Strip Poker

From Publishers Weekly
What a game! (Note the title.) What a dame! Sierra Lavotini, the gutsy, busty, blonde exotic dancer who moonlights as a catcher of bad guys, is back for her fourth raunchy and amusing adventure (after 2000's Film Strip). Sierra, along with her fellow dancers, is out of a job after Vincent Gambuzzo, the dim owner of Tiffany Gentleman's Club, loses it in a poker game. When a gang of hoods bursts into the room to seize the take, in the ensuing fracas one player, Denny, is killed and the bouncer is badly injured. The police, including Sierra's boyfriend, John Nailor, arrest Vincent for murder, since the fatal bullet came from his gun. At Denny's wake, Sierra literally stumbles on another corpse. And so it goes. This girl is a magnet for trouble, as one of her friends points out. But with the help of her familiar supporting cast of characters, notably Raydean, her lovable but certifiable trailer-park neighbor, and Fluffy, her hairless Chihuahua, you can count on Sierra to sort it all out. Sierra displays her usual uninhibited candor and bad grammar, neither of which can be attributed to Sister Frances, a former teacher, whose advice she often gives herself. Sierra and Nailor, now an established couple after a long flirtation, enjoy steamy sex, but unexpected competition enters in the person of "Big Moose" Lavotini, a New Jersey mobster whom Sierra has long claimed sight unseen as her uncle to impress others of his ilk. While the murders are satisfactorily resolved, the author leaves a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up and soon! (Nov. 12)(Your Cheatin' Heart).Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
After losing his strip club in a poker game, Sierra Lavotini's boss soon finds himself accused of murder. Sierra sexy, smart, and hilarious proceeds to clear his name while still keeping tabs on her out-of-work co-workers. Very entertaining. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Sierra Lavotini, the reigning queen of northwest Florida's exotic dance industry, is back in all her sensible, sexy, sarcastic glory. Her boss, Vinny, loses the Tiffany Gentleman's Club in a poker game that is interrupted by an attempted robbery. In the ensuing chaos, one of the players is shot. Vinny is accused of the crime, and Sierra--backed by crazy neighbor Raydean and Chihuahua Fluffy--endeavors to clear his name and rescue the club before its reputation is destroyed by the new owner (who promptly renames it Big Mike's House of Booty). Meanwhile, a family crisis takes her back to Philadelphia for Christmas and away from her faltering relationship with Detective John Nailor. And New Jersey mobster "Big Moose" Lavotini, whose name Sierra has dropped several times in tough situations, shows up to see who's been calling herself his niece. The plot loses a bit of momentum near the end, but the laughs make up for the missteps in this tart read, the fourth in the series. Carrie Bissey
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
When Vincent Gambuzzo, the not-so-bright proprietor of the Tiffany Gentleman's Club in Panama City, Florida, loses his business playing poker, his headliner, exotic dancer Sierra Lavotini, faces a crisis. The new sign out front reads BIG MIKE'S HOUSE OF BOOTY, and Big Mike's new business strategy leaves a little to be desired in the class department and even less to the imagination of the increasingly rambunctious clientele.

As the dancers' unofficial leader and mother hen, Sierra leads most of her coworkers in a walkout and schemes to restore Vincent to power. But he's in jail, charged with murdering a man in a shootout at the end of that same disastrous poker game. Can Sierra prove Vincent innocent, help her fellow out-of-work dancers, and manage to make next month's trailer payment without a job?

With the help of her neighbor Raydean, her on-again boyfriend, Panama City Homicide Detective John Nailor, and her "uncle," "Big Moose" Lavotini of the New Jersey syndicate, of course she can, and it adds up to another fantastic ride in this hilarious and sexy series.



Download Description
Exotic dancer Sierra Lavotini fights to save The Tiffany Gentlemen's Club from turning into a low-class strip joint in the fourth installment of this popular series.


About the Author
Nancy Bartholomew is the author of three previous Sierra Lavotini mysteries and two Maggie Reid mysteries. Born and raised outside Philadelphia, she now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she is a practicing psychotherapist.



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Sierra Lavotini's craziest Christmas ever begins when her boss Vincent Gambuzzo loses the Tiffany Gentleman's Club to charter-boat captain Mike Riggs in a poker game. Before the club's new owner has the time to savor his victory, armed robbers break into the club, and the resulting gunfire leaves one of the cardplayers, whining Dennis Watley, dead, and Tiffany bouncer Bruno Bronkowski nearly so. But the thieves, when Sierra (Movie Strip, 2000, etc.), in the first of many unlikely developments, makes contact with them, insist they didn't kill anybody, and indeed the bullet that killed Denny came from Vincent's gun. Since Vincent doesn't have the gumption to shoot anyone, Sierra knows he's been set up by somebody else in the room when the shots broke out. Was it Busted Beaver owner Izzy Rodriguez? Undercover vice cop Joe Nolowicki? Distracting Barbie doll Angel (nee Yolanda)? A member of the Tiffany staff? Riggs himself? The puzzle is so simple it ought to be a real teaser, but instead of developing it, Bartholomew piles on distractions. Sierra and her fellow exotic dancers, now unemployed, are propositioned by slimy Izzy. Sierra's called back to Philadelphia by her mother's illness. Sierra worries that her lover, Panama City Beach Detective John Nailor, is getting back together with his ex. Moose Lavotini, the Cape May mobster Sierra's mendaciously claimed as a relation, turns up in the flesh. Sierra finds another corpse. It's all in good fun, though you have to feel for Sierra's psychotic neighbor Raydean when she asks, "You ever think you might have an attention-span problem?"


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