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Belinda (Bee) Cooley is not having a good week. She broke up with her fiancé when she caught him with his assistant doing the horizontal tango, lost her job where she worked with her fiancé, and horror of horrors, she also turned 40. Her poker-loving twin brother Ben wants to cheer Bee up so he whisks her off to Las Vegas where he is registered to play in the Lanai Hotel's Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament. Not only does Ben want to win but also he wants to beat Steely Stan the current Texas Hold 'Em champ. For some reason Ben hates Stan and when Bee sees Stan walk into the hotel with two young buxom women on each arm, she decides she isn't too fond of him either. To Bee, Stan is slime personified. Before checking into their room, Ben decides to play some poker and leaves Bee at the bar with their baggage. Here she meets handsome Frank Gilbert who is a bit drunk but they strike up a conversation about Steely Stan. Frank warns Bee to stay away from Stan because he's very dangerous. As he's about to leave the bar Frank gives Bee his card that says that he is in security and tells her to call him in case she runs into any problems. After finally finding the hotel room that she is sharing with Ben, Bee finds a note from her twin saying he went to the casino. Bee, too bored to spend the time waiting for the extremely slow elevator to meet her brother, decides to take the 20-something flights of stairs down. Stopping on one of the floors to catch her breath Bee hears two men arguing on another landing. They are talking about someone who is stalking a man and he has to be taken care of. One of them is wearing a cologne that Bee recognizes. When she makes a noise, the man wearing the cologne races to see who was listening to their conversation. Bee runs out of the staircase and meets an old man who is quite drunk, so she hugs him and calls him uncle to try to get the cologne man off her scent. She goes with her newly-found 'uncle' to his room and finds out that his name is Felix and they strike up a conversation. When Felix passes out, Bee writes a note to the kind man and leaves. When she gets back to her room she finds the place is a mess. All of the twins' belongings have been ransacked and there is blood on the walls. Bee fears that something bad has happened to Ben and can only think of one person who might help her; Frank the semi-drunk security man from the bar. Frank and Bee now have to figure out where Ben is, if he's still alive and why he was kidnapped. Things soon turn deadly when the kind old man, Felix, is found murdered. Bee knows that she's responsible for his death. She is determined to avenge his murder, to save her brother, and to win the Texas Hold 'Em tournament to beat Steely Stan. The fact that Bee has never played poker will not stop her at her task. DEATH ON THE FLOP by Jackie Chance is a great poker/murder cozy. I enjoyed it from the very first page. The characters are likeable and it's nice to see a 40-year-old woman as the lead for a change. Of course the book has a romance, Frank and Bee fall in love with each other. You could tell that was going to happen as soon as they met, but mostly the book is filled with lots of poker, car chases, good-humored banter and interesting side characters. Author Jackie Chance does her best to explain everything about Texas Hold 'Em but most of that went over my head, I was more interested in the story line. But that just shows how good this book was. You don't need to care about playing cards and gambling and knowing what a flop is in poker to enjoy this book. DEATH ON THE FLOP is the first poker cozy that I've run across and I hope it continues into a series. Reading about Bee, Ben, Frank, and all of their friends in Vegas is a fun way to spend an afternoon. And maybe, if you follow Bee's tips at the end of the book about Texas Hold 'Em, you might be able to become the next Las Vegas poker champion!
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, January 2007
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