The Goddaughter Does Vegas

By Melodie Campbell

Gina Gallo is a mob goddaughter who doesn't want to be one. She's left her loopy family behind to elope with Pete to Vegas. Except that eloping may be a mortal sin in an Italian family. Between that and some weird deliveries and suitors, Gina's nerves are frayed. Vegas is full of great acts, but one impersonation is real: Gina has a crime-committing double whose activities are making Gina front-page news. Gina has to track down this fiendish fraud before the police catch up with her. And, of course, cousin Nico is along for the ride.

Another madcap adventure for the loveable Gallo cousins that proves the rule "Why should things go right when they can go wrong?"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Jan 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781459821170

Melodie Campbell

Melodie Campbell is the winner of many awards for crime writing, including the Derringer and the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for The Goddaughter's Revenge. She has over 200 publications, including 100 comedy credits, 60 short stories, 17 novels and the Goddaughter series in the Rapid Reads line. Her work has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Star Magazine, Canadian Living, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and many more. She has been called the "Queen of Comedy" by the Toronto Star. Melodie lives in Burlington, Ontario.

Book preview

ALSO IN THE GODDAUGHTER SERIES:

The Goddaughter

The Goddaughter’s Revenge

The Artful Goddaughter

The Goddaughter Caper

The Bootlegger’s Goddaughter

Copyright © 2019 Melodie Campbell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Campbell, Melodie, 1955–, author

The goddaughter does vegas / Melodie Campbell.

(Rapid Reads)

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-4598-2115-6 (softcover).–ISBN 978-1-4598-2116-3 (PDF).–ISBN 978-1-4598-2117-0 (EPUB)

I. Title. II. Series: Rapid reads

PS8605.A54745G6323 2019 C813'.6 C2018-904884-0

2018-904885-9

First published in the United States, 2019

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018954144

Summary: In this work of crime fiction, mob goddaughter Gina Gallo discovers while visiting Las Vegas that her identity has been stolen. (RL 3.2)

Orca Book Publishers is dedicated to preserving the environment and has printed this book on Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Cover design by Jenn Playford

Cover photography by Shutterstock.com/Alhovik and

Shutterstock.com/trekandshoot

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

orcabook.com

Printed and bound in Canada.

22 21 20 19 • 4 3 2 1

Orca Book Publishers is proud of the hard work our authors do and of the important stories they create. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or did not check it out from a library provider, then the author has not received royalties for this book. The ebook you are reading is licensed for single use only and may not be copied, printed, resold or given away. If you are interested in using this book in a classroom setting, we have digital subscriptions that feature multi user, simultaneous access to our books that are easy for your students to read. For more information, please contact [e-mail].

http://ivaluecanadianstories.ca/

For Don and Ruth.

CONTENTS

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

AN EXCERPT FROM THE GODDAUGHTER

CHAPTER ONE

ONE

"I get it. You’re sad about not getting married in your hometown." Pete gave me a little sideways squeeze. Awkward to do on an airplane when you’re buckled in.

It’s not that. I tried to figure out how to explain it. I like Hamilton, I said. It’s home. Sure, I’ll miss the smog. How do people breathe in that clean Nevada desert air? It’s not natural. I tried to make a joke of it. No point upsetting Pete with my sense of foreboding.

You aren’t worried about the family, are you? No one is going to object to us being married. They like me. Your uncle Vince gave me that Glock and all. There was pride in his voice. Probably I should be worried about that.

You wouldn’t understand, I said. Pete had no idea what would be waiting for us when we returned from Vegas.

I didn’t know for sure, of course. But we’re Italian. I am the goddaughter of the local crime boss. Reluctant goddaughter. I do my best to stay on the nice and friendly side of the law. You might even say it is an obsession for me. Certainly my wayward family thinks so.

The problem was, my Christmas wedding was being relocated to Vegas. Pete and I were eloping. We had good reason to do so. Our wedding hall had burned to the ground two days before the big day. This was not a particularly good sign. And it wasn’t the first bad omen. Just before the fire, my great-aunt Zia Sophia had seen a crow. That was never good. Sure, she was in Sicily, but omens were omens.

I might have been slightly superstitious. Not Pete. He just wanted to get married. So we’d escaped the next day and hitched a plane to Vegas. We’d kind of left everyone behind. This might be a mortal sin in an Italian family.

But there was no use ruining Pete’s mood until we landed. Who knew? Maybe it would all work out.

I looked out the window. We were thirty thousand feet in the air. No crows around that I could see.

Two hours later we landed. So far, so good. The gods were on my side for once. We got off the plane with no incident and made our way to the baggage-claim area.

You can sure tell we’re in Vegas, said Pete.

I nodded in happy agreement. I’d never seen an airport like this before. There were slot machines everywhere. With all the blinking lights and dingle noises, you couldn’t help but feel excited just walking through the terminal.

We followed the signs, and within minutes Pete was hauling the first of our bags off the baggage carousel.

It was just after lunch, local time. The flight from Toronto to Vegas had been four hours

Reviews for The Goddaughter Does Vegas

[alg951 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A perfect book if you're in the mood for a quick and easy read. The story follows a woman in the days leading up to her wedding in Vegas. Insert crime related mishaps, a mobster family, and crows. You can definitely read the book if you haven't read any others in the series (like me), but I assume the story would be that much more fulfilling if you've read the others. I reviewed this book through Early Reviewers.

[chrisweir-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Received this as an ARC copy from Library Thing. This follows up immediately after the previous book. Gina and her fiancé Pete are in Vegas for their wedding after their wedding venue has burned down. They check into their hotel and Gina goes to try on a dress in one of the swanky hotel shops. While she's there she's kidnapped. It turns out that her kidnaper is her father, part of the local "establishment" Gina also runs into some other problems, someone has stolen her identity and is ordering all kind of things on Amazon.com as well as impersonating her on sugardaddies.com. Further adventure ensues when some of her admirers from the sugar daddies website start showing up at her hotel room. Fun romp and super fast read. I've got to say that I've loved everything I've read by Melodie Campbell thus far.

[azroadrunner88 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Funny read, but not a lot of story here. a quick read. Got it as an ARC through Library Thing.

[bah195 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Melodie Campbell is one of my favorite authors. She is one of the few who can make me laugh out loud with her Gina Gallons series. In her new book Gina is going to Vegas to get married. She knows things are not going to go smoothly because she saw some crows. As you are reading you will keep wondering will she or won't she make it to the altar. This book can be read in one sitting and will keep you laughing.

[drsyko_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is another winner in the Gina Gallo series. These books are very short, so the stories are spare and snappy. The characters are endearing and the plot is funny and original. I enjoyed all of the prior books and this one was as good as those. It was a fun distraction and if you're looking for something quick, light, and amusing, this is the book for you.

[pmarshall_82 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

#148. [The Goddaughter Does Vegas], [[Melodie Campbell]]Gina Gallo and Pete Malone have flown from Hamilton to Las Vegas to elope. However Gina has a bad feeling about this and she is proven right when she discovers she is the victim of identity theft. It runs the gamut to charges on her credit card to men who think they have met her on-line and fallen in love while she swindles them. On her wedding day instead of going to the hair dressers she is taken to the police station. In this case she uses her family connections to the mob to rescue her. The wedding happens.The novella is a little over the top with the hotel designed as a funeral home, in their room the bed is a coffin with their names on it. A zombie convention is happening which adds to the atmosphere. She is kidnapped from a dress shop and taken to meet her, previously unknown, father, who is high up in the Vegas mob.It will appeal to a segment of the Orca Book Publishers Rapid Reads market which publishes books for literacy and English as a Second Language programs. These books are also enjoyed by readers who want a short, entertaining mystery with good characters and plot. This is their sixth title in the Gina Gallo series by award winning Canadian author Melodie Campbell.I received this book through LibraryThing.com’s Early Reviewers program.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[takeara · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book I've read by this author and I'm looking for others! It's a funny, fast paced book. The context and dialogue is so natural that you feel as if you're talking to a friend who had these experiences. My only complaint is that the book is to short and over to soon!

[readafew · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great fast read, which since it's a Rapid Reads book, it's not surprising! First of the series that I have read though 6th in the series. Fun light read, great way to spend a couple hours. It was not a deep or thoughtful book, just fun popcorn for the brain.

[draak_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gina Gallo has run off to Vegas to get married. But will she really make it to the alter. Someone is using her identity and she must find them before the police find her. What a cute book. Funny, fast paced, likable characters. I'm ready for another one to come out. I received this from LibraryThing Early Reviewer for an honest review.