Fiction

Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman, The Kings of Vegas (William Morrow), 304 pp. Hardback, $24.00.

“Succession in Las Vegas!” Thus exclaims the publisher’s page for The Kings of Vegas, the fourth novel by the authorial duo of Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman. It’s not hard to discern a resemblance between the hit HBO drama, about the dying media magnate Logan Roy and his four billionaire heirs, and this new work of fiction, about the recently deceased casino owner Roy King (a French and English nominal pair—pocket cowboys) and his four adult children, who all want their rightful cut of the family fortune.

The impetus for the novel’s plot is that the late Roy King has left a will declaring that his kids must move back to Las Vegas and work at the Jackpot, the casino-hotel he had built and maintained on Fremont Street, in order to receive their inheritance. The oldest son, Frank King, takes over as CEO of the property. But Josie, the youngest of the four, is the focus of the narrative. She had long ago moved to L.A. to escape the underground dangers of the family business, to start a more legitimate career as an accountant, and to start a family of her own. But now, fresh from a divorce and carrying a teenage daughter in tow, she’s excited about returning home and starting over in her native Nevada.

And Josie has it all. She’s incredibly smart, a “genius with numbers” who learned to count cards as a child—in fact, she may be the best card counter anyone’s ever seen. She’s also super-hot; Rob McCarthy, a rival mega-millionaire casino owner and Vegas playboy, can’t get her out of his mind after hooking up with her during a chance encounter. (“McCarthy had been around many beautiful women. In his world they were a dime a dozen. But there was something about Josie that drew him in.”) And, to top it off, she’s tough as nails—refusing to be intimidated by either the Mob or the Feds, and ready to defend herself at all costs. She can even “take her gun apart and put it back together with her eyes closed.” She might not appear imposing, but other characters should think twice before messing with her.

In some respects, Josie’s development draws on the real-life experiences of co-author Karen Mack, daughter of the late Vegas financier Jerry Mack (namesake of the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels basketball team’s Thomas & Mack Center), who had been president of the Riviera and director of the Four Queens and the Dunes. It wouldn’t be a stretch to describe the Mack family—who have been in Nevada since Karen’s grandfather, Nate Mack, moved here in 1929—as Vegas royalty, or at least as within the same sphere. “The Macks are the Rothschilds of Las Vegas,” Steve Wynn has said. As Mack and Kaufman themselves have affirmed, The Kings of Vegas is “a unique take on the neon world of Vegas by someone who lived and breathed it. An authentic view into the inside workings of the casino culture with a window into a world where families like hers tried to live a normal life in a place that was not at all normal.” It’s a work of fiction, but the biographical context is certainly part of its appeal.

* * *

When she starts work as an accountant for the Jackpot, Josie quickly realizes that something is wrong. Her brother Frank’s management of the property has been a disaster. And her other siblings are of limited assistance; the advantages of growing up rich have hamstrung them in different ways. Josie’s older sister, Sunny, spends money lavishly on racehorses and designer clothes and devotes her remaining attention to extramarital affairs. Her brother Sam, meanwhile, is a hopeless alcoholic and drug addict who has resigned himself to the role of black sheep.

It’s up to Josie, therefore, to investigate the shady business intro which Frank seems to have involved the casino. Who are the new security guards at the Jackpot? What’s behind a carefully monitored locked door? Why are the accounts off by several million dollars? And who’s threatening Josie’s daughter? Can she trust her own family—or does she have to watch her back?

Mack and Kaufman have created a fun scenario and let it play out in a rich world of blackjack tables, bomb shelters, rooftop restaurants, and desert highways.

The Kings of Vegas is a page-turner. Short chapters propel the action and maintain the story’s momentum, resulting in a taut thriller. And it truly is a Vegas novel. Josie is a self-described “desert rat” who has internalized the area’s geography, careening between downtown and the family ranch, with forays out to Mount Charleston and Pahrump. She knows that an “enormous boom” isn’t a sudden attack—just fighter jets from Nellis Air Force Base breaking the sound barrier. And when not focused on uncovering crime, she worries about a shift in clientele, as casinos pursue wealthier patrons while pushing out the blue-collar tourists who put Las Vegas on the map.

Mack and Kaufman have created a fun scenario and let it play out in a rich world of blackjack tables, bomb shelters, rooftop restaurants, and desert highways. It’s not hard to imagine that this novel could be expanded into a successful miniseries. The four King siblings are good characters who can hold their own—who “grew up knowing that in the casino world of cards and dice, prostitutes and payoffs, there were some things you could talk about, and other things you couldn’t. It was just one of those facts of life that was understood.”