[Review] Lucky Day - Chuck Tingle

Summary: Four years ago, an unthinkable disaster occurred. In what was later known as the Low-Probability Event, eight million people were killed in a single day, each of them dying in improbable, bizarre ways: strangled by balloon ropes, torn apart by exploding manhole covers, attacked by a chimpanzee wielding a typewriter. A day of freak accidents that proved anything is possible, no matter the odds. Luck is real now, and it's not always good.

Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day, and she still struggles to make sense of the unbelievable catastrophe. To her, the LPE proved that the God of Order is dead and nothing matters anymore.

When Special Agent Layne shows up on Vera’s doorstep, she learns he's investigating a suspiciously—and statistically impossibly—lucky casino. He needs her help to prove the casino’s success is connected to the deaths of millions, and it's Vera's last chance to make sense of a world that doesn’t.

Because what's happening in Vegas isn't staying there, and she's the only thing that stands between the world and another deadly improbability. (Pub Date: Aug 12 2025)

As someone who reads books and uses the Internet, of course I've seen Chuck Tingle's name around. And of course I've always been curious to know if his stories are as curious as his book titles. But also, of course I've never bought any because erotic fiction isn't for me. I had failed to realize he was also releasing less rated novels and was excited to get his new release.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just his erotica that wasn't for me. His style was a bad fit too. 

2.5 rounded up to 3.

This book follows Vera after losing her mother in a terrible and unexplained catastrophic event. Years later she still can't get over the trauma. That's when she meets Agent Layne, who is going after an organization that might have been behind the event. 

I can't explain well why I didn't like Tingle's style. It felt confusing to me and thus hard to get into. I don't have anything against the characters or the story, they seemed good enough. But I kept feeling as if I had just started the book, even when I was nearing the end. Luckily, it is a short read that never drags. There was a lot of development for both the plot and the characters, which would have kept me glued to the pages. If I had gotten into it. 

The book mentions a lot of a 90's TV series that was probably meant to be the X Files. It's probably because I was never a fan of it that instead the book made me think of Doctor Who. I'd have to ask an X Files fan to know if the book brings up the same atmosphere. But the normal girl thrown into a bizarre situation by a dubiously well resourced character? Very Doctor Who to me. Too bad I couldn't enjoy it more.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.