Make Your Own Luck by Publisher: Telemachus Press
Date Published: June 2012
Genre: Murder Mystery
Definition: a dead body + a crime to be solved = a murder mystery
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Make Your Own Luck, a Remy Summer Woods Mystery, is the unforgettable and moving novel of a young attorney who refuses to believe thirteen-year-old Bonita Pickney murdered her father, Patrick Pickney, despite her insistence of guilt.

Remy is not your average lawyer. In fact, she wishes she wasn’t a lawyer at all. She dreams of attending the American Academy in Rome to study painting but lacks the courage to tell her father, Clarence Darrow Woods, who is also her boss at Woods & Associates.

While Remy is in the jail visiting a county commissioner accused of soliciting a minor, Bonita is brought in with her hands cuffed behind her back. She has been arrested for Patrick's brutal murder. Was it the girl’s freckles and innocent look that drew Remy to her? Or, as she learns more about Bonita, is it they both mourn the loss of their mothers to cancer? What Remy knows for sure is she wants to represent Bonita and prove her innocence, even if Bonita insists she is guilty. When Remy tells Clarence of her desire to represent Bonita, he refuses to let her take the case and announces her transfer to Oregon to set up a west coast division of Woods & Associates.

Remy refuses to move to Oregon and quits the firm. Risking her relationship with Clarence and with only her clothes and a little cash, she takes on Bonita’s case. Remy’s desire to prove Bonita’s innocence leads her to places where the stakes are so high her life and the lives of those around her are in jeopardy.

While Bonita maintains her guilt and demands to go to prison for life, Remy continues to search for the real killer. She is joined on her journey by her brother Carlos who is fighting drug addiction and hiding a secret he fears will destroy him; by her best friend Louise, an aging hippie and gourmet chef who will do anything to help her; by her mobster uncle Todd; and by Ronnie, a police officer whose motives are suspect. Remy's journey takes her from the inner workings of the South Florida courtrooms and jail to the hidden world of the Florida Everglades. Along the way, she dodges the police, her own father, and criminals who will do anything to stop her from discovering the truth including silencing her forever.

Despite the deadly obstacles, Remy discovers what really happened the night of Patrick's murder. She also uncovers an underworld of child pornography, money laundering, drugs and guns; and learns hard truths about her family and herself.

In the end, Remy's determination and self-preservation lead her to make her own luck.

Make Your Own Luck is the first book in the series. Live Your Own Life is the second book in the series with a 2013 anticipated release date.