THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS

Fiction
If Prince Charming were a vampire

THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS

By Brian Rouff

324 pp. Huntington Press

Reviewed by Eric Petersen

Las Vegas based writer Brian Rouff is back with his latest novel, a delightful Carl Hiaasen-esque tale set in Sin City, which becomes a character itself. The story begins in small-town Michigan, with spunky young reporter Anna Christiansen hoping for a better assignment than writing obituaries and covering county fairs.

She gets more than she bargained for when her boss Mr. Knudsen assigns her to cover a local concert by a band called the Dickweeds, whom she describes as “a retro alt country blues band with a small horn section,” and interview their lead singer, Rob Lazarus.

Anna arrives for the show and finds that the paper hasn’t even bought her a ticket. The only ones left are in the Standing Room Only section. She can’t even see the band from there. To make matters worse, after the concert, Rob Lazarus, in no mood for the press, rudely gives her the brush-off.

But the band’s kindhearted bass player, Aaron Eisenberg, feeling sorry for Anna, gives her an exclusive interview. He looks “like Prince Charming in my favorite book of fairy tales (if Charming had been a vampire)” and by the time the interview is over, it’s love at first sight for both of them. Literally – they end up in bed together.

The next thing Anna knows, she’s leaving her dead-end job and dead end town and running off with Aaron to his home town – the glittering oasis that is Las Vegas. There, she meets Boozer – Aaron’s roommate and best friend since middle school, an eccentric slacker with a heart of gold who lives up to his name.

Like most newcomers to Vegas, Anna finds Sin City a strange, surreal, hot, yet pretty cool place, though she has no interest in gambling. But she takes advantage of something else Vegas is famous for when Aaron pops the question.

Just as Anna is enjoying the newlywed life, she finds that she’s pregnant. Aaron quits the Dickweeds and becomes the bassist for a casino house band so he can be near her and the baby, and soon, the couple is buying their dream home – a dilapidated fixer-upper than was once a grand estate. “And luckily,” Aaron quips, “I might be the only Jew on the planet who’s good with tools.”

Married to her soul mate and excited about being a mother, Anna couldn’t be happier helping Aaron restore the house – until she discovers that she shares her new home with an unusual guest. But he proves to be more a friend than a fiend.

When ruthless casino owner Bob Pykowski starts buying up all the neighbors’ houses so he can pave over them and build a parking lot, Anna and Aaron refuse to sell. They consult a lawyer, Marty Rosen, who warns them that they’re up against a very dangerous man – a man who owns the mayor, the police, the City Council, and just about everyone else in Vegas.

After Aaron is harassed by the police, and their neighbor, grizzled Vietnam veteran Chuck Caldwell – who also refused to sell his house to Pykowski – turns up dead, a terrified Anna realizes that the lawyer wasn’t kidding. Like every gambler in Sin City knows, the house always wins.

But the Eisenbergs have an ace in the hole; the unusual guest who shares their home – the ghost of legendary gangster Meyer Levin, the original owner of the place, who’s been giving Anna the interview of a lifetime from beyond the grave. He doesn’t want the house torn down, either…

This an addictive yet leisurely paced page-turner that succeeds thanks to the author’s talent for creating unforgettable characters and his uncanny ability to write from a young woman’s point of view:

After slamming the snooze button with enough force to make me wonder if it would ever function again, I stumbled out of bed and somehow made my way to the bathroom, where the harsh fluorescent lighting accentuated every flaw and imperfection, past, present, and future. Red, puffy, too-far-apart eyes? Check. Pillow marks criss-crossing my right cheek? Check. Tiny scar on my chin from a childhood jumping-on-the-couch accident? Double check. Friends and family tell me I’m a fine-looking young woman (that’s how they say it). I’d trade a hundred of those well-meaning comments for one “hot.” Maybe in my next lifetime, I’ll bargain away 20 IQ points for an extra cup size.

A steaming shower, a few drops of Visine, and some hastily applied makeup helped a little, as did the large coffee and the Kind Bar I grabbed at the Stop ’n’ Go. On the five-minute drive to work, I practiced my speech for the hundredth time.

“Mr. Knudsen, I’ve been with the paper almost two years now...”

An endearing love story, a quirky comedy, and a compelling mystery and suspense thriller as well, author Brian Rouff has hit the jackpot and so will the reader. Highly recommended!

Eric Petersen is an administrator and blogmaster for the Internet Writing Workshop, an international, online writer’s group run out of Penn State University. You can reach him by e-mail at EricPetersen1970@hotmail.com