Lucinda Author:Dennis Havens Jack Bauer, a New York Times music critic, comes to Las Vegas after hearing that Lucinda Mars, daughter of the CIA's deputy director, the woman Jack expected to become his wife, has been murdered there, where she worked as a showroom dancer. Bauer finds himself immersed in the nighttime world of the colorful city, surrounded by a bizarre collec... more »tion of people, all of them in some way connected to Lucinda. He becomes close to Marla Easter, a lounge singer whose talent inspires him to promote her career; Andy Bell, her personable, skillful musical arranger; Marilyn, Marla's singer; Pamela Brookside, a local attorney and Marilyn's employer, and Paul Foster, Marla's shadowy, violent boyfriend. Jack is aided, not always to his liking, by a seedy retired CIA operative, Dallas Vinson. He also briefly has access to the services of Diane Wells (whom Dennis Havens readers will recognize from his novels Flash Flood Warning and Should All Acquaintance), who plays an important cameo role in this unusual story« less