Miami. The 1980s. A short story where the drinks are free and the silence isn’t.
Long before Lauren Gold had any reason to trust Vance Courage, she was a cocktail waitress at the Upper Deck ''' the private club above the Hotel Mutiny, where cartel money buys the champagne and the silence to go with it. She’s got one goal: save enough for the horseback riding lessons that are the one thing she actually looks forward to. She keeps her head down, her tips in her pocket, and doesn’t ask too many questions.
Then Margarita, a fellow waitress with a modeling contract and a baby at home, leaves the club to party with three strangers — and never comes back. The hotel’s fixers move fast. Security looks the other way. Management schedules a meeting and hands out paperwork instead of answers. Everyone around Lauren seems to agree on exactly one thing: this is not her business.
Weeks later, Lauren reads the official story in the local paper — the one the powers that be wanted people to accept: Margarita’s fate, closed, with no suspects named.
Last Call at the Upper Deck is a fast, atmospheric short story prequel to the Gold and Courage series — the story of the night a cocktail waitress learned how deep Miami’s rot went, and the night her path crossed with the man who would come to matter more than either of them expected. Fans of Miami Vice-style crime, cocaine-cowboy true crime, and Southern Florida noir will devour this glimpse into where Lauren Gold’s and Vance Courage’s stories really begin.
Genre: Mystery
Long before Lauren Gold had any reason to trust Vance Courage, she was a cocktail waitress at the Upper Deck ''' the private club above the Hotel Mutiny, where cartel money buys the champagne and the silence to go with it. She’s got one goal: save enough for the horseback riding lessons that are the one thing she actually looks forward to. She keeps her head down, her tips in her pocket, and doesn’t ask too many questions.
Then Margarita, a fellow waitress with a modeling contract and a baby at home, leaves the club to party with three strangers — and never comes back. The hotel’s fixers move fast. Security looks the other way. Management schedules a meeting and hands out paperwork instead of answers. Everyone around Lauren seems to agree on exactly one thing: this is not her business.
Weeks later, Lauren reads the official story in the local paper — the one the powers that be wanted people to accept: Margarita’s fate, closed, with no suspects named.
Last Call at the Upper Deck is a fast, atmospheric short story prequel to the Gold and Courage series — the story of the night a cocktail waitress learned how deep Miami’s rot went, and the night her path crossed with the man who would come to matter more than either of them expected. Fans of Miami Vice-style crime, cocaine-cowboy true crime, and Southern Florida noir will devour this glimpse into where Lauren Gold’s and Vance Courage’s stories really begin.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Karen S Gordon's Last Call at the Upper Deck