Poker Face
Series: A Spotted Pony Casino Mystery #1
Author: Paty Jager
Genre: Murder Mystery
Pages: 300+
Release Date: July 1, 2021
Summary:
Dela Alvaro is a disabled veteran who grew up on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation. When an IED in Iraq ended her military career, she came home to reassess her life and landed a job in security at the Indian-run casino on the reservation.
Not even a year into being the assistant to the head of security, the head of security is found working with a human trafficking ring and Dela is promoted on a trial basis. When one of the casino employees is found stabbed and stuffed in a laundry chute, she knows she can kiss the head of security job goodbye if she doesn’t find the killer before the media gets hold of the story.
While she is in over her head, she can’t decide if the FBI Special Agent called in to help is a blessing or a curse. It’s a man she ran across in Iraq who overrode her authority. When a second casino employee is killed, Dela has to decide if she can trust the special agent with not only keeping her job but keeping the rest of the casino employees safe.
Interview with Dela Alvaro
How did you and your author meet?
Paty wrote a short story about me for a contest. At that time, she had me as a member of the Miwak tribe and the casino I worked at was in California. For my new series, Spotted Pony Casino Mystery, she has me non-Indian and working as the interim Head of Security at the casino on the Confederated Tribe of the Umatilla Reservation.
Why did this writer decide to feature you in a book?
She liked my spunk and drive. Also, my working at the casino on the reservation helped her to showcase the culture and how my Native American friends are no different than anyone else. They have their beliefs, their dreams, and more than their share of sorrow. My having lived my whole life on the reservation makes me accessible to things people living off the reservation aren’t privy to and it helps when I drag an FBI Special Agent around with me while discovering who murderer the casino accountant.
Do you have any friends or family helping you out?
I have the security and surveillance staff at the casino, and an FBI Special Agent from the field office in Pendleton. The only problem with the FBI agent, we have a past. When I was an MP with the Army in Iraq, he was on a special task force with the Marines and took one of my prisoners. We’ve been on sketchy terms ever since, but there had been a time when I’d fantasized about him. Not anymore. I’m no longer a whole woman and he wouldn’t be interested if he knew that.
Do you have a regular job and investigate on the side or are you a full time detective?
I am Head of Security at the Spotted Pony Casino. When something unsavory happens, it is my job to discover the truth and keep it from leaking to the newspapers, making bad publicity for the casino. If there is a murder, I dig for the truth working with the FBI, Tribal Police, and in some instances the local and state police.
What is the funniest thing that happens to you or another character in this story?
I guess the fact that I end up with a dog that is German Shepard and Malamute. A large dog. His name, when I get him, is Eats a Lot. I change it by the end of the book.
Have you solved other cases or is this your first one?
I helped State Police Trooper Gabriel Hawke, of the Gabriel Hawke novels, solve a missing person case that originated at the casino. You can find that case in Stolen Butterfly, book 7 in the Gabriel Hawke Novels. The book is about Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. And the proceeds from the book are being donated to the MMIP cause. Poker Face is my first case in the Spotted Pony Casino series.
Do you have a gift or special talent?
Tenacity? I guess. And I tend to rally people around me without knowing it. Special Agent Quinn Peirce says I’m a natural leader, but I don’t see it. I’ve learned over the years that you get more response from people when you allow everyone to participate.
Who is the most important individual in your life?
My mom. She moved to the reservation before I was born and raised me alone on a teacher’s salary. My dad died before they were married. I never knew him and I’ve only known Grandfather Thunder, the old man who we live next door to, as a grandparent. No aunts or uncles other than my Reservation family.
What is your ideal vacation?
An ideal vacation would be to go to the woods and do day hikes. With my prosthesis, backpacking is hard on my stub, but day hikes where I don’t have to carry a heavy pack would be wonderful.
If you could change anything about your life what would it be?
That our jeep hadn’t been hit by an IED in Iraq. I would have been able to apply for a State Police or Law Enforcement job instead of being head of security for a casino.
About the Author
Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 51 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.
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Thank you for sharing the character interview and book details, this sounds like an exciting read and I am looking forward to it