The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Leslie Wolfe's New Book: CASINO GIRL.
Bestselling Author Leslie Wolfe writes Thriller and Suspense novels.
CASINO GIRL
A Gripping Las Vegas Thriller
Author: Leslie Wolfe
AVAILABLE
Amazon
In Las Vegas, secrets are deadly.
Detectives Laura Baxter and Jack Holt are members of the elite: Las Vegas Metro PD, one of the toughest and most respected law enforcement agencies in the United States. In the middle of a city with two million residents and 43 million annual visitors, they’re hunting for a killer.
The girl
When a beautiful, young girl is killed in the high-roller Pleasure Pit of the exclusive Scala Casino, the news reverberates for hours among the ritzy clientele. Before taking the stage where she found her death, Crystal was last seen boarding an unmarked helicopter for a late-night flight to an unknown destination.
The money
The stakes are high at the roulette table, and the players are hot-blooded. Among them, a stone-cold killer watches, waits, and kills without leaving a single trace of evidence. Rien ne va plus but death.
The game
The name of the game is murder, and it doesn’t stop with Crystal’s demise. Anyone who threatens to expose the killer’s identity will soon find they’re being targeted.
In Las Vegas, secrets can kill.
Two mavericks make an intriguing team. Baxter and Holt trust each other with their lives, only not with their darkest secrets.
Excerpt from CASINO GIRL
1
Odds
They’re called quasi-strippers.
They don’t really bare it all, like real strippers do behind the darkened glass doors of specialty adult clubs, but they aren’t exactly fully dressed either while they perform.
Crystal preferred the term exotic dancer. Five nights a week she took the small stage at the center of the high-limit blackjack tables, in the glamorous Scala Casino. Five nights a week she danced and smiled and undulated her perfect body to the rhythm of sultry songs, carefully chosen to lure the gamblers’ attention away from the cards and the ever-diminishing stacks of their chips. In the background, nothing is more Vegas than the Scala Casino floor, filled with a million noises, dazzling lights, and excess adrenaline. Nothing is more alive.
That’s where she belonged, among the glitter and the gold, the glitzy and the rich.
She wore strappy lingerie with black and gold lace accents on beige silk, designed to trick the mind’s eye into believing she was naked. Black, knee-high stiletto boots completed her attire, her black, garter-belt straps attached to them, sexy and kinky and fun. The appreciative looks she basked in that night told her she’d chosen her ensemble well. It was going to be a profitable evening.
The familiar music seemed a bit too loud, making her wince, a little dizzy. She grabbed the pole tighter, aware she was dancing out of rhythm, but knowing the customers were too far gone to notice. It was almost four in the morning, and by that time, most of them were pleasantly inebriated, high on their own excitement and maybe more, living the Vegas dream.
The only danger was that asshole, Farley, a fat, lewd pig who liked to scream at the girls, giving them a hard time for everything they did, right or wrong regardless. Two minutes of being late or changing clothes mid-shift and she’d get pulled inside the pit manager’s office for another scolding session.
But she held her head up during those moments, aware they were going to pass and even more aware they were meant to intimidate her into offering sexual favors in return for a privileged work atmosphere.
Oh, hell, no.
Not ever. Not even if the prick turned blue in the face from too much screaming, or his waiting-to-happen stroke knocked him dead right before her eyes.
But even Stan Farley was looking away that moment, focused on a newly arrived high roller who’d taken a seat at one of the blackjack tables with a view of the stage. She didn’t know that one, but judging by the way Farley fawned over him, he must’ve been someone important.
Someone rich.
Someone who didn’t care that the odds at his blackjack table were stacked higher against him, just because the table came with a view of full inviting cleavage and tight little buns.
Hers.
She felt beads of sweat bursting at the roots of her hair and forced some stale air into her lungs. Maybe the air conditioning was off, or something. The cigar smoke made it almost unbreathable, but it was an acceptable tradeoff for being allowed to work the high roller pit, not some fifty-cents-minimum roulette floor, where the tips were always Washingtons, never a Franklin and rarely a Lincoln, and not a whole lot of them to count at the end of a shift anyway.
No, she’d been lucky, and her luck had started to play in her favor about a month after she’d been hired. For that she probably had Devine to thank.
Her sweaty palms made it difficult for her to get a good grip on the shiny, chrome pole, but she managed a back hook spin and landed facing Devine. Her best friend danced some 30 feet away, on a small, elevated stage set among four, high-limit, roulette tables.
She waited until she could make eye contact with Devine and waved discreetly at her best friend. Just seeing her smile back made her feel less lonely, less vulnerable. Maybe she was going to be okay. Maybe things would work out after all.
Without realizing, she put her palm on her belly in a soft, caressing gesture, aimed to comfort the tiny sparkle of life growing inside her. She wasn’t showing a baby bump yet, but soon that would change, and with it, her entire life as she knew it.
She skipped out of rhythm again, but soon snapped out of her trance, motivated by Farley’s mean glare. She focused on her customers for a while and, within a few minutes of smiling provocatively and wiggling her rear, a crisp fifty-dollar bill landed under the thin strap of her thong, delivered by long, hairy fingers that reached lower and lingered longer than was necessary.
Sometimes she was happy the payout was 6:5 instead of 3:2 on a blackjack at the tables facing her; those jerks deserved to pay.
But she smiled at the man who’d delivered the tip and mocked a reverence without letting go of the pole. Then she let herself fall into a back bend and frowned when she saw Farley was approaching.
“What the hell is wrong with you, huh?” he snapped, after grabbing her arm and pulling her close. The music was loud, and no one could hear his words; not that anyone would care if they did. “Could you be bothered to do your job tonight? A deaf penguin has more rhythm than you.”
“I’m working it, Stan, what the hell? I haven’t taken a break in two hours.”
“The hell you are, bitch. You see those bozos? If they’re looking at their cards instead of your ass, you ain’t earning your keep.”
He let go of her arm and disappeared before she could say anything. He was a two-faced creep; with her and the other girls he showed his real charm. For all the patrons and the rest of the Scala staff, he was a perfect gentleman, always dressed in an impeccable suit and starched, white shirts, pleasantly smiling and accommodating.
She knew better than to let him get under her skin.
But her head was spinning, and she held on tight to the pole, not as part of her routine, but for much-needed balance. The music changed, and she welcomed the new beat, one of her favorites. She knew the playlist by heart; the casino had a limited supply of premixed tracks, but the customers didn’t seem to care.
Cheers erupted at the table in front of her, and one of the players lifted his arms in the air, beaming. The croupier pushed an impressive pile of chips in front of the man, and she quickly flashed her megawatt smile and made lingering eye contact. He didn’t disappoint; he picked one of the chips and sent it flying her way. She caught it gracefully, then placed it on the floor, next to the pole. Her barely-there panties weren’t made to hold casino chips.
When she looked up, she startled.
It was him. It was Paul, and he was furious, by the angle of his eyebrows, by the deep ridges flanking his mouth.
Author Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Fiction
Website: Leslie Wolfe
Author's Blog: Leslie Wolfe Contact Link
Twitter: @WolfeNovels
E-Mail: LW@WolfeNovels.com
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Facebook: Check Out Facebook
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Amazon Author Profile
Author Description: Leslie Wolfe is a bestselling author whose novels break the mold of traditional thrillers. She creates unforgettable, brilliant, strong women heroes who deliver fast-paced, satisfying suspense, backed up by extensive background research in technology and psychology.
Leslie released the first novel, Executive, in October 2011. It was very well received, including inquiries from Hollywood. Since then, Leslie published numerous novels and enjoyed growing success and recognition in the marketplace. Among Leslie’s most notable works, The Watson Girl (2017) was recognized for offering a unique insight into the mind of a serial killer and a rarely seen first person account of his actions, in a dramatic and intense procedural thriller.
Leslie enjoys engaging with readers every day and would love to hear from you.
Author's Book List
Taker of Lives
- A Gripping Crime ThrillerA GRIPPING CRIME THRILLER
How can you outrun a killer you won’t see coming?
They are the most violent, blood-thirsty, and vicious of criminals. While hunting for them, FBI profilers call these monsters UNSUBS, short for unknown subjects of ongoing investigations. At any given time, in the United States there are more than fifty serial killers at large, preying on vulnerable, unsuspecting victims.
Until yesterday, no one knew Florida had another serial killer on the loose. Special Agent Tess Winnett calls this particularly elusive one the Taker of Lives.
The crimes: bewildering
After a well-known model commits suicide, Tess refuses to accept the findings and pushes for an investigation into the reasons behind the beautiful young woman’s decision to end her life. What she finds surpasses her wildest fears.
The evidence: disturbing
Each new crime scene brings more questions than answers. While secrets are revealed, even those meant to be kept forever in the dark, Tess can draw only one conclusion: she’s not the one in charge; the Taker of Lives controls the game, the players, even the course of the investigation.
The race: intense
With little information and even less evidence, Tess must connect the dots of a deadly scenario with a large number of potential victims. If she fails, another beautiful, young girl will die tonight, and the blood will be on her hands.
The Taker of Lives might be closer than you think. Who’s watching you sleep tonight?
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Las Vegas Girl
- A Gripping, Suspenseful Crime NovelA GRIPPING, SUSPENSEFUL CRIME NOVEL
Detectives Laura Baxter and Jack Holt are members of the elite: Las Vegas Metro PD, one of the toughest and most respected law enforcement agencies in the United States. In the middle of a city with two million residents and 43 million annual visitors, they’re hunting for a killer.
The crime: audacious
In a glamorous Las Vegas hotel, in front of hundreds of witnesses and under the lenses of countless video surveillance cameras, a young girl is brutally murdered. What promises to be a quick and easy investigation soon becomes a nightmare. The most recorded crime in Vegas is missing one key protagonist, the killer.
The forensics: stupefying
A crime-scene fingerprint unleashes dozens of unsettling questions instead of providing answers. Was this a murder for hire? In the politically-charged case, the scenario seems plausible; the victim’s secret life could’ve been the obstacle in an ambitious politician’s path. As the investigation unspools the well-concealed secrets surrounding the girl’s life, Baxter and Holt attract the attention of someone desperate to keep history’s terrible secrets buried.
The truth: shocking
A testimony from beyond the grave turns into a death warrant for the two unrelenting detectives. While they expose a connection with the victim’s distant past that could hold the key to catching her killer, they must learn to rely on each other to survive.
Two mavericks make an intriguing team. Baxter and Holt trust each other with their lives, only not with their darkest secrets.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
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Stories Untold
- A Gripping Psychological ThrillerSomething terrible happened sixteen years ago; many lives were lost. Who was responsible? As long as the truth remains buried, his life is in danger. She will help him find it; she’s the only one who can.
They’re both strong and fearless, determined, relentless.
He’s a decorated war veteran and he wants to die.
She’s a prominent psychologist and she won’t give up on him.
When a suicidal client seeks her help, Dr. Angela Blackwell cannot turn him away, despite the fact that he isn’t seeking the kind of help she normally provides her clients. The man, who won’t fully identify himself, wants the distinguished psychologist to stand witness after his planned death in six months’ time, ensuring his wife will not be charged as an accessory or be hindered from collecting the death benefit he carefully provisioned for her. He calls himself DJ and won’t willingly share anything about his past.
As Dr. Blackwell is struggling to reconstruct her own life after the loss of her husband, she recognizes his unusual request as a subconscious cry for help and embarks on a relentless effort to guide the reluctant stranger in uncovering the trauma that has permanently altered the course of his existence. Playing a deck of cards stacked high against her and rushing against time, she has no other option but to intervene, searching for the truth herself, refusing to give up.
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Amazon
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Audible
Glimpse of Death
- A Riveting Serial Killer ThrillerHer beautiful face, serene and immobile, resting on her folded arm. Her long, luscious hair, undulating gently in the evening breeze. Her eyes half-closed, a hint of a smile on her pale lips, as if to welcome an unseen lover.
When the body of a young woman is found in her own backyard, a week after her disappearance, evidence leads investigators to a chilling conclusion. She is not the first victim of a serial killer no one knew existed. She most definitely is not the last.
FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett joins the local detectives assigned to the case and searches for answers in the intriguing investigation that offers a plethora of forensic evidence, yet no viable leads. When another body is found, the search intensifies, and details about the killer’s unusual signature emerge. He likes to stalk his victims before abducting them. He likes to show them a flash of what’s coming, a foreboding warning of their grim future.
At first, she caught a glimpse of a man, standing in the shadows, watching her.
She thought she saw his eyes, and the sight of them chilled her to the bone. She saw his hands, and they were the hands of a killer.
She caught a Glimpse of Death.
Join smart, relentless Tess Winnett and her seasoned team on a heart-stopping hunt for a serial killer, who mercilessly takes lives, preying on young, unsuspecting mothers. Resourceful, creative, and uncompromising, Tess will stop at nothing to catch the killer before he shatters another innocent life, taking readers on a memorable, white-knuckled journey in this masterful, riveting, serial killer thriller.
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Amazon
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Audible
The Watson Girl
- A Gripping Serial Killer ThrillerA GRIPPING SERIAL KILLER THRILLER
An entire family is murdered and, by a quirk, a young girl is left unharmed. For fifteen years, she believed the killer had been caught, and he’s now on death row, awaiting execution. While trying to be content with her adoptive family, she’s living in relentless uncertainty and the fear of remembering what really happened that night when she was five years old. She’s The Watson Girl.
A therapist has asked her to participate in regression session treatments to attempt to bring back those lost memories. The closer she gets to the truth, however, the less time she has to remain alive. Now, the real killer is going to silence her, before she can remember the details of that horrifying night, when she was an innocent witness.
Laura Watson is young, she’s beautiful, and she’s a serial killer's loose end.
Join the smart, relentless, and short-fused FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett and her team in a heart-stopping search for the serial killer who has managed to stay hidden for many years. Explore the inner workings of the murderer’s mind, and find out what motivates such predatory, blood-lusting behavior, while following every twist and turn of an existence spent taking lives.
Laura Watson’s family was murdered fifteen years ago.
That was only the beginning. His beginning.
If you’re the apple of his eye, you’re already dead.
Special Agent Tess Winnett will hold nothing back to stop the killer before he takes another innocent life. She never fails, no matter what’s at stake. Even her own life.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Dawn Girl
- A Gripping Serial Killer ThrillerA GRIPPING SERIAL KILLER THRILLER
Her blue eyes wide open, glossed over. A few specks of sand clung to her long, dark lashes. Her beautiful face, immobile, covered in sparkling flecks of sand. Her lips slightly parted as if to let a last breath escape.
Who is the beautiful girl found at dawn, on a deserted stretch of golden sand beach? What is her secret?
FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett searches for answers relentlessly. With each step, each new finding, she uncovers unsettling facts leading to a single possible conclusion: Dawn Girl is not the only victim. Her killer has killed before.
Hiding a terrible secret of her own, Special Agent Tess Winnett faces her inmost fears, in a heart-stopping race to catch a killer who’s getting ready to end yet another life. Will she find the killer in time? Will she be able to stop him? At what cost?
The rules of the game have changed.
So has the textbook definition of a serial killer.
Special Agent Tess Winnett is the bold, direct, and short-fused heroine of Dawn Girl. Putting her life on the line, she doesn’t pull any punches, searching only for the truth, and for the man who takes lives on her watch. Intelligent, resourceful, and uncompromising, Tess will take readers on a memorable, white-knuckled journey in this suspenseful, gripping serial killer thriller.
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Amazon
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Audible
Operation Sunset
- A ThrillerNUCLEAR TERRORISM THRILLER
Private investigator Alex Hoffmann has a clear mission: to identify and eliminate the deadliest terrorist mastermind in history. She doesn’t know his name. She doesn’t know what he looks like. She only knows he’s Russian. The moment she learns more, it’s already too late. The timers are counting down.
This Russian’s plan doesn’t target a building, a person, or a city. His plan is targeting the future of the United States and its entire people, for decades to come.
She calls it the inconceivable scenario. Will she be able to stop him in time?
Terrorism has a new dimension. We’re under an unprecedented attack. There’s nowhere to run.
Alex Hoffmann returns as the heroine of Operation Sunset. Putting her life on the line and risking it all to hunt down the man who is threatening everything she cares about, Alex is uncompromising and resourceful, taking readers on a breathtaking roller coaster ride in this gripping, engrossing nuclear terrorism thriller.
Book Trailer: Operation Sunset
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Amazon
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The Ghost Pattern
- A ThrillerMEDICAL TERRORISM THRILLER
It’s the new age of terrorism, where enemy interests employ the use of modern tools, weapons, tactics, and theories to achieve goals that have destructive, bone-chilling, and disturbing physical and emotional effects. Today’s terrorists are tech-savvy, manipulative, powerful, well-funded, and supported by entire networks of global experts.
A Scottish offshore drilling platform in the North Sea becomes unresponsive to all communication attempts.
In Moscow, the Russian president and his top advisors seek the best, fastest strategies to defeat and ruin the United States. More recently, that includes government-sanctioned terrorism.
A commercial flight, carrying 423 passengers and 18 crew from Tokyo to San Francisco, disappears in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Why?
In the new age of terrorism, nothing is what it seems.
No one is safe. There's no willpower, no intelligence, and no spirit that won't succumb to the right mix of drugs.
A captivating and unsettling page-turner, The Ghost Pattern explores a new dimension of terrorism, one that happens around the world on a daily basis without making any headlines. Or without making the right headlines. That’s really going on behind the scenes?
Alex Hoffmann returns as the heroine of The Ghost Pattern. She embarks on a breathtaking expedition to stop a brilliant terrorist in his tracks. Risking her life and challenging everyone’s beliefs, she is relentless to find the truth and the man who threatens the core of human existence.
Join Alex on an explosive mission as she ventures behind enemy lines in a heart-stopping race against time and against all odds, in this fast-paced, riveting medical terrorism thriller.
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Amazon
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The Backup Asset
ESPIONAGE TECHNOLOGICAL THRILLER
Cold War II has started with a vengeance. Or, as the American president calls it, Cold War 2.0, reflecting the impact technology has in the new age of espionage. Our country is now in the crosshairs of a renewed, unstoppable enemy intelligence operation.
At Langley, a report causes turbulence, as it predicts Russia’s inconceivable plans based on apparently random incursions into other countries’ territorial space.
In Moscow, the relentless Russian president and his key military leader are planning retaliation for the Crimea sanctions.
America’s newest weapons system, the laser cannon, is ready to be installed on a Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer. This weapon has the ability to change the balance of power in the world, and give America and its allies the upper hand in any military conflict.
But there’s a problem. Someone stole the weapon’s plans and is ready to hand them to our country’s enemies.
Espionage has a new dimension. Everyone is gettable.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Devil's Move
- Political Terrorism TechnothrillerIt is a presidential election year and things are changing. America is overhauling its voting system, making room for modern processes and innovative technologies, but also for conspiracies and murder.
The US presidential election system overhaul comes under fire.
A heart transplant is denied.
An accident claims the life of a consulting executive.
Here, at home, terrorism has a new target.
We know the day of the attack, Election Day.
We know very little else.
An unsettling page-turner, Devil’s Move dives into an intricate world of economic and political influences, and global conspiracies. Battling shadows in a game against covert players, Alex Hoffmann returns as the heroine of Devil’s Move. She embarks on a captivating adventure, riddled with danger and spiced with technology and science, in a breathtaking, exquisite political terrorism technothriller.
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Amazon
Executive
- A ThrillerA friendly fire incident in Afghanistan takes a serious toll. A drone, out of control, brings death and wreaks havoc on a Florida highway. An apparently successful corporation comes under scrutiny.
A memorable incursion behind corporate closed doors, led by an up-and-coming executive on a mission to find the truth about the lives lost to the very technology that was mandated to protect them.
Our skies aren't safe anymore.
Book Trailer: Executive
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Audible
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Indie Author’s Corner
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