The Hard Way by Cathi Stoler

Gambling. Murder. Mayhem. It's Vegas all the way...as author Cathi Stoler stops by to talk about her new book which debuts tomorrow, The Hard Way. Lucky for us, she's also giving away a copy. 

Just comment below to be entered to win on something to do with ritzy, glitzy, risky Las Vegas...

Laurel Imperiole and Helen McCorkendale are in trouble again in The Hard Way, the latest installment in the Laurel and Helen New York Mystery Series. 

This time, they’re headed to the neon fueled, high-roller world of Las Vegas where anything can happen, and usually does. 

Helen’s friend Jimmy Scanlan has just opened January, the most lavish casino and resort on the Las Vegas strip. When a mysterious woman is murdered poolside, Jimmy calls on Helen to investigate. She’s instantly thrown into a whirlwind of diamond dealers and International jewel thieves, all of whom might kill her in a heartbeat to obtain the world’s most precious diamond, the DeGroot Red.

As with my other novels, I based part of the story on what’s going on in the world around us, a bit of real life to ground it in the realm of the possible. 

And so part of the tale takes its cue from a real red diamond, the Kazanjian diamond, a 5-carat stone, which is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I also modeled my jewel thieves on the daring and audacious gang Interpol has dubbed The Pink Panthers. Their name derives from the movie staring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, and their copycat move of hiding a precious stone from one of their heists in a jar of face cream. They’ve stolen millions of dollars worth of gems, all with very few arrests, and were recently profiled on 60 Minutes, which you can read about in my recent post on Women of Mystery.

These are the bad guys Helen and Laurel take on—masterminds of crime for sure. To get the job done and see the case through to its conclusion, Laurel and Helen need to become masterminds of crime themselves— using all their skills and cunning to solve a murder and doing it “the hard way”, working together and going for doubles while hoping their luck will hold.

And if you're in a Vegas sort of mood, you can check out Kim and Kerry Hammond's trip to the Las Vegas CSI Experience and Las Vegas Speakeasies, The Lady Silvia and The Laundry Room.