The Next Best Thing To Paradise

About the Book

The Next Best Thing to Paradise is the story of a Minnesota girl who escapes from a brutal marriage, goes to Reno and discovers a different level of brutality. Playboy craps dealers always looking for another party and another girl, bosses telling filthy jokes all night long, the pressure to win, the worry over whether that days tips will be enough to buy groceries, tired drunks angry because theyre losing money, the drugs, the alcohol, the promiscuity; its a world thats not and never has been what it seems.

Katie Lindstrom is the girl next door, the girl who tries to find solutions in prayer, but cant wait any longer for the answers.  Her dream slowly becomes a nightmare.  If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, she paves several miles bouncing from marriage to marriage and succumbing to temptations, always hoping life will be better tomorrow.  Her two children grow up on their own, characters without conscience.

Set in surroundings exotic to most, the novel takes us into the green felt jungle and behind the two-way mirrors, where the games go on and everyone is expendable.  Over a timespan of thirty years, were given an extraordinary inside view of the gambling casinos and the way those who work within their walls are trapped.

About the Author

Mary Jane Edwards is a writer who grew up in the Midwest, went to Nevada in the early 1960's, and was a high-limit twenty-one dealer for many of the largest and best-known gaming establishments in the Reno-Lake Tahoe-Sparks area.  Her travel articles have been published in national and international newspapers, and her many books on travel include Europe On Ten Salads A Day and Bet On It! The Ultimate Guide to Nevada.  This first novel reveals what happens to a sheltered young girl who gets caught up in the anything-goes gambling world, told from an insider’s viewpoint.  The author lives with her husband in Tucson, Arizona.  Mary Jane Edwards may be contacted at mjedwards@dakotacom.net