GETTING LUCKY by D C Brod

Finished Th 9/13/12

My post at Good Reads-

A fairly interesting Murder Mystery with a female protagonist, but this has been done many times before by many different authors. It's pretty familiar territory all the way from the Nancy Drew series, through V.I. Warshawski and Sue Grafton. If you are a fan of these type of novels, GETTING LUCKY is right up your alley.
The novel is set in a fictional suburb of Chicago,  Fowler, Illinois. However, there really is a Fowler, but it is in downstate Illinois just west of Beardstown and almost to Quincy, IL.

Set in Fowler, IL-  A fictional Chicago suburb. Fowler is actually west of Beardstown near Quincy.

My notes:

Robyn Guthrie- Stringer for "Fowler News and Record", Bix- her dog; mother, Lizze, with beginning dementia, and lives in Dryden Manor (semi-nursing home). Nita- editor at The Record.

Mick- Ex-jockey and boyfriend of Robyn. They are on the outs about whether or not to have a baby.

Clair Powell- Hit and Run victim while walking her dog, Scoop. It was really a murder, she knew information about toxic land deal.

Kurt Vrana- Kind of a 'Green Peace' undercover agent. Friend of Clair, and helps solve the case.

Gretchen- Mick's secretary and trying to end her career as an escort. Her sister works as a nurse on the night shift. She takes Scoop, Clair's dog, and has a client (Joe Kendrick) die on her (heart attack). Mick, Kat, and Robyn take the body and park the car, and make it look like he died while trying to reach a hospital.

Glenn Patchen- He is the architect on the Green Project, "Cedar Ridge". Alcoholic and he hit Clair while drunk and left the scene.

Joseph Kendrick- He is one of the investors of the Cedar Ridge project.
Working with Ed (Lucky) Leoni who is an obnoxious mob figure who first purchased the land that was poisoned with dioxins. Mercedes is his obnoxious daughter, and Tabitha is his very nice wife. She is the daughter of a prominent  mob figure, Christopher Grecco. He's friends with Mick, and Mick and Robyn go to his house at the end of the novel. Lucky enters witness protection, and his daughter and granddaughter are free of Lucky.
Katherine (Kat) Kendricks- Married to Joseph and she went to high school with Robyn. She snubbed Robyn and was in the popular group at the school.

Mary Alice Tucker- She and her two sons bought a townhouse at Cedar Ridge. Robyn concocts a scheme so that she doesn't lose her money.
-----They use Vrana to propose that the original investors buy back the property so that they can then invest in a large casino operation. The casino deal doesn't go to them, but they have repaid Cedar Development.