found dead in his hotel room, he immediately becomes the number one suspect.

Patton’s wife is his business partner, and she encounters troubles of her own at this time. On top of that, she isn’t too happy about this sexy young lady turning up dead in her husband’s hotel room. Can you blame her?

Soon Patton finds out he is wanted not only for murder but also for money laundering. Patton realizes he is the only one who can prove his innocence.

This story takes you from the casinos of Las Vegas, Nevada to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to the wineries of Sonoma, California.

The story held my interest from page one. As its many layers unfolded, and as I learned more about the situation that Patton was in, it turned from an interesting book to one that I must immediately read the next page to find out what happens.

This is a story of a normal man with usual problems caught up in a situation where he has to break the law in order to remain a free man and prove he isn’t the guilty one.

I received a copy of this mystery in exchange for an honest review.  If you would like your own copy, links from Amazon and Smashwords have been provided below.

Amazon Link: A Death in Vegas

Smashwords Link: A Death in Vegas

Recommended Article: 
Literary Fiction – What is it Really? – Guest Post by Christopher Meeks

Favorite Sentences:
My favorite sentence in the entire book isn’t one that I’ve shared below.  This awesome sentence is on page 31 of the book in the seventh paragraph.  It isn’t full of curse words or anything, but the comparison it makes might not be fit for all the eyes that will be reading this review.  Now, for my other favorite sentences:

Patton stood in place, wondering what to do with his hands, which felt as out of place as fish heads.

To the left, the skyscrapers of downtown stood like huddled chess pieces with red lights at their crowns, blinking.

The incredible view and the elegance of the front entryway, he realized, was meant to make visitors feel as if they were visiting the gods on Mt. Olympus.

New Words Learned:
enology – the study of wine

geworfenheit – the feeling of thrownness or how we feel to be thrown, lost, and confused in a particular situation (http://zvix.wordpress.com/2006/10/10/heideggers-being-and-lostness/)

piker – a cheapskate

terroirthe combination of factors, including soil, climate, and environment, that gives a wine its distinctive character

trichogramma – any minute wasp of the genus Trichogramma, comprising a beneficial group of chalcid flies that parasitize the eggs of a variety of insect pests

viticulturists – the culture or cultivation of grapevines; grape-growing

Christopher MeeksAbout the Author:
The author, Christopher Meeks, has published stories in several literary journals.  Although he has a busy life teaching English at Santa Monica college, fiction writing at Southern New Hampshire University, and Children’s Literature at the Art Center College of Design, he has managed to write books and plays that have received a lot of praise.  He also owns his own publishing company, White Whisker Books.

You can keep up with this author at http://redroom.com/member/christopher-meeks, www.chrismeeks.com, and https://twitter.com/MeeksChris.

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