Getting Lucky (Paperback)

~ Bob Sanchez (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

When beautiful Bonita Esquivez hires P.I. Clay Webster to find her husband, Lucky, Clay expects an easy missing-person case. But when Bonita bites a poisoned bonbon, more than a quick buck is at stake. Clay needs to establish exactly who Lucky is and determine if his client could be lying to him.

Fifty-five-year-old Clay Webster knows pain; he lost his thirty-year marriage, his son, Sean, and his twenty-eight-year police career. Trying to build a new life, his wit is his weapon, and humor is his first line of defense against life's assaults. His search for Lucky centers primarily on Lowell, Massachusetts, where he tries to save a drowning teenager in a canal and hires yet another teenager, Denton La Rock Junior, who has been making prank phone calls to his home. Clay looks for links between Lucky and A Touch of Love, the new porn shop in town.

Meanwhile, Senator Carleton Swinburne rails against the city's perceived moral decay, personified partly by ex-cops such as Clay Webster. Perhaps Chantal Ladoute, Clay's old friend the ex-nun, will be his moral gyroscope as he navigates an increasingly dangerous course.

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse.com (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595533914
• ISBN-13: 978-0595533916
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,717,776 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will keep you guessing!, July 7, 2009

By	RebeccasReads.com "Rebecca's Reads" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

Reviewed by Kam Aures [...]

Fifty-five year old Clay Webster got fired from his twenty-eight year long police career for punching a fellow officer and now is a private investigator. If losing his job weren't enough, his wife left him for a woman, his youngest son passed away, and his other son is a slumlord. With a background like that, you know right off the bat that Clay is going to be a very interesting character.

As Clay is just starting to set up shop in one of his son's properties, he is hired by Bonita Esquivez to find her missing husband, Lucky. The case is not an ordinary missing person case. It is not as open and shut as it may seem.

"Getting Lucky" is full of many plot twists and turns and the book will have you guessing until the very end. Sanchez's writing is very entertaining and he has written a definite page-turner. He has created quite the memorable cast of characters, from prank phone caller Denton La Rock Junior, to flighty Cambodian teenager Choop Saramarin.

His style of writing is fun, quirky, and simply enjoyable. "Getting Lucky" is a fast-paced read and would be the perfect book to take to the beach this summer! I very much enjoyed Sanchez's second novel and will be going back to read his first, "When Pigs Fly" when I have the chance. I anticipate that we will be seeing more from this talented author in the future. Perhaps this may be the beginning of a series with the same characters? If so, I would love to read the next installment!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting Lucky, June 3, 2009

By	Wayne Scheer (Atlanta) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Getting Lucky (Hardcover)

Getting Lucky isn't a profound book. It won't shake the foundation of your beliefs or bring you to new understandings. A detective story that opens with a sexy woman entering the seedy office of an "overly ripe" P.I., doesn't pretend such conceits or portend originality. But if what you're looking for is a good read, a book that will hook you with the first paragraph and keep you turning pages until the last one, then treat yourself to a copy of Bob Sanchez's new novel, pour yourself a drink and enjoy.


What I like best about Sanchez's writing is it's obvious he's having fun. He enjoys telling stories, creating memorable, often bizarre, characters and giving them funny things to say. He also offers wonderful description, anchoring his stories to a place you truly live in while reading.


Clay Webster is a classic beaten down ex-cop turned private eye and yet, with the opening scene of him entering his dump of an office rented to him by his slum-lord son, he transcends the stereotype Sanchez is obviously playing with. Webster becomes a human being with a sense of humor and a desire to save young people most of society has given up on. Best of all, he becomes our guide through a world we grow curious about, but would rather not experience alone.


Sanchez makes it seem easy. Damn him!

[...]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mystery to the end . . ., May 12, 2009

By	L. Ruth Douillette (Bridgewater, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Those who read Sanchez's first novel "When Pigs Fly" will be happy to see retired cop Mack Durgin resurrected in the character of Clay Webster, Private Investigator. If you liked Durgin, you'll like Webster, who has the same mix of humility, sense of fairness, quick temper, self-deprecating humor, and powers of keen observation.

Unlike "Pigs" which takes readers on a cross country chase from Massachusetts to Arizona, Getting Lucky stays in the old mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts, except for a foray or two into Boston. Sanchez renders the old mill city pitch perfect from the warehouse district with its canals to its ethnic enclaves to a jab at a corrupt local senator, aptly named Swinburne. It's the perfect setting for a missing-person case.

The plot swerves and turns, danger abounds, seamy and steamy situations prevail, and no one trusts anyone. To Sanchez's credit it is highly unlikely that you will guess the final twist before you flip the page. "Getting Lucky" is a page-turner!