Lucinda

About the Book

Jack Bauer, a New York Times music critic, comes to Las Vegas after hearing that Lucinda Mars, daughter of the CIA’s deputy director, the woman Jack expected to become his wife, has been murdered there, where she worked as a showroom dancer. Bauer finds himself immersed in the nighttime world of the colorful city, surrounded by a bizarre collection of people, all of them in some way connected to Lucinda. He becomes close to Marla Easter, a lounge singer whose talent inspires him to promote her career; Andy Bell, her personable, skillful musical arranger; Marilyn, Marla’s singer; Pamela Brookside, a local attorney and Marilyn’s employer, and Paul Foster, Marla’s shadowy, violent boyfriend. Jack is aided, not always to his liking, by a seedy retired CIA operative, Dallas Vinson. He also briefly has access to the services of Diane Wells (whom Dennis Havens readers will recognize from his novels Flash Flood Warning and Should All Acquaintance), who plays an important cameo role in this unusual story

About the Author

Dennis Havens, former Las Vegas musician, began writing mystery/suspense novels on breaks between shows. With over a dozen completed works, he is busy on a new book, set in the turbulent, high-stakes world of virtuoso conductors and New York symphonic music in the decade following World War II. Havens now makes his home in Oklahoma City.