Lennox Cooper

A Bitch Called Hope is the poker term for drawing the queen-eight in Texas Hold 'Em. There's not enough luck in the world to build a winning hand with those cards, but it's so tempting to try. Meet Lennox Cooper. She's a smart poker player, a smart detective, but she's got issues. A year ago her affair with a married cop got her fired from the Portland Police. Now she's trying to build a new life as a private investigator, but all she'd landed so far are surveillance gigs. The murder of a wealthy developer gives her a chance to reestablish herself as a homicide detective. During the course of the investigation she meets Mr. Right. Only problem, he's on the short list of suspects. Lennox bets on her lover's innocence. The odds aren't much better than drawing A Bitch Called Hope.

For Lennox Cooper, helping out a friend means gambling with her life. In the rainy city of Portland, Matilda Bauer has been blackmailing her parole officer, Fulin Chen. Just when Fulin's ready to come clean, Matilda disappears. Bad news for Fulin, because once Matilda is arrested for breaking parole she'll show the photos she has on him and end his career. Fulin turns to his longtime friend and poker buddy, Lennox Cooper, P.I., to help him find the beautiful blonde con-woman. A former cop, Lennox knows how it feels to live and breathe the police life-and to be thrown out of it. She'll do anything to help her friend avoid a similar fate. But three days later Lennox finds Matilda dead, in what looks like a sex game gone terribly wrong. Fulin Chen is the lead suspect. Lennox's search for Matilda, however, causes her to begin turning over rocks, finding that her past lies under many of them - not to mention deadly threats. Matilda Bauer had no shortage of enemies, though, and Lennox will have to sift through the many blackmail victims and jilted lovers to find the real killer.