Jack Ross lured into case to discover the truth about his mother's death

hard to follow

She is convinced she's onto the story that will fast forward her career. Miranda arrives in Jack's camp scared, desperate, and carrying a thirty-year-old photograph of two Las Vegas show girls. One of the women pictured is thought to be dead, and the other one is missing - so are one million dollars. Only one piece of the story can pull Jack out of the desert - the dead showgirl was Jack's mother. Now, the man who always believed his mother's death was an accident must determine if she was murdered. (less)

The second book... again a used book story find. Schopen continues to tell a great story. Another Treasure to find ( )

From the book cover:
"Reno private eye Jack Ross has been living off the desert for six months when his idyll is interrupted by TV newswoman Miranda Santee, who wants his help on a story. Miranda has an old photograph of two Vegas showgirls who, the story goes, robbed a mobster of one million dollars thirty years earlier. One of the showgirls vanished; she may have been Miranda's grandmother. The other showgirl died. She was Ross's mother. Reluctant to return to civilization but wanting to learn the truth about his mother's death, Ross comes out of the desert. From Reno casinos to the Vegas Strip to small dusty dessert towns to overgrown mountain ranches, Ross follows a trail of stories - stories told by whores, gangsters, celebrity poker players, Western Swing musicians, and desert hermits - before finding his answers at the end of a convoluted road, deep in the interior of Nevada."

I read this book several years ago, and I liked it a lot, which is why I hung onto it. ( )