LUCKY

by Jackie Collins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 1985

Collins' (Hollywood Wives, 1983) sequel to her steamy gangland/sex/ street-to-syndicate saga, Chances (1981), is set mainly in Las Vegas, California and Manhattan, 1975-1984. Surrounding the central off-and-on twangs of love between Gino Santangelo and his daughter Lucky, is a sizable cast of Chances' holdovers and a new spawn of capo-like magnates, excessory thugs and bad old boys; filthy rich ladies after filthy thrills; scrambling show-biz types, born to rise or doomed to be ground under the heels; and a nice guy or two. Gino (now in his handsome 70s, still a sexual powerhouse) and his ""bright and beautiful, touching and wild"" daughter Lucky are the last of the Santangelos--but why, mourns Lucky, aren't they close? After all, Lucky is a chip off the old rock. It was she who rubbed out old-friend-turned-enemy Enzio Bonnatti, who had killed her mother, brother and lover. And Lucky is no mere figurehead for Gino's Las Vegas syndicate: during Gino's exile for tax evasions, Lucky whipped into line some reluctant investors (with a little soldierly help from a friend). Now, father and daughter hate each other's crazy marriages--Gino's to an icy ""Perfect Widow,"" a closet lesbian; and pregnant Lucky's to Gino's old friend and contemporary, Dimitri Stanislopoulis, father of her child. Dimitri is also the ex-lover of Lucky's school pal, much-married Olympia (mother of unhappy child Brigette), who can't get enough of rock star Flash, he of the rotten teeth and great coke. But to spite Flash, Olympia marries stoned-for-a-night rising comic Lennie, who has his own scoring to settle. Then, when Lucky and Lennie have a fabulous flight of seashore sex, it's the Real Thing. An Ari-style yachting brings all the principals together, and Lucky and Gino see eye-to-eye. Before the final father-daughter love-in, there'll be some ugly murders, a plane crash, sub-plots tying up some loose ends from Chances, and a veritable bazaar of sex--AC/DC, S&M, even a touch of kiddie porn and Sensational Straight (with variations). Collins' characters, dialogue and action--decorated with a glut of luxurious appointments--have the phosphorescent glow of a condemned landfill, but on the crest of the success of Hollywood Wives, this should take off.

Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION