The Investment Club [Paperback]

Silver Medalist for Best West-Mountain Regional Novel 2017
Winner of the 2017 International Book Award for Best Literary Fiction
Finalist for Best New Fiction at the Best Book Awards
Finalist for theRed City ReviewBest Literary Fiction Award

Forty million people visit Vegas every year but most never get past the strip. What about the people who live there? What brought them there? What keeps them there?

Told from the perspective of a seasoned blackjack dealer,The Investment Clubtells the stories of a self-destructive, dwarf entrepreneur, a drug-addicted musical performer-turned-stripper, a retired, widowed New Jersey policeman, a bereaved, divorced female sportscaster, and a card-counting, former Catholic priest before and after their fateful meeting at the El Cortez Casino in downtown Vegas.

As the five learn the greatest return comes from investing in one another, their lives stabilize and take on new, positive directions. But their love and support for each other can take them only so far before they must determine the meaning and value of their own lives.

Weve all heard that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. But what happens to the people who stay in Vegas long after the rest of us are well on our way home? Doug Cooper does a masterful job shining a seasoned, sun-baked eye on the lives and losses that transpire both in and away from the casinos; the result is  youll pardon the pun  hands-down the best Vegas-based investment youll ever make!
David Kukoff, editor ofLos Angeles in the 1970sand author ofChildren of the Canyon

Praise for Doug Cooper’sOutside In:

A deep, entertaining read about all the truths that find us when we’re looking the other way.
—Jerry Stahl, author ofPermanent Midnight,Bad Sex on Speed, andHappy Mutant Baby Pills

Rarely does an author capture the flóS